Westmoreland County’s housing director named to state housing board

Michael Washowich has headed Westmoreland’s housing authority since 2002.

By RICH CHOLODOFSKY
TribLive

Westmoreland County Housing Authority Executive Director Michael Washowich has been appointed to serve as a board member for the state agency that has been a key to financing a construction boom for low-income seniors over the last decade.

Washowich, 62, of North Huntingdon was named in March to the 14-member board of directors of the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

“This is because of the work we’ve done here,” Washowich said earlier this week during a meeting of the housing authority’s quarterly public meeting.

Washowich, who has headed Westmoreland’s housing authority since 2002, becomes one of two county housing leaders to sit on the board of the agency that awards financing for public housing projects throughout Pennsylvania.

The state agency has been a primary funding source for the construction of new public housing communities in Westmoreland County since the mid-2010s. The authority last year secured $15 million in funding through the sale of federal tax credits for its new construction of a four-story, 50-unit public housing complex for low-income seniors in Rostraver.

Construction is slated to begin this summer.

The tax credit program, administered by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, has been used to pay for construction of the authority’s South Greengate Commons and Odin View Apartments in Hempfield, and Grand View Senior Apartments in Irwin.

Construction is currently ongoing on the authority’s Church View Estates community that includes 20 townhouses for low-income seniors in Mt. Pleasant Township.

“The tax credit program is our only means of funding some of these projects, the ones we want to build here in Westmoreland County,” said Erik Spiegel, the authority’s director of architecture and engineering. “Having a voice on that board will be an asset.”

Washowich said he will not participate in state agency votes on financing proposals for Westmoreland’s housing authority, but that his agency will continue to pursue tax credit funding for future projects.