Partnership Between Landlords, Public Agencies is Key to Providing More Homes for PA's Older and Disabled Citizens
| Posted: 12-05-2009 |
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Senior citizens and people living with disabilities, like all of us, ought to be able to live safely and with dignity in the communities of their choice. But the fact is that many live on very small fixed incomes that limit their housing choices. In Pennsylvania 37% of renters with disabilities are severely cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 35% of their household incomes for rent alone. For older Pennsylvanians age 85 and over the situation is even more dire, with 39% of renters severely cost-burdened. Government-subsidized homes and apartments might be an option for some of these individuals, but most of these units are already occupied. Worse yet, waiting lists are so long that it can take 2-5 years after applying to move into a unit.
A newly issued report by the Pennsylvania Association of Area Agencies on Aging (P4A), sponsored by a grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says private landlords are the key to finding homes for these individuals. The report, "Ten Ways to Boost Housing Opportunities," explores how private housing providers – landlords – can take advantage of public programs to provide secure, accessible, affordable homes for elderly and disabled renters while securing their bottom line.
“There are many landlords who want to make their apartments available to seniors and people with disabilities. This report shows how private landlords, service organizations and government agencies can work together to improve housing opportunities for those in our community who are most vulnerable. It is a road map. We hope it will help landlords and service providers work more closely together by showing them how. And we hope our elected leaders will see how well these programs can and do work to meet the needs of our communities,” said report author Diana Myers.
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Rehab quality rental housing to stabilize neighborhoods - The Times-Tribune Op Ed
| Posted: 11-20-2009 |
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Now that the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit has been extended, it's time for Congress and the president to move quickly on another front - providing resources to develop rental housing for low-income Americans.
Congress is considering a proposal from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to invest $1 billion through the National Housing Trust Fund, which was created in 2007 under the Bush administration with broad bi-partisan support.
This plan sends the message that, as important as homeownership is to the nation's economy, not everyone can be a homeowner - and that developing rental housing is a critically important element to providing housing and turning the economy around.
The foreclosure crisis showed that a one-size-fits-all approach to expanding the housing market doesn't work. We need a balanced market that offers a range of options on the supply side. Once again, we see a lopsided debate that ignores the range of price needs among working families, seniors and people on limited and fixed incomes.
Along with passage of the National Housing Trust Fund, the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania is calling on the Pennsylvania Legislature to create a state housing trust fund - which would ensure that federal funds are efficiently used to provide incentives and funding to invest in high quality rental homes. Pennsylvania remains one of the few states that lacks such a program.
The argument that's made for the $8,000 homebuyerof tax credit is that it will rejuvenate all of the industries that supply components for new homes. Well, the same analysis holds true for building or rehabbing rental homes. People are put to work and supplies are needed there, too. In fact, a study by Econsult Corp. shows that for every dollar invested in rehabbing homes for rental more than $2 in economic activity occurs. The biggest impact on creating the most jobs with the most earnings and the most tax revenues comes through rehab, not construction of single family homes.
The security guard, nurse's aide or Walmart associate might not be ready to buy a home, even with the tax credit. The same can be said for disabled citizens, older Pennsylvanians and newly hired teachers and police officers. That doesn't mean they shouldn't have access to a quality home. A larger emphasis on incentives to create more rental homes could provide that answer.
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Apartments, which was recently renovated by United Neighborhood Centers, is just one example of what investments can do for the rental stock in our community. This project rehabilitated an historic school building, provided 18 rental units for families and improved the neighborhood. In today's economic climate this project would have been impossible without the assistance of a Housing Trust Fund.
The current lack of investment in rental housing has resulted in a virtual gold rush as out-of-town investors have bought up older, deteriorating rental housing in Lackawanna County. These investors are not providing improvements to their properties and are interested in a quick return on investment rather than improving our neighborhoods. A Housing Trust Fund would provide the support to allow responsible investors to expand, improve and locally manage rental housing in our neighborhoods.
The government is allocating many billions of dollars into the homebuyers tax credit program. Now, it must act quickly to invest the $1 billion into rental property development. At the same time, the state House and Senate should approve the state housing trust fund so we'll be ready when the federal dollars arrive.
Let's make sure resources are directed to an area that our community badly needs - quality rental homes for all income levels.
BY MICHAEL HANLEY (GUEST COLUMNIST)
Published: November 18, 2009
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Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Update posted: July 17, 2009
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) ensures that financial institutions provide access to credit and bank services in low-income and minority communities.
The President has proposed a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to oversee consumer protection in the nation's banking system. One of his specific proposals was to move administration and enforcement of CRA to the new agency.
42,000 bankers disagreed, and when the bill (H.R. 3126) was introduced in the House Financial Services Committee the CRA provision had been stripped, leaving enforcement of the act with the existing, ineffectual regulators.
H.R. 3126 has been introduced in the House Financial Services Committee without the CRA provisions, but is still open to amendment.
Rental homes remain Out of Reach for many Pennsylvanians - PA’s high cost of housing highlighted in 2009 housing affordability report
According to a National report released today on rental costs for every county, metropolitan area and state in the nation, the Housing Wage for Pennsylvania is $15.37. The Housing Wage is the hourly wage a family must earn – working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year – to be able to afford rent and utilities in the private housing market. This represents an increase of 40.2% since 2000.
“Every year it is becoming more difficult for hard working, low-wage families as well as seniors and disabled on fixed incomes to find decent homes they can afford in Pennsylvania,” said Liz Hersh, Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania “This report clearly illustrates the pressing need for more homes that more families can afford in our communities.”
The report, Out of Reach 2009, was jointly released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a Washington, DC-based housing advocacy group, and the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania. The report provides the Housing Wage and other data for every state, metropolitan area and county in the country.
Working at the minimum wage, a family must have 2.1 wage earners working full-time (or one full-time earner working 86 hours/week) to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.
The typical renter in Pennsylvania earns $13.40/hour, which is about $2/hr less than the hourly wage needed to afford a modest unit.
“Put another way, rent and utilities for a two-bedroom apartment in Pennsylvania runs on average about $100 a month higher than the average working-class renter can afford. This is largely the result of our attention being so focused on home ownership that we have almost forgotten about rental housing,” said Hersh. “We must devise policies that encourage development of quality homes for rent.”
The Pennsylvania state legislature is considering creation of a Housing Trust Fund for the development, rehabilitation and preservation of housing for lower-income families. The Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania has made approval of that legislation a top priority.
An estimated 49% of renters in Pennsylvania do not earn enough income to afford a two-bedroom unit at the Fair Market Rent.
Student proficiency test gap widens in Allegheny County
By Daveen Rae Kurutz
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, May 24, 2009
The gap separating the best-performing and worst-performing school districts in Allegheny County on state proficiency tests is one of the biggest in the state, and getting bigger despite efforts under the federal No Child Left Behind law, statistics show.
Across the state in all districts, student proficiency generally is improving, satisfying one goal of the federal legislation. But in Allegheny County, the best-performing districts, typically in prosperous communities, are improving at rates greater than the worst-performers, which tend to be small and in disadvantaged communities.
"No student should miss an opportunity to learn because of where they were born or who they were born to," said John Jackson, president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, a Massachusetts-based advocacy group.
Some education experts say poverty contributes to the gap, but they say it might also be that, with 43 school districts, Allegheny County has more districts than any other Pennsylvania county.
"It's a very diverse county, in comparison to the other counties in Pennsylvania," said Leah Harris, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.
"You've got your low-performing districts that have a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students and other things working against them, and then you've got rich districts and districts in the suburbs," she said.
A school district's commitment to academics — and not just teaching to standards set by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment — is important to parents.
Alicia Rodeberg and her husband moved to Fox Chapel from Minnesota in 2005, but moved to Hampton less than a year later because they thought the district could provide schooling for their sons.
"The boys are our first priority. A good education is something that we, as a country, as a society, owe to our children because they are our future," said Rodeberg, 43.
In Allegheny County, the gap in math increased by nearly 3 percentage points, and the gap in reading by 2.2 percentage points, since the 2005-06 school year, according to state Education Department data.
In the most recent data for students who took PSSAs, Allegheny County has the largest gap in the state in reading, with 69.4 percentage points separating Upper St. Clair School District and Duquesne City School District — the best and worst performers, respectively.
Upper St. Clair scored 92.7 percent of students proficient in math, and Duquesne, just 29.2 percent. Only Delaware County has a higher disparity in math.
In Duquesne, the median household income was $19,766, according to 2000 U.S. Census data, compared to Upper St. Clair's $87,581. All students at Duquesne are eligible for reduced-priced lunches.
"Poverty has many faces and the children in poverty have many more obstacles and challenges to overcome, such as hunger," said Sarah McCluan, spokeswoman for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which oversees Duquesne. "If you have a student coming from a family has difficulties producing utility bills for two months, it's going to be difficult (to educate them)."
Upper St. Clair Superintendent Patrick O'Toole doesn't believe testing is the best indicator of student achievement.
"The education of our students is much more than just scores on a paper-and-pencil test," O'Toole said. "We feel fortunate we have such a community that values education and will do what's necessary to support us in educating the children to the greatest extent possible."
Children in urban districts face tougher challenges in getting an education than those in higher-income suburban districts, said Archie Perrin, superintendent at Wilkinsburg and former assistant superintendent for Duquesne.
"We can't afford that Cadillac like other districts," Perrin said. "We have to drive something less than that to arrive at the same destination at the same speed. The ride is just a little bumpier for us."
Wilkinsburg has the second-lowest percentage of proficient students in the county, but Perrin said teachers are working to improve scores. In two years, reading scores rose by 13 percentage points and math scores, 10 percentage points.
Avonworth School District has one of the county's highest proficiency rates, with 89.3 percent of students proficient in math and 85.2 percent proficient in reading. The math scores increased 10 percentage points, and reading scores, 8 points.
"There isn't any program that may be a panacea for children. It's a lot of hard work and getting kids to think," Superintendent Valerie McDonald said. "Our children come to school ready to learn."
Report Praises Allentown’s Progress with Downtown Housing Strategy
April 30, 2009 -- A progress report on the City of Allentown’s housing strategy for its central-city neighborhoods finds that the city has achieved remarkable successes within a short period. The progress report, published by the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government, was released today at a morning news conference in Allentown City Council Chambers.
The housing strategy, described in a November 2007 Fels report, identified key areas for action and improvement, including upgrading the city’s existing housing stock and improving the quality of rental property management and maintenance.
According to John Kromer, Senior Consultant at the Fels Institute, "At a time when many Pennsylvania municipalities are struggling to deal with rental property maintenance problems, Allentown is taking the lead in implementing a proactive strategy. In light of Allentown’s success in addressing this major challenge, many other municipalities will be studying the report as a how-to manual for stabilizing residential communities."
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