Freeman Proposes Public Housing Police Forces

State Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Northampton, has introduced a bill that would give public housing authorities the option of forming their own police force. The mystery I'd like him to solve is how to fund it during an era of declining federal funding.

Noting that Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Housing Authorities have their own police departments, Freeman thinks that all public housing authorities should have that ability. But this is no simple matter of keeping up with the Joneses. In some areas, public housing projects are packed together. In others, they are spread out in different parts of the city. That's certainly the case here in the Lehigh Valley.

Freeman argues that a "public housing police force also would greatly enhance community policing efforts, making public housing projects safer for their residents and their families, especially children." He adds it would also reduce the burden on municipal police departments.

Freeman credits Larry Hendershot, a former police officer who served on the Easton Housing Authority, for this proposal.

While Bob's  has attracted support from Mike Schlossberg and Pete Schweyer, I expect to see it die of natural causes in the House Urban Affairs Committee.It makes little sense with no revenue stream in place to support it.

Bob Freeman: Defender of Rednecks

State Rep. Bob Freeman's bill to protect trailer park tenants sailed through the state house on March 8 with a 190-7 vote. On October 16, it was passed unanimously by the State Senate. Now all that's needed before it becomes state law is Governor Corbett's signature. 

Freeman introduced this bill after the Barbosa Trailer Park, located in Bethlehem Township, was sold to developer Lou Pektor for condos, without giving tenants enough time to find alternative housing. The project was never developed. 

Freeman's bill requires manufactured home community owners, when closing the community, to:

(1) inform residents within 60 days of any decision to close the community;·        
(2) inform the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency and the home municipality also within 60 days;·        (3) give residents at least six months to leave the community when the closure notice is made -- under current law they only have 30 days;

·     (4) consider any offer to purchase the community by a resident association representing at least 25 percent of the manufactured home spaces;

(5) pay relocation expenses of up to $4,000 for single and $6,000 for multi-section manufactured homes;·        (6) pay at least $2,500 or the home's appraised value, whichever is greater, when the homeowner is unable or unwilling to relocate the home; and·        
(7) allow tenants to terminate any leases without penalty after receiving the community's closure notice.