6 days ago
Home repair program in Pa. would continue investment in essential renovations
A street in Shamokin in Northumberland County. The county got more than $1 million for residential improvements like plumbing and weatherization through the Whole Home Repair Program, which has since run out of its American Rescue Plan funding. State lawmakers are proposing a similar successor funded at $50 million per year. (Emily Previti/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
A home repair program that Pennsylvanians really seem to need, based on the response, could continue if state officials can agree on how to run it.
A bipartisan group of state legislators announced – just before budget talks officially start in Harrisburg – they'll co-sponsor forthcoming legislation creating the PA Home Preservation Program.
Gov. Josh Shapiro's proposed budget allocates $50 million for the program.
It took mere months to spend four times that amount through the similarly-focused Whole Home Repair Program.
The WHRP diverted $125 million to financing weatherization, plumbing and other essential improvements to thousands of residential units across the state starting last September, according to the state Department of Community and Economic Development.
And more 18,000 applicants, combined, were left on waitlists kept by pass-through agencies, according to the planned bill's co-sponsorship memo.
Lawmakers used a one-time federal infusion from the American Rescue Plan to create the WHRP.
Program requirements limited homeowners to those making no more than 80 percent of median area household income. Landlords couldn't own more than five properties and 15 affordable units across all properties. And it capped project costs at $50,000 per unit.
State officials view the WHRP as a pilot for the proposed PA Home Preservation program that's intended to be more permanent.
'It is not easy to sort of do all this coordination, build out relationships with contractors, … [and] sub-grantees,' said DCED Secretary Rick Siger during the agency's budget hearing earlier this year. 'But we have a path now…informed by, frankly, just learning a bunch of stuff as we ran Whole Home Repair.'
The new initiative likely would have income limits for homeowner recipients and prioritize senior citizens, according to prime sponsor Rep. Lindsay Powell, D-Pittsburgh.
Other than that, few details have been hashed out, Powell said Friday.
But one would be an effort to keep program guidelines as consistent as possible, she said. She cited constantly changing expectations and reporting requirements as a major challenge during her time on Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority Board.
Siger, Powell and others have pointed to the age of Pennsylvania's housing stock as another reason to invest in renovation and rehabilitation, with nearly 60 percent of homes statewide dating back to before 1970.
