ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A panel discussion Sunday in the city’s West End shined light on the myriad reasons many in the Lehigh Valley — and far beyond — are caught up in a housing crisis.
Population growth in the region has generated a swell in demand for housing, which isn’t being built fast enough to keep pace, according to panelists at Congregation Keneseth Israel.
Advocates say a lack of housing supply at all price points is pushing higher-income households to “buy down” and acquire homes that could be attainable for lower-income buyers or remain in their homes.
That limits the number of homes available to middle-income earners, who then compete against — and beat — low-income homebuyer hopefuls.
The housing crisis is “a challenge that we don’t have to tolerate.”Rabbi Shoshanah Tornberg
Abby Goldfarb, who leads the Lehigh Conference of Churches and co-chairs Allentown’s Commission on Homelessness, showed statistics that laid bare the depth of the crisis to more than 50 guests at the forum titled "From Homeless to Housing."
The Lehigh Valley has about 16,000 fewer housing units than it needs for households with incomes under $25,000; and the region is almost 35,000 housing units short of what it needs for households with annual incomes over $100,000, according to Lehigh Valley Planning Commission figures.
About 192,000 people in the Lehigh Valley — more than a quarter of the region's population — are “cost-burdened” by spending more than 30% of their incomes on housing; that includes more than half of renters and almost a quarter of homeowners, the LVPC’s statistics show.
Prevention is key, panelists say
Rabbi Shoshanah Tornberg opened the discussion by noting many Allentown residents are “one missed paycheck” from being forced to experience homelessness.
She called the housing crisis “a challenge that we don’t have to tolerate.”
Panelists later highlighted that some landlords are tossing people out of housing for missing just one rent payment.
Helping residents replace or overcome a temporary loss of income is among the most effective and efficient ways to address the housing crisis, panelists said.
“Prevention is the best way to solve homelessness."Roslyn Kuba, executive director of Family Promise of the Lehigh Valley
It’s cheaper for a nonprofit to cover a rent payment than to help a family find a new home after being evicted, according to panelist Roslyn Kuba, executive director of Family Promise of Lehigh Valley.
Evictions put families back at the mercy of the housing market, and they’re often required to provide a down payment or security deposit in addition to several months’ rent to secure a new lease, she said.
“Prevention is the best way to solve homelessness,” Kuba said.
Allentown is one of five municipalities in the state where the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh runs an eviction-prevention training program, which works to help local landlords and district magistrate judges understand “the alternatives to just (putting) people out on the streets,” panelist Fred Bañuelos said.
“Back when I bought my first home, my only competition was, really, the other home buyers. But now we're competing against Corporate America. They're buying into our neighborhoods.”Fred Bañuelos, Allentown Housing Authority chairman and community investment manager for Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh
Bañuelos serves as community investment manager for Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, board member at the Housing Alliance for Pennsylvania and chairman of the Allentown Housing Authority.
He noted that many potential first-time homeowners are being priced out of the market by high interest rates and buyers with better backing.
“Back when I bought my first home, my only competition was, really, the other home buyers,” Bañuelos said. “But now we're competing against corporate America. They're buying into our neighborhoods.”
Calls for collaboration
Bañuelos and other panelists urged leaders in municipalities throughout Lehigh and Northampton counties to do more to help curb homelessness in the region’s three cities.
Allentown Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach called for officials to “develop some shared values, shared goals, shared metrics (and) shared policy.”
“It does no good to decriminalize homelessness in Allentown” if other municipalities are ticketing people for sleeping outside, she said.
“We’ve got to have a regional approach,” Gerlach said.
“It’s really about every community doing their fair share,” Bañuelos said. Without widespread collaboration, Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton will “take (on) the burden of every other community.”
Panelist Jonathan Strauss spoke to the complexity of building affordable housing in the Lehigh Valley.
“There’s a lot of things that have to go right to be able to build new affordable housing."Jonathan Strauss, principal of Cortex Residential
He leads the affordable housing development company Cortex Residential, which broke ground last month on a 38-unit complex at South Eighth and Walnut streets.
The project is mostly funded by tax credits from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency — funding that took years to secure.
The process to get an affordable housing complex from the planning stage to reality is “a monumental task,” he said.
“There’s a lot of things that have to go right to be able to build new affordable housing,” Strauss said.
Cortex also has acquired more than 500 apartments, where they’ve renewed contracts “that extended the affordability … of those communities for an additional 30 years,” he said.
Gerlach called on her fellow elected officials to match their pro-housing “rhetoric” with legislation and urged them to “be bold with the policies that we’re passing.”
“We cannot, especially in the political world, continue to say that affordable housing and homelessness is a No. 1 priority and then not pass policy to back that up,” she said.
