- Bethlehem is pursuing up to $10 million in grants for affordable housing
- City council voted 6-0 on Tuesday, approving the federal grant application
- The last housing discussion on Oct. 10 highlighted four strategies for offering more housing in the city
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The community development administration in Bethlehem is gearing up to try and grab upwards of $10 million in federal money to support the city's affordable housing mission.
The city council voted in unanimous approval, 6-0, on Tuesday to approve the grant application. Council President Michael Colón was absent.
The Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing grant is available through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
City officials say the federal government allocates 20 of these "extremely competitive" awards to communities around the country, each ranging from $1 million to $10 million.
“What the PRO Housing grant would allow us to do is supplement existing funds and really exponentially increase the number of units that we might be able to produce or help preserve through these strategies.”Laura Collins, Bethlehem director of community and economic development
If awarded, that money could be used alongside $5 million in affordable housing funding, $500,000 from the Choice Neighborhoods Grant and some CDBG HOME allocations over the next five years, officials said.
City Director of Community and Economic Development Laura Collins said this money wouldn’t be required to implement the city’s housing plan — "Opening Doors: Strategies to Build Housing Stability in Bethlehem" — but it’d be a great help in its effectiveness.
“We’re already moving forward with implementing the plan,” Collins said. “But what the PRO Housing grant would allow us to do is supplement existing funds and really exponentially increase the number of units that we might be able to produce or help preserve through these strategies.”
The first part of the plan discussed on Sept. 26 highlighted the possibility of opening a permanent homeless shelter somewhere in the city.
“Those strategies, fortunately, reflect solutions to the exact type of barriers that the grant itself is asking communities to attempt to overcome, which are, for example, regulatory environment challenges, availability of land, land use development costs and access to funding."Laura Collins, Bethlehem director of community and economic development
The second part discussed on Oct. 10 was centered around some options for addressing the crisis relative to the city’s newest housing initiatives.
Laura Collins, city director of community and economic development, said those four possibilities included updating zoning and land use to “encourage” different types of housing and infill development, offering incentives to create and preserve this housing, developing current community housing partnerships, protecting residents “at risk of displacement” and increasing supply of “deeply affordable” units.
“Those strategies, fortunately, reflect solutions to the exact type of barriers that the grant itself is asking communities to attempt to overcome, which are, for example, regulatory environment challenges, availability of land, land use development costs and access to funding,” Collins said.
Public comment
Angela Mitchell, a South Side resident, asked what the city defined as “affordable housing.”
“Basically, affordable housing is very individualized and [the] bottom-line definition is when someone’s paying 30 percent or less of their income on housing costs,” Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith said.
William Scheirer, another resident, said the term “affordable housing” is “elusive” when you look at the numbers.
He concluded that not even half of the city’s residents could afford even affordable housing. This is based on a federal definition from HUD, stating that no more than 30% of someone’s income can be spent on housing or it’s not “affordable.”
The Census Bureau has published that the median income in Bethlehem is $58,232.
The city’s grant application states that in May 2023, the city’s average home price was $300,000, while the typical rent cost for a one-bedroom apartment was $1,400. This means a household would need to be making about $100,000 annually for a house or $50,000 to rent affordable housing.
It defines low-wage workers as those who make less than $30,000 a year. The city’s population is made up of about 22% of people at that income level.
Those who pay more than 30% of their income on housing are classified as “cost-burdened” by that expense, while “extremely cost-burdened” people pay more than half of their income for a place to live.
City data shows the following:
- About 8,300 low-income households are cost-burdened
- About three-quarters of those cost-burdened, low-income households are renters
- 12% of city households are extremely cost-burdened
- Over three-quaters of those extremely cost-burdened, low-income households are renters
The public comment period runs through Oct. 25, with another public comment period to come on Friday, Oct. 20, at 11 a.m., at Town Hall. The application is available for review at City Hall, as well as the Main and Southside branches of the Bethlehem Area Public Library.
Background
Population growth since the turn of the century has been tied to local workforce development, along with interest in the area’s natural amenities, heritage and a “competitively-priced housing market” compared to both New York and Philadelphia nearby.
“In turn, housing prices moderately increased in the early part of the 21st century and vacancy rates diminished,” the application reads. “The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the Lehigh Valley’s growth trajectory.”
“In turn, housing prices moderately increased in the early part of the 21st century and vacancy rates diminished. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the Lehigh Valley’s growth trajectory.”The City of Bethlehem
Officials determined that housing demand has shot up. At the same time, construction costs have also increased, “making it cost-prohibitive to add more moderately-priced units to meet demand,” according to the application.
Over the past four years, home sales prices in the city have shot up by more than half, with rents going up 40%.
