Action Alert!

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

State Housing Trust Fund

What You Can Do:  Write Governor Rendell requesting that he include $10 million dollars for the State Housing Trust Fund in his FY 2009-2010 Proposed Budget.

There's no time to wait... the Governor will send his budget proposal to the General Assembly at the beginning of February!

Send your letter to: 

Governor Edward G. Rendell's Office

225 Main Capitol Building

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120

CLICK HERE to view model language or to send your request via e-mail.

Talking Points:  $10 million dollars in the Housing Trust Fund would...

Enable Pennsylvania to invest in its housing market while simultaneously investing in our economy and our residents;

 

Provide affordable homes, preserve the homes we have, and help those who have no home;

 

Create jobs which will produce tax revenue, revitalize communities, and enhance the quality of life for Pennsylvania's families.

Background:  More than 15,000 Pennsylvanians are homeless, but those are just the people who have been counted. Every provider and developer is seeing greater demand for homes than they can possibly meet, yet dollars are shrinking. Even Pennsylvania's Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) is finding itself faced with 4-5 times the demand than it can finance.

In 2008, the General Assembly passed the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Act (PHARE), establishing the structure for a program that would enable PHFA to develop programs to build, rehabilitate and preserve homes for low to moderate income families and individuals, people with disabilities and the elderly. However, this newly created Housing Trust Fund needs an allocation in the budget in order for its work to begin.

ELCA Policy Base  (Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All, 1999; A Message on Homelessness: A Renewal of Commitment, 1990)