A Tale of Two Developers

According to The Morning Call, Allentown developer Nat Hyman was before Palmer Tp's Zoning Hearing Board last week seeking a use variance that will enable him to convert a Crayola Crayon office building near the Tatamy Trail and Bushkill Creek into 94 one-bedroom apartments for working people. This is similar to what he has already done 40 times. and mostly in the Lehigh Valley, from Allentown to Northampton and Nazareth. He is probably doing more to provide affordable housing than any local government, often without their help and usually with some roadblocks. 

Hyman's project is similar to and one mile away from the Dixie Project in Wilson Borough, where an old factory is being converted into luxury apartments at rents that most working people are unable to afford. It will attract transplants from NJ and NY who can commute and afford higher rents. It will do nothing to provide workforce housing for those who need it and will likely just aggravate what everyone claims is a national crisis. 

But local government is falling all over itself to help a developer who has never done a single project in the Lehigh Valley or anywhere else, for that matter. He's on track for a $29 million TIF break and a $10 million Rcap. 

Does this make sense? 

A Modest Plan to Retain NorCo County Workers and Provide Workforce Housing

Over the past year, there's been no shortage of stories about the need for affordable housing. This was even an issue in this year's Presidential race. This is a problem that was actually created back in 2008, when the Great Recession resulted in a collapse of construction. That industry is still only a shadow of its former self. But even with a booming construction industry, many cities like those in the Lehigh Valley have very limited space on which to build and can only do so much. County governments, and perhaps some townships, can do more. Aside from its own courthouse and Gracedale campus, Northampton County owns 500 acres of land. Instead of leasing it to farmers, couldn't some of this land be used to create affordable housing? Better yet, couldn't some of it be used to provide affordable housing to county employees who are increasingly difficult to retain?

Northampton County has about 1700-1800 employees, though its actual number should be closer to 2,000. It has problems attracting nursing care at Gracedale, despite offering retention bonuses and even building a daycare that may or may not yet be open. This is a nationwide problem, and the county has been forced to hire outside nurses to provide care at higher rates than it pays its own. 

In addition to a shortage of nursing care at Gracedale, there is also a shortage of corrections officers, youth care workers and 911 dispatchers. They are often forced to work overtime to fill gaps in coverage, which exhausts them and can make conditions unsafe. 

Couldn't we express our appreciation to these unsung heroes by providing them with an affordable place to live?

Here's what I would suggest as a pilot program. The Gracedale campus is huge. Some of that land is used neither for farming nor anything else. It's just grass to cut. How about a small development of about 30 homes for workers in critical departments like the jail, Gracedale, Juvenile Justice Center and 911. I'm not speaking of McMansions but am thinking of smaller homes like the Boxable Casita. 

The county could offer these homes and agree to hold the mortgage at a low interest rate. The qualifying employee would own, not rent the property to erase any illusion that this is a company store. If the employee either leaves county employment or decides to sell the property for a larger home, the county would have an option to repurchase at its appraised market value. That way the employee could build equity, and the county could attract and retain good workers. 

What do you think of this idea? Any suggestions to make it better? Is it nonsense? 

NorCo Council Seeks $500k For LV Habitat Housing Project in Forks Tp.

Last Thursday, Northampton County voted unanimously (all members were present) to seek a $500,000 gaming grant for Lehigh Valley Habitat for Humanity. LVHabitat is seeking funding to build 25-50 homes in Forks Tp for low- and moderate-income households.  

In July 2022, Northampton County gave LV Habitat a $2 million grant for the purchase and development of over 11.5 acres in Forks Tp, located off of Kesslersville Road. That property was initially zoned for a warehouse. 

Habitat was hopeful that it could build 65 homes at the site for first-time homebuyers. But hope and reality are two different things. According to Executive Director Jessica Elliott, Habitat has approval for 25 homes. It is seeking additional acreage to be able to build more homes. 

Gina Liacono, who is also with Habitat, stated that a high percentage of the 138 homes built by LV Habitat have been for single mothers. She indicated that the current monthly rent for a 2 BR apartment is $1,426, and that is projected to exceed $1,500 next year. She believes that is simply unattainable for most single mothers. 

<

Warren Wants NorCo Council to Support Rent Caps on Manufactured Homes

At last week's Northampton County Council meeting, fair housing advocate Jeffrey Zettlemoyer claimed that large-scale developers have entered the mobile or manufactured home market. He noted that when he was employed by Moore Tp, there were 18 mobile home parks. He asserted they are being gobbled up by major developers, who in turn will triple the rent (lot fee). This pushes people with low and moderate incomes out of the Lehigh Valley and into Carbon County, where rents are cheaper. 

Later in the meeting, Council member Jeff Warren noted there is state legislation (SB 861 and HB 805) pending that would place a cap on lot fees for manufactured homes. State Rep. Bob Freeman is a sponsor of the House Bill. He said he knows about these increased rents because it happened to his mother. Although the county government has no control over rental fees, he suggested that County Council might wish to consider a resolution supporting the state legislation. "We can't set a cap on these lot fees, but what we can do is send a strong message."

NorCo Housing Authority Discusses Revival of Housing Development Corp

Gwen Didden, Executive Director of NorCo Housing Authority, updated County Council last week about the revival of its Housing Development Corp. She stated that the purpose of this nonprofit is to provide more housing opportunities for low to moderate income families and be an advocate with developers. 

She will recommend that the Housing Authority seed the nonprofit with some funding. 

The Real Reason Housing is Unaffordable

Affordable or workforce housing is the flavor of the day among most local governments. Even in Allentown, where so many churches are empty, the high cost of housing is a common refrain. Some form of rent control could be enacted to prevent current tenants from being displaced. There is no statewide ban on rent controls, so I am hard pressed to understand why our local elected officials have failed to pursue this option. But there's another reason why our housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable, and that's mostly due to the onerous rules imposed by an unwieldy and slow bureaucracy in places like Allentown, 

A few weeks ago, I told you how Allentown makes life miserable for developers.  Like many municipalities, it requires a third-party review of building plans from a list of approved vendor.  This is supposed to expedite the permitting process by allowing a recognized independent agency to review the structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, architectural and accessibility requirements of a building project. It enables the developer to address any issues before plans are approved.  But guess what? Allentown, unlike other municipalities, insists on conducting its own review of submitted plans after the third party review is completed. And once those conditions are met, they are reviewed again ... and again ... and again. As a result, unless you're getting a tax break, there's little reason to invest in Allentown. 

These draconian rules and sloth-like mandarins combine to make it illegal or unprofitable to build. As a result, municipalities are saddled with a lack of supply. They have pretty much created the crisis of which they now complain. 

What our cities and larger townships really need to do is completely overhaul the permitting process to make it more efficient. I understand the need for safety, but the repetition and multiple checks and stops along the way need to be simplified. 

NorCo To Offer Affordable Housing Grants

Northampton County will begin accepting applications for 2019 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grants on July 15th . These are limited to eligible non-profits, public agencies, local governments, government authorities and private, low-income housing providers. But for some reason,low-income housing providees are ineligible.

These middlemen can use the grant money to maintain or increase the availability of quality affordable housing for NorCo residents whose annual incomes are below 80% of the household median income for the County using the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 8 income limits for 2019.

Applications close September 13, 2019. Details and applications can be found on the Department of Community and EconomicDevelopment’s (DCED) webpage:

The money for this comes from realty transfer tax.

Want Affordable Housing? Permit Tiny Homes

How much does it cost to live in the Lehigh Valley?  Pretty much, In 2016, the median price for a single-family detached dwelling was $211,000, according to the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. If you wanted to buy a home at that price, you would need a 20% down payment and then would pay a $855.28 mortgage if you go the 30-year fixed rate route.That means you would need at least $41,000 in take home pay per annum to be able to meet all your other expenses. If you go for the row home, the bank will jack up the interest rate, and your monthly mortgage will be $629. That means your annual take-home pay must be at least $30,200. For many people, home ownership is simply the impossible dream. People have turned to rentals, and the increased demand has caused rentals to go up. So yes, there is a lack of affordable housing here in the Lehigh Valley, just as  CACLV's Alan Jennings laments in a recent Morning Call op-ed.

I have a solution. It's becoming more popular, too. Tiny houses. I am not speaking about some modest row home but an actual tiny house, sometimes on wheels, usually about 400 sq ft or less. The problem with them is that most fail standard building codes. What a responsive local government does is to simplify building codes for these smaller homes.

Lancaster County has done just that, with a planning tool for municipalities that are considering a tiny house. One primary concern is making sure homes have addresses so that emergency responders know where to go if needed. Nationwide, in 2017, the International Code Council adopted new building regulations specifically for tiny homes.

Tiny homes can be expensive, or can go as low as $15,000.

NorCo, Easton Team Up For Affordable Housing

Northampton County and Easton have teamed up to seek more federal funding for affordable housing. On Thursday night, Northampton county council voted unanimously (9-0) to form a consortium council. Together, they will be able to tap into more money to build, buy or rehab affordable housing for low-income residents. In addition, there are rent assistance, homelessness assistance and other worthwhile programs.

“I’d like to congratulation Northampton County’s Department of Economic and Community Development for their assistance in putting together this partnership with the City of Easton,” said County Executive Lamont McClure. “We want every resident of Northampton to be happy and successful and it’s hard to do that when you don’t have a safe place to call home. We believe this collaboration with Easton will go a long way in helping our citizens find and keep affordable housing.”

Lehigh Valley Evictions, By the Numbers

On Monday, I told you where municipalities are growing fastest here in the Lehigh Valley. Where are they trying to get rid of you? Thanks to Eviction Lab, a project of Princeton, I can tell you based on data from 2016.

Statewide, about 80 renters, usually single mothers with children, are evicted daily. Two of  those renters will be from Allentown. The actual eviction rate in Allentown is 2.79%, and the filing rate is much larger, at 13.3%  Both are about twice the state average. But so is the poverty rate. Statewide, the poverty rate is 9.29%, but in Allentown, it is 22.44%. Allentown's rent burden, i.e. the amount of disposable income going to rent, is 37.5%.

Easton is nearly as impoverished as Allentown, with a poverty rate of 17.57%. Yet its evictions are much lower. Though it has an eviction filing rate of nearly 10%, the actual eviction rate is only 0.91%, far lower than Allentown. In Easton, the rent burden is only 33.4%

Bethlehem, which has a 13.16% poverty rate, has an eviction rate of 1.51% There, the rental burden is 32.1%

In all three cities, about half of the housing stock consists of renter homes as follows: Allentown (53.92%), Easton (53.44%) and Bethlehem (49.16%).

In the two counties, Northampton County's eviction rate of 1.4% is slightly lower that Lehigh County's 1.93%. The most likely reason for this is that Northampton County's poverty rate of 6.78% is below Lehigh County's 9.68%. 

You can use  Eviction Lab to check out how frequent evictions are in your community. In Nazareth, where I live, there were 26 eviction filings in 2016. But only 6 actual evictions.

I could have sworn I was evicted 7 times. 

Does Allentown Need Inclusionary Zoning?

A few years ago, my grandson's dog took off after a ground hog and was gone for two days. Though the story ended happily, I was among those recruited to scour the streets of Allentown, trying to find her. In doing so, I was stunned by the number of homes that were either vacant or posted. So it's hard for me to understand why an inclusionary zoning ordinance is needed in Allentown.

According to Zillow, there are 852 homes for sale in Allentown right now, and some of them can be picked up for a song. The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission has a report, but what is needed is one that explains the need for this kind of zoning in Allentown.

Any ordinance that is adopted, however, should be voluntary. I see nothing wrong with giving a developer incentives in exchange for affordable units. This is the approach used in Bethlehem. Anything more onerous would chill housing development at a time when residential real estate is still recovering from the Great Recession. It also could result in gentrification, which is what happened in Los Angeles and New York.  

Habitat For Humanity Takes the Plunge

Lehigh Valley's Habitat For Humanity conducting its second annual "Plunge for a Purpose" on April 5 at Dutch Springs in Lower Nazareth Township. Polar Plungers raised money for the privilege of jumping into a nearly frozen lake. But the proceeds will help build homes, communities, and hope for low-income owners.

JoAnn DiFrancesca of Nazareth, in lime green, had enough after three seconds

A Just Born Peep discovers it's not a duck.

Chuck Pukanecz, of Philadelphia, wears his towel like a cape.

Are LC Comm'rs Taking Aim at Affordable Housing Trust?

Lehigh County collects and spends about $300,000 per year for its affordable housing trust fund. According to CACLV Exec Director Alan Jennings, Commissioners plan to kill it at their January 23 meeting.

Jennings has sent an email asking people to speak up for this program.

Friends –

Please do not put this aside without making sure you have placed this coming Wednesday, January 23, at 7:30 PM on your calendar.

That is the date and time of the next meeting of the Lehigh County Commissioners. The group who threatened to turn away federal funds that taxpayers had already paid and sent to Washington, that has turned away other grants, and is talking about abandoning the Green Future Fund that voters adopted by referendum by a margin of 2 to 1, is now proposing killing the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

This fund was adopted more than 20 years ago after the state gave counties the authority to raise fees to record deeds and mortgages from $13.50 each to $27 each. That’s right, someone buys a property for $300,000 and the county tacks on all of $27 for affordable housing efforts in the county. This fee is not a burden; nobody could credibly argue that it hurts a single transaction. But it generates approximately $300,000 per year to intervene in a hellacious economy that denies thousands and thousands of people access to the housing market. It was signed into law by a Republican county executive (Jane Baker) and embraced by Republicans and Democrats alike for all these years.

Tom Creighton is the commissioner who is leading the way. It is up to us to block that way. PLEASE do not take this lightly!

I look forward to a strong contingent to attend the January 23 meeting of the Commissioners.

Alan

Freeman's Mobile Home Bill Passes State House

State Rep. Bob Freeman's bill to protect trailer park tenants sailed through the state house yesterday in a 190-7 vote. Basically, it requires manufactured housing community owners to provide adequate notification and offer protections and compensation to their tenants when they sell the community to be developed as another use.

Freeman introduced this bill after the Barbosa Trailer Park, located in Bethlehem Township, was sold to a developer without giving tenants enough time to find alternative housing.

"Currently, there are no adequate protections for tenants when a manufactured housing community is sold," Freeman said. "As in the case of the Barbosa Trailer Park, residents should have received more advance notification of the sale and a guarantee of compensation for the cost of moving or losing their homes. This bill would provide those protections for all such sales, while addressing the concerns of both community owners and tenants."

The bill would require manufactured home community owners, when closing the community, to provide at least 60 days notice to tenants, the Pa. Housing Finance agency and the home municipality. Tenants get six months to find another home, as well as some relocation money.
·
Freeman claims his bill is a consensus among advocates for residents and the industry itself.

The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Wanna' Buy a Home Cheap?

(Courtesy of CACLV) – Lehigh Valley Community Land Trust (LVCLT) will announce the sale of its first homes and introduce its first homebuyer during a press conference at noon on March 30 at 512 Cherokee St. in Bethlehem. The very first homebuyer, Jessica McGinley, recently purchased a home with help from LVCLT. Tours of the completed Cherokee Street home as well as a home slated for renovation next door will be available.

LVCLT purchases properties, renovates the homes, and sells them to income-qualified applicants. A qualified homebuyer purchases a home with as little as $1,800 down and monthly mortgage payments comparable to local fair market rents.

“I never thought I would own a home this early in life,” McGinley said. “I love my house.  We can’t allow this to be a secret anymore!”

Unlike conventional models of homeownership, LVCLT ensures that homes remain affordable to future generations of homebuyers.  LVCLT also provides support to existing homebuyers before and after the home purchase.

Founded in 2009, LVCLT has renovated six homes and sold three.  Over the next year, LVCLT will be selling at least six additional homes in the Lehigh Valley.  


Blogger's Note: You can see a listing of homes for sale in Wilson Borough and Easton 

Freeman's Trailer Park Bill Advances

HARRISBURG, March 14 – State Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Northampton, said the House Urban Affairs Committee has unanimously approved his legislation that would require manufactured housing community owners to provide adequate notification and offer protections and compensation to their tenants when they sell the community to be developed as another use.

"My bill has been a work in progress for the last two years with the various stakeholders working together to reach a consensus on this legislation," Freeman said. "As a result of this collaborative effort, the bill addresses concerns of both community owners and tenants, and I am looking forward to the bill's consideration by the full House."

Freeman said he introduced this bill (H.B. 1767) after the Barbosa Trailer Park in Bethlehem Township was sold off for development in 2006 and the tenants were not given enough time to find alternative housing. Although many did eventually receive help in finding new housing thanks to the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, the residents should have received more advance notification of the community's sale and a guarantee of compensation for the cost of moving or losing their homes.

The bill, as amended in committee, would require manufactured home community owners, when closing the community, to:

·        inform residents within 60 days of any decision to close the community;

·        inform the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency and the home municipality also within 60 days;

·        give residents at least six months to leave the community when the closure notice is made -- under current law they only have 30 days;

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

·        pay relocation expenses of up to $4,000 for single and $6,000 for multi-section manufactured homes;

·        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

·        allow tenants to terminate any leases without penalty after receiving the community's closure notice.

The bill also would address when a manufactured home is considered abandoned. It would provide a judicial procedure to determine abandonment to allow the community owner to proceed with the removal of the abandoned home.

"With this legislation, no other homeowner living in a manufactured housing community would have to be confronted by the kind of turmoil or uncertainty caused by closing their community," Freeman said. "They would be given ample time to relocate or seek alternative housing and receive compensation for moving or relinquishing their manufactured home."

Freeman worked with Alan Jennings, executive director of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, the Pennsylvania Manufactured Housing Association, Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, Regional Housing Legal Services and National Consumer Law Center to write the legislation. 

Blogger's Note: This is a news release from Bob Freeman, which explains the superior writing. 

Habitat LV Dedicates William Street Home

Habitat Lehigh Valley dedicated its 90th home on September 24 at William Street in Bethlehem for Elizabeth Lemos and her two children, Joshua, 16, and Kiana, 12. The three-bedroom home, which includes a garage, was sponsored by the Bethlehem Housing Authority and built with the hard work of numerous volunteers, including 250 hours of "sweat equity" from Lemos herself.

Mark Ehrle, Chairman of the Board of Habitat Lehigh Valley, stated another six homes are "in flight" right now, and are acquired via donations and grants. People are selected for home ownership as a result of an application process requiring good credit scores and an income level that that is 35-65% of the area's median income. He indicated that, so far, all homes have been built in the Lehigh Valley's three cities.

Lemos was presented with housewarming gifts that included a bouquet from Bethlehem Garden Club, an embroidery from LV Embroidery Guild, and a big box of Just Born candies. "Don't eat them all at once," wisecracked mentor Dot Cressler.

Ehrle gave Lemos a Bible as well as an honorary key.

Lemos' son Joshua is a senior at Liberty High School and her daughter Kiana is in 7th grade at Nitschman. Lemos stated that she is looking forward to seeing her son go off to college so she can take over his room as a study.

Despite having only weekend free every month, Lemos was able to complete her 250 "sweat equity" hours in just one year. Lemos thanked the twenty or so people at the dedication for all their help, and for removing their shoes. "I am glad I decided to turn to Habitat," she said. "I never thought I would be able to own my own home. Now look at me!"

CACLV First Time Home Buying in Spanish

CACLV will host first-time home buying seminars for Spanish-speaking people on three Saturdays this June (June 4, 11 & 18). These informational sessions will take place between 8:15 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Allentown's Casa Guadalupe (143 Linden Street).

As you can see, a Spanish home just might save your life.

Free refreshments will be provided! If you'd like to register or want more information, contact the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley at 610-691-5620

ABC's Exec Director Dennis Capozzolo Resigns Under Pressure

CACLV Executive Director Alan Jennings has bluntly called the Lehigh Valley's affordable housing program a continuing "disaster" that has spanned the last seven or eight years. He notes that outfits like the Alliance for Building Communities (ABC) have been "overextended." From what I've been able to determine, it's also been mismanaged. Just a few days ago, ABC CEO Dennis Capozzolo was asked to step down amid swirling allegations of sexual harassment, combined with financial miscues, that have basically made it next to impossible for ABC to borrow. In short, ABC itself is in need of an affordable housing program. Board member Gerry Alfano is currently acting as Interim Director.

Two years ago, life was good for Capozzola. Allentown Mayor Edwin Pawlowski named him to a "blue ribbon" committee that would supposedly solve all of the Queen City's budget woes. But that was a charade. Capozzola actually admitted to Morning Call reporter Jarret Renshaw that he only attended one meeting. "I really don't know much about it," he said.

But he knew how to get his daughter a job at ABC. And he vetoed any attempt to discipline her for not showing up.

Janis Geist, former VP of Housing Programs, resigned two years ago as a result of friction with Capozzolo. When I told her about Jennings' comments, she agreed that "[t]hey've been overextended for years." She also mentioned that ABC regularly commingles funds, "borrowing from Peter to pay Paul."

Kinda' like Bethlehem.

Geist noted that ABC fails to go after tenants who fail to pay rents for months on end, but is even more disturbed by the dilapidated housing stock. "They have properties that should probably be condemned," she remarked, noting that ABC properties do not get inspected by code enforcement, but safety concerns remain.

"In my opinion, it took too long to happen, but it is a good organization and I hope it can be saved," she concluded, complimenting the "good staff there."

Since Capozzolo's ascension to the ABC throne, a number of high level managers have left, from Geist to Director of Development & Community Relations Sandra Tenney to Facilities and Project Manager Heidi Westerman.

An answering service at ABC was unable to respond to any questions about Capozzolo's sudden departure. According to the firm's 990 for 2009, Capozzolo was being paid $62,321. ABC was $218,000 in the red in 2008, but did show a $338,000 surplus in 2009.

Jennings: LV Nonprofits Have Failed With Affordable Housing

If the recession and foreclosure crisis have achieved anything positive, I guess you could say they've made homes more affordable. So a $30,000 grant proposed for a housing development coordinator at CACLV was all the rage at last week's meeting of Lehigh County's Board of Commissioners. Blogger Michael Molovinsky argues, "One only need look at the endless migration of low-income to the valley, to realize that there is an abundance of affordable housing. Positions like this only help create the poverty magnet." So is this really necessary?

Yes, said Cindy Feinberg, who directs LC's DCED. Yes, says Northampton County, which has already agreed to help fund this regional position. And yes, says CACLV Executive Director Alan Jennings, who points to failures by two of the three LV nonprofits that.

"Understand that the way we had this set up for many years was a very collaborative approach, where we had several nonprofits that each had - kinda' - their own turf to avoid overlap or duplication.

"We had an organization called Valley Housing Development Corporation, that did the multi-family rental housing development. They're a subsidiary of Lehigh County Housing Authority.

"We had the Alliance for Building Communities, the organization that Ed Pawlowski once ran. That was doing acquisition, rehab and resale of single family homes.

"And then we had Neighborhood Housing Service, which was doing the financing for first time homebuyers. Down payment, closing costs assistance kinds of programs.

"What happened independent of each other was ABC was overextended and struggled for several years and, as a result, that leg of that stool pretty much came apart.

"Valley Housing Development Corporation, as you may know, also overextended itself, found itself for several years basically re-working the entire portfolio. As a result, no affordable rental housing was being developed.

"So the only leg that was left was the first-time homebuyer financing piece that Neighborhood Housing Service ran.

"So in looking at the housing needs of the region, we felt that what needed to happen was to rebuild the capacity of the Lehigh Valley to address affordable housing. And that's what this position does."

Lehigh County Commissioners grumbled, but went along with funding a housing development coordinator after listening to Jennings. Before that, there was quite an interesting exchange about affordable housing between Commissioners and Jennings.

Percy Dougherty: "I would prefer to see our housing money, in the long run, go out to individuals who are going to fix up their homes, make the City of Allentown and the rest of Lehigh County a better looking place."

Bill Hansell: "We're doing nothing about housing. In this list of grants, as Comm'r McCarthy pointed out, most of them are physical infrastructure. If we delete this position, there's a tiny, little bit of money for legal services for legal aid on hosing. That's the only place we're doing anything on housing."

Dougherty: "The first thing I'd like to say is some people shouldn't own a home. Not everybody in this country should own a home. The banking crisis that we just went through was primarily because we tried to give everybody a home, and then they couldn't pay for those homes. So we really got in way over our heads ..."

Alan Jennings: "Nobody talked about predatory lending more than I did. In our home ownership counseling programs, we would tell people that if you need a sub prime loan to buy a house, that's God's way of telling you you're not ready to buy a house. And we would tell them, 'Stop! Save money. Improve your credit score. Buy a house you can afford.' And the result is that very few of the people who went through our home ownership counseling program, have ended up in the foreclosure mitigation work that we're doing.

"So this is not a home ownership entitlement program. This is home ownership for those who can afford it, that can justify a responsible level of subsidy, and keep in mind, everybody who pays a mortgage gets some form of subsidy on their housing because we deduct our interest deductions from our federal income taxes. That's an indirect subsidy. So that subsidy needs to be protected. We have to be responsible stewards of that subsidy. And i think we've done that with incredible results.

Dougherty: "And I don't think we should be paying these large developers, many of whom are not from the Lehigh Valley, to come in here and build large projects and take a large proportion of the money as their fee."