Pennsylvania’s Department of Community & Economic Development will have a year to come up with a statewide plan to expand affordable housing and reduce homelessness, under an executive order signed Thursday by Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The comprehensive Housing Action Plan would be Pennsylvania’s first. It’s needed to make Pennsylvania more competitive and attract more people to live and work here, the governor said in a statement.
“A key challenge we face in attracting new residents is the lack of safe, affordable housing,” Shapiro said. Pennsylvania, he said, needs a “comprehensive, coordinated plan” in order to “build more homes in the communities that need them most, lower costs so families can afford to stay in their homes, repair aging houses and make sure our seniors can live with dignity and comfort.”
The order requires DCED to do the following:
- Assess local, regional and statewide housing needs;
- Review existing housing programs and their effectiveness;
- Identify goals and measurable outcomes;
- Recommend state initiatives to implement over the following five years.
In addition, the Department of Human Services is to develop policy recommendations on homelessness.
Lancaster County’s struggles with rising housing costs and homelessness are well documented. Nearly half of local renter households are cost-burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on housing. Meanwhile, the number of homeless people documented in the county’s annual Point-in-Time count rose 13.5% this year.
Similar issues are being seen across the state. In 2023, more than 12,000 Pennsylvanians were reported homeless, the governor’s office said. Statewide, homeownership is declining, and a full 48% of renter households are cost-burdened, two percentage points higher than in Lancaster County, according to research by the state Housing Finance Agency.
