Pennsylvania is allocating $98 million to address its affordable housing shortage, supporting the creation and preservation of more than 3,000 homes. Funding from the Housing Options Grant Program will go toward safeguarding existing affordable rental properties and constructing new units, the York Daily Record reports.
Philadelphia received the largest share, $39.8 million, to support 1,180 affordable units. The program aims to protect and increase the state's affordable rental housing stock and is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency administers the grants, with guidelines requiring assisted units to remain affordable for at least 20 years. The state faces a shortage of roughly 267,000 homes for extremely low-income households.
Some of the money will flow into construction projects for new apartments and other homes, but another goal of the Housing Options Grant Program is to safeguard the state’s existing stock of affordable rentals.
“Part of the strategy for expanding affordable housing in Pennsylvania is to keep current affordable housing stock from falling into disrepair and being taken out of service,” Robin Wiessmann, executive director and CEO of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, said in a news release announcing the awards.
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