‘Answer to prayers’: Grantees praise home repair program left unfunded by state lawmakers

• By Jaxon White/LNP | LancasterOnline

Alexander Biagio, 32, has worked in construction his entire adult life. If something needs updating in his nearly 120-year-old Millersville home, he often does the work himself.

But the list of fixes his home needed began to pile up last year. With four kids, he wasn’t certain he had the time or money to do them himself.

Biagio said his father suggested he apply for help from the county’s Whole Home Repairs Program, which provides state-funded grants to low-income residents to address habitability concerns in their homes.

The suggestion paid off. Biagio said the $25,000 grant he received “was a huge help” in replacing his home’s gutters, air conditioning unit and oil heating system.

“This was something that would have been five years’ worth of savings for me to try and rack up just to do one part of those projects,” Biagio said.

With just one exception, most of Lancaster County’s Whole Home Repairs recipients who spoke to LNP | LancasterOnline praised the program. But some roadblocks exist that contractors and county officials say are holding the program back from its full potential. One is the lack of consistent funding from the state.

In 2022, lawmakers approved the use of $125 million in one-time federal COVID-19 aid to create the Whole Home Repairs program. The General Assembly has since failed to approve any additional funding.

The Lancaster County Redevelopment Authority got $3.19 million from the program. An additional $800,000 was marked for other administrative costs and a workforce development initiative linked to the program.

Demand for grants was so high that the county had closed the application window by last March. As of early August, the authority had allocated about $1.56 million. Contractors hired to do the work had completed or begun construction on about $930,000 worth of projects.

“We still have funding available, so we can still meet the needs,” said Justin Eby, executive director of the Redevelopment Authority. If more money doesn’t come by 2026, when the initial funds expire, Eby said his organization will likely end up “readjusting” its budget to find the money to continue the repairs program.

Miriam Ashby, 63, said she hopes the county can do that. She used her grant, with an additional $25,000 no-interest loan from the authority, to fix water damage on the ground floor of her Willow Street home that she couldn’t afford on her own.

She’s a retiree and her husband, Ron, died of kidney failure last year.

“I’d never been in a situation like that in my life,” Ashby said. “Things were coming down on me and I had no way out.”

Ashby called the grant “an absolute answer to prayers.”

Lancaster’s rollout

Michaela Allwine, the redevelopment authority’s director of Housing and Community Development, said the Whole Home Repairs funds have largely supported repairs to properties in Lancaster city and several boroughs.

She said the operation has run smoothly so far.

About two and a half years into the program, 40 construction jobs have been completed. As of early August, 26 projects were either under construction or in the inspection phase of the application process. Forty-one projects remain on the program’s waitlist.

Allwine said the order in which projects were started was based on the urgency of a homeowner’s needed repairs. Emergency projects were advanced through the county’s process quicker than non-urgent ones, she said.

She noted that urgently needed fixes can include steps to address mold and water damage, roofing issues and problems with heating systems during the winter months.

Any applicant on the waitlist has already qualified to have their project completed, Allwine said. “We’re just waiting for capacity.”

Allwine said the biggest barrier for the program’s operators has been the stipulation that any contract for $25,000 or more must comply with prevailing wage rules, which requires workers to receive health, retirement and other fringe benefits to align with local standards. That has led the county to sign many contracts at $24,999 to avoid the requirement

Don Anderson, 36, of West Hempfield, has completed four home repair contracts in Lancaster city. He said other contractors he’s spoken to say they avoid Whole Home Repair projects because they’re too difficult, especially those in Lancaster city where the narrowness of roadways and alleys can make it difficult for teams to access the homes they’re working on.

“They’re jobs that a lot of roofing competitors don’t want to touch,” Anderson said. “It’s become my niche thing.”

Though Anderson said the contracts pay well, he said higher project budgets could incentivize more contractors to consider signing on.

Aging homes

In Mariella Pinero’s home, she shares one restroom with her mother, son, daughter and three grandkids. She was awarded about $13,000 to fix the bathroom’s leaking tub and the roof of her home.

“For me, it’s peace and tranquility,” Pinero, 51, said. “I need to make sure everyone is living in a safe environment.”

The county’s property assessor says Pinero’s home was built in 1895, making it 129 years old. That age is consistent with many other county homes benefiting from the Whole Home Repair program. The average age was 82. The oldest was 168.

Pennsylvania’s aging housing stock is often cited by Whole Home Repairs supporters as why the program must be funded again. The state’s median home age is 57 years old, one of the oldest in the country, according to the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors. Only in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island is the median age older.

About 20% of Lancaster County’s homes were built before the 1940s, according to The Steinman Foundation. That’s above the national average of 12%.

The average home is older in Lancaster city, where 51% were built before 1940. Just 2% are newer than 2010.

Lancaster’s state Rep. Izzy Smith-Wade-El, a vocal supporter of state housing initiatives, said the county’s aged housing stock underscores the need for the Whole Home Repairs program. Representing a district that covers a southern half of the city and Millersville, Smith-Wade-El said his office has received more than a dozen inquiries about the program since it first launched.

“We want development and investment in the city, and we want people in our community to be able to keep their homes,” he said. “So we should be investing, indeed, into both of those things.”

State funding debate

In 2023, $50 million for the program was approved, but the General Assembly didn’t pass implementing legislation that would have dished out those dollars to the counties organizing the program locally. That resulted in no money being given out.

This year, House Democrats broadly backed Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposal to allocate $50 million for the program. But not every party member saw it as a priority.

Lancaster state Rep. Mike Sturla, who chairs his chamber’s Housing Committee, said the repair program is only “helpful to a few” and that there are better ways to “create more housing for better impact” on the state’s housing shortage.

He pointed to the federal match component of the Low Income Tax Credit as an example. Sturla said for every dollar the state puts into the tax credit, the federal government will match it up to six or seven times.

Amid negotiations, the state’s Progressive Caucus urged party leaders to fight for housing funding, including the Whole Home Repairs program. That effort ultimately failed, though lawmakers did allocate new money for emergency shelters and legal aid for tenants. They also chose to incrementally raise annual funding for the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability Fund until it reaches $100 million.

House Appropriations Chairman Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, said after the budget cleared his chamber last month that it was unfortunate no amount was earmarked for the repairs program. Doing so in the future, he said, “remains important to our caucus.”

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, R-Indiana County, didn’t outright oppose paying more money toward the program. He said in a written statement that “education funding and human service programs became the focus” of budget talks this year.

Aaron Zappia, government affairs director for the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, said the need for the Whole Home Repairs program isn’t going away. Since 64 of the state’s 67 counties have established programs, he said the infrastructure to continue the program already exists for when money is allocated again.

“It’s disappointing but I don’t think it’s the end of the road,” Zappia said.