DFA Position Paper: What We Can Do to Encourage Public Housing

The problem

Adams County clearly has a shortage of public housing. The Adams County Housing Authority (ACHA), the South-Central Community Action Program (SCCAP), the Adams County Office for Aging, Inc. (ACOFA) and others will tell you that they get far more requests for affordable housing units than the community can meet. It is a crisis that contributes to homelessness, families bouncing from school district to school district as they live with family members and in their cars, and people living in substandard units that absentee landlords have no incentive to maintain as they know their tenants are a captive population.

Why does the problem exist?

There are several reasons, among them:

There is an overall lack of Federal and State funding to build units. We must continue to advocate for government support for low- and moderate-income housing.
Developers would rather build high-end, high-profit units than moderate and small-profit ones.
Developers believe that the cost of land in Adams County is simply too high to build low and moderate cost houses and apartments.
Developers complain about the overwhelming number of local regulations that they need to meet to build any housing, let alone higher density housing units.
There is an on-going stigma that low-and moderate-income tenants are not good tenants. Some of this is race-based, others are based on class, others just based on the old American ideal that “I’m just better than you.”

What can we do

The single most important thing we can do is speak out and fight the myths of public housing. Otherwise “good people” will oppose the construction of new apartments of any kind because they might “turn into Section 8 housing” as heard in a recent local conversation. An article appearing on the website PennLive on July 7, 2023 stated the following: “They say the building (which would include 48 single-bedroom apartments for low-income older people) could add to the problems of an area that has its share of drugs and violence and that it could bring down the value of homes in the neighborhood.”

Here are some things to consider when we talk about public housing.

MYTH: Working people can afford housing.

FACT: If you work fulltime for the minimum wage in America the number of states where you can afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment in the private market is exactly zero. Where are hard-working yet low-wage earning people supposed to live?

MYTH: People who live-in public housing either have sufficient income and resources to live on their own or are all on “welfare.”

FACT: The average income of public housing residents in 2015 was $14,000 per year. Fewer than one third of them received “welfare.” Most residents paid 30% of their household income for rent. Landlords get the other rent from the local Housing Authority so they are assured of getting paid. (Madden, David. Five Myths about Public Housing. Washington Post. Sept 11, 2015.)

MYTH: Public housing lowers property values.

FACT: An Urban Institute study conducted in 2022 showed that public housing either has a zero-sum impact on property values around it or can actually increase those property values.

MYTH: Affordable housing is not a problem.

FACT: 44% of Americans think a lack of available housing that is affordable is a very big or a fairly big problem. (National Association of Realtors. 2017 Housing Pulse Survey.)

MYTH: Public housing leads to more crime.

FACT: A study conducted by the University of California at Irvine in 2022 showed that affordable housing helps lower crime, probably because it leads to more stable communities.

MYTH: Most public housing happens in unlivable high-rise buildings or “Projects” owned by entities that do not care about the overall condition of the building.

FACT: Many people in public housing, especially in Adams County, receive a Housing Choice Voucher from the ACHA. They then find a rental unit on the private market and the landlord agrees to accept the voucher. The tallest public housing building in Adams County is four stories and the local “Projects” are mostly full of older tenants!

MYTH: Public housing costs the Federal government too much money and is a drain on the national economy.

FACT: The home mortgage interest deduction, which many Americans happily benefit from, costs the Federal government more than all low- and moderate-income subsidy programs combined! It costs the Federal government $67 billion per year while all housing subsidies cost $52 billion. (Myths and Misperceptions Surrounding Public Housing and the People Who Live in It. Greater, Greater Washington. Feb 1, 2017)

MYTH: Most of the people who live in public housing are deadbeats and losers.

FACT: Here are the people who live in public housing:

23% are older people
27% have a disability
56% are families with children (Center on Budget and Priorities 2022)

What Else Can We Do?

In addition to advocacy, we need to encourage township, borough, and county officials to make and change local regulations that impede the development of low- and moderate-income housing.

We can make local governments aware of Act 58 of 2022 which allows taxing authorities more options to pass tax abatements and incentives to build or fix up affordable housing. They can grant 10-year tax exemptions for multi-unit buildings where 30% of units qualify as affordable housing or when a project repairs a blighted property. (The Center Square, July 12, 2022.)

Borough and township officials are charged with planning housing for all people, not just private developers. We need to encourage zoning and land use changes that promote development of low- and moderate-income housing. Several changes are recommended in the document called Reducing Land Barriers to Affordable Housing published by the Governor’s Center for Local Government Services, PA Department of Community and Economic Development, Harrisburg, PA, 2001.

Township and borough officials should also be encouraged to explore with their attorneys the requirement to build a set-aside number of low- and moderate-income units for every high-end house that they build. The developers will not like that but the deck has been stacked in their favor for a long time. It is time for changes to be made.

This Position Paper was prepared by Steve Niebler and Bill Gilmartin of the Gettysburg Democracy for America (DFA) Government Accountability Task Force and approved for release by Gettysburg DFA.

Steve Niebler, sniebler44@gmail.com; Bill Gilmartin, bgilmartin@yahoo.com

GovernmentSteve Niebler and Bill GilmartinAugust 15, 2023op-ed