Bob Damewood, staff attorney for Regional Housing Legal Services, and Larry Swanson, Executive Director of Action Housing and RHLS Board of Directors member, were among the experts who testified in Pittsburgh in front of Pennsylvania House members on the importance of affordable housing.
Bob emphasized the number of Pennsylvania families that cannot afford rent and urged legislators to invest in safe, stable, and affordable housing. Larry Swanson also advocated for affordable housing assistance, especially in the face of expiring lender forbearance programs.
Read Bob Damewood’s testimony here:
Testimony Before the House Democratic Policy Committee
Robert Damewood, Regional Housing Legal Services
May 11, 2021
Good morning. My name is Bob Damewood and I am a staff attorney in the Pittsburgh office of Regional Housing Legal Services. Thank you for your focus on addressing Pennsylvania’s critical housing needs and for giving me the opportunity to speak today.
RHLS provides free legal services to non-profit organizations that engage in affordable housing or community development activities that benefit low-income Pennsylvanians. Since 1973 we have assisted in the completion of over a billion dollars’ worth of housing development projects throughout the State.
Before the pandemic hit, Pennsylvania was already experiencing an affordable housing shortage of crisis proportions. Hundreds of thousands of working families throughout Pennsylvania were already struggling to afford their home, with over 292,000 renter households paying over half of their income on housing costs.(1) This affordability crisis caused a great deal of housing instability – with over 96,000 eviction filings in 2019 alone. (2) Pittsburgh and Allegheny County were not immune. Combined, the city and county had a pre-pandemic shortage of over 57,000 affordable homes and roughly 13,000 eviction filings every year, the vast majority involving unpaid rent. (3)
These problems are made worse by the pandemic, which is causing historic levels of unemployment and significant losses of household income. Even with the effective rollout of federal emergency rental assistance, hundreds of thousands of renter households are experiencing unprecedented levels of housing instability. The most recent Census Pulse Survey shows that 16.8% of Pennsylvania households are not current on rent or mortgage payments and believe that eviction or foreclosure in the next two months is at least somewhat likely. (4) This translates to over 299,000 renter households who are behind on their rent and at risk of eviction. (5) It is imperative that we act now to keep Pennsylvania’s renters stably housed. Aside from the devastating impact that evictions have on evicted families and their communities, our courts and emergency shelter systems could easily become overwhelmed.
Prior to COVID, Pennsylvania also had an among the oldest housing stock in the country, with attendant home repair needs. (6) This problem has also been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has both decreased the financial security of many homeowners and increased the cost of building materials. Weatherization programs report having to turn more and more applicants away due to poor housing conditions. Home repair programs are placing applicants on 3-year waiting lists and still having to reject large numbers of homeowners due to a lack of funds. Thousands of Pennsylvania homeowners are either on waiting lists for home repairs or have been turned away because there isn’t enough funding to meet the need.
Pennsylvania’s working families are experiencing unprecedented challenges, but with the American Rescue Plan, we also have an unprecedented opportunity to meet those challenges. In addition to rental and mortgage assistance, which are in place or on the way, we desperately need three things to respond to the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Pennsylvania’s housing market:
• First, we need to quickly and substantially expand the supply of affordable housing, in order to relieve the severe cost burden that is causing unprecedented levels of housing instability. This will require significant investment in development projects that expand the housing choices available to extremely low-income families.
• Second, we need to repair and preserve our existing housing stock. This will require substantial grant funding to help low-income homeowners replace basic home systems and undertake accessibility modifications,
• Third, we need to provide legal representation and other supports to keep families from losing their homes.
Meeting these challenges will be expensive, but the cost of doing nothing is even higher. We know that the lack of a good, stable home affects health, education, employment and even incarceration. These are all major drivers in the state budget. American Rescue Plan funding presents a unique opportunity to invest federal money in affordable homes in a way that both addresses the urgent needs of Pennsylvania’s families and that is likely to reduce state expenses down the road.
Every Pennsylvanian deserves dignified, quality, consistently affordable housing. Let’s use this unprecedented infusion of federal funding to make that a reality.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this important topic. I am available to answer any questions you have.
Endnotes:
1. National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), Housing Needs by State (based on 2019 ACS data) (361,000 PA renter households cost-burdened; 292,000 severely), https://nlihc.org/housing-needs-by-state/pennsylvania.
2. 2019 Caseload Statistics of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, page 229.
3. For the affordable housing shortage, see, e.g., Allegheny County 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan, p. 71 (Allegheny County has a 37,275-unit shortage of housing that is affordable to ELI households); 2016 Pittsburgh Housing Needs Assessment, p. 65 (Pittsburgh has a 19,957-unit shortage of housing that is affordable and available to households earning at or below 50% of the City median income). For eviction filings, see Pittsburgh Foundation, Eviction in Allegheny County: A mixed-methods study (Spring, 2021).
4. U.S. Census, Household Pulse Survey, Week 28 (April 14-26, 2021) (Pennsylvania data tables). 5. For the number of renter households in Pennsylvania, see Marc Stier, Here’s how we stop the coming eviction and foreclosure tsunami, Pennsylvania Capital Star, August 28, 2020.
6. Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency; Comprehensive Housing Study; May 2020; p. 15; https://www.phfa.org/housingstudy/2020/