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A housing starts grant initiative, announced by the Lycoming County commissioners this week, is seeking to address the housing shortage that was identified during meetings earlier this year to explore how best to allocate the county's American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds.
"In the meetings we had on our ARPA funds with, initially, township supervisors and borough council members, city of Williamsport, sewer and water authorities, developers and realtors, we learned that there is a housing shortage in Lycoming County," Commissioner Scott Metzger said. "There is one nationally that we've heard about, and it's also in Lycoming County."
"We were told approximately about a year ago that normally, there are about 600 houses on the market in Lycoming County. At that time, there were about 125," Metzger said.
"We had employers who are expanding in Lycoming County. There are new employers that are coming to Lycoming County. We want to make sure there's attainable housing for those employers and for people who choose to move here or relocate or even upgrade the houses that are available," he said.
Out of the meetings with the developers, realtors and water authorities, a small task force was formed to explore the issue and try to come up with solutions. From that, an application was developed for the Housing Supply Initiative Grant Program.
"Recent housing market analysis findings and stakeholder feedback cite a need for an increase in modernized housing stock to better diversify our current real estate market," stated a news release from John Lavelle, deputy director of the county's department of planning and community development.
"This program is intended to complement already established housing efforts which currently offer programs for
income-based housing rehabilitation, affordable housing and senior housing as well as to spur an increase in development and help reduce the impact of inflation on new home prices," the release said.
The county anticipates a budget of $2 million in 2022 and an additional $2 million in 2023. The program is entirely funded with Act 13 natural gas impact fee revenue.
The grants are to be used to cover the cost of required improvements, connections to public water and sewer facilities or demolition in order to spur growth in the market rate housing sector, according to information from the county.
To apply for the grants, all proposals must be within the county's designated growth area and must propose a minimum of 10 buildable lots or units or a minimum of three infill units of constructed housing in established communities. Compelling proposals will receive grants to cover up to one-third of the total cost of eligible items up to a maximum of $500,000.
"One of the important things is that it has to be in one of the county's designated growth areas. You can find the designated growth area by going to the county website and looking under the county's planning department," Commissioner Rick Mirabito said.
One of the problems, Mirabito pointed out, is that a lot of the county's housing stock is really old.
"We have some people moving here from other parts of the country where they're not used to buying a house that's a hundred years old...so part of it is to have some new housing," Mirabito added.
"Part of it also at another end is to try to make sure that we find ways to take that existing housing stock, so we don't get a flight out of the boroughs and townships to the new housing only, but that we also make a way to make sure that housing is brought up and supported with this," Mirabito said.
"We feel this will help the developers. As they have come to us, they have expressed that developments are too expensive anymore, they can't pay for the water and sewer. Due to supply chain shortages, costs are going up. It's just not profitable to develop housing any more unless we help with the infrastructure," Metzger said. "This is a way we can assist them to build attainable housing in Lycoming County."
"We need workers to come to the area because of the jobs being created and to have workers we have to have places for them to be housed," Mirabito said.
The Lycoming County commissioners have developed an application process to receive formal requests from interested parties. The county will review project submissions on a rolling deadline. Grant awards will be issued to proposals that the commissioners deem eligible and viable on a first come first serve basis until the budgeted funds are allocated, according to information from the county
Interested parties can begin to submit applications to the county on Oct. 1. Application materials and instructions are available on the County's website at www.lyco.org/grants. Those who have further questions should contact Lavelle by phone at 570-320-2139 or by email at housingstarts@lyco.org.