Luzerne County Councilwoman plans discussions on affordable housing challenges

Before Luzerne County Council approved tax breaks last week that will attract more large commercial facilities to the area, Swoyersville resident Greg Griffin asked where all the new employees are going to live.

There’s already a lack of affordable homes for working families to purchase, and rents have been escalating, said Griffin, who often raises this issue. New jobs on the drawing board far exceed manpower already here, he said, predicting thousands of newcomers who will “aggravate” housing challenges unless something is done.

”There’s an extreme housing shortage,” Griffin said.

Councilwoman LeeAnn McDermott said later in the meeting she is assembling a group to start discussing affordable housing challenges, particularly whether there’s something county government can do to address the issue.

McDermott said she asked Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo to help because he has been immersed in studying the importance of adequate housing as a mayor and president of the Pennsylvania Municipal League.

Lombardo said he was elated McDermott requested his input because he has been trying to drum up regional interest in tackling the need for more affordable housing.

The mayor stressed he is not talking about low-income housing because that sector already has been largely addressed through public housing programs.

Lombardo said it’s clear the county is in a growth cycle due to its proximity to Interstates 80 and 81 and other major highways, a rise in e-commerce and major developers’ interest in reusing large swaths that had become dormant since coal mining ceased.

During such growth cycles, area leaders must consider what related needs must be addressed, and affordable housing is a big one, Lombardo said.

“It is a very significant and very relevant issue that we need to jump on. I see it as the largest threat of growth and sustainability,” Lombardo said of affordable housing. “We can’t bury our heads on the sand.”

If officials don’t set aside party affiliation and confront the need, eventually the new development will “flatline,” he said.

At the city level, Lombardo and other officials have been working on creative ways to increase affordable housing without raising real estate taxes. The city has not raised real estate taxes in 14 years, which helps all property owners, he said.

Another focus must be helping seniors to remain in their homes as long as possible and maintain them, he said.

He compared it to an oil change on cars. Residential structures must be maintained to “protect that future housing stock,” he said.

Lombardo believes a county housing task force is warranted, possibly with neighboring Lackawanna County.

While his assessment is daunting, Lombardo said he has no doubt officials at the local, county and state level can figure out ways to spark affordable residential projects as they did with incentives to attract the development on former mineland and other blighted tracts now underway.

“I think we can solve this,” Lombardo said. “Good things are happening in many communities, and we don’t want to have to put the brakes on it.”

McDermott said she wants to explore available programs, funding resources and past initiatives that have worked, such as residential development at the former Murray Courtright Complex on Courtright Street in Wilkes-Barre.

In that $9.3 million residential project, the nonprofit Housing Development Corporation of Northeast Pennsylvania built 20 energy-efficient houses for first-time buyers and 12 rental cottages for the elderly on a 13-acre blighted parcel that once contained a blighted complex damaged by fire, according to published reports.

The Courtright development was modeled after the touted Pine Street complex in downtown Hazleton — a three-block area with 26 affordable homes.

Prior county commissioners had allocated $2 million in county community development funds toward the Courtright development in 2009 and 2011 in addition to obtaining a $2.4 million federal grant for the project. Some of the community development funding came from a special housing trust fund set up to assist first-time home buyers that still exists.

“We need housing. There’s a very low inventory available,” McDermott said, adding that rising prices for both home purchases and rent are a “scary thing” for impacted residents. “There has to be a starting point.”

County Councilman Stephen J. Urban also brought up the need for affordable housing at the Aug. 8 work session, when the latest tax breaks were discussed, saying officials must “focus on the residential side.”

“The housing market around here is very tight. The housing stock has gone down,” Urban said. “That’s an issue I think we all have to look at from a planning perspective.”

A representative of NorthPoint Development, which secured real estate tax breaks for new construction of a building in Hanover Township and six in Hazleton and Hazle Township, told Urban there is a “great opportunity for workforce housing development here” and that some developers are now seriously taking a look at possibilities, especially in the Hazleton area.