Gov. Shapiro launches housing action plan

Gov. Josh Shapiro announced a new initiative to improve housing costs and increase availability to commonwealth residents.

According to the governor’s press office, Pennsylvania is projected to face a shortage of about 185,000 homes by 2035 without further action. Furthermore, more than one million households in Pennsylvania are reported to spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, and more than 50 percent of the commonwealth’s housing stock is over 50 years old, which contributes to rising maintenance costs.

A plan to address housing issues

Shapiro hopes to address these issues with his housing action plan. The plan’s goals include building more homes, modernizing housing regulations and zoning rules and removing barriers preventing people from finding stable housing.

To create the housing action plan, the commonwealth relied on input from homeowners, renters, developers, housing advocates, labor leaders and local officials, receiving nearly 2,500 survey responses from residents.

To achieve its housing goals, the commonwealth must build 450,000 new housing units by 2035 to meet projected demand, the governor’s office stated. These efforts include increasing housing production and reinvesting in existing homes through infrastructure investment, mixed-use development, home repairs, land banks and workforce training.

Improving housing for vulnerable residents

The housing action plan also intends to prevent evictions and foreclosures, address homelessness, protect survivors of domestic violence and strengthen fair housing enforcement.

The plan further calls for efforts to modernize permitting and zoning to make Pennsylvania a more affordable state to build and preserve housing. It also seeks to improve coordination across agencies and to make housing programs easier to navigate.