Database to help Pa. deal with expiration of housing subsidies

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By CHARLOTTE KEITH
Spotlight PA

HARRISBURG — In an effort to better monitor the supply of affordable housing, Pennsylvania will create a searchable database of properties that are required to offer discounted rents and track when those requirements expire.

The database, which was included in the state budget deal that lawmakers passed in July, is intended to bring more transparency to an issue that could affect thousands of Pennsylvanians who live in properties that are subsidized by state and federal programs. The programs typically require at least some of the units to remain affordable for a certain period of time, which can last decades.

When those restrictions expire, however, property owners can decide to increase rents to reflect market rates, or sell the building, potentially forcing residents to move.

Over the next five years, affordability restrictions for more than 9,700 units in Pennsylvania will expire, according to the National Housing Preservation Database, which includes information on over a dozen federal programs.

Because different state agencies manage different programs, Pennsylvania has lacked a consistent approach to tracking properties where affordability requirements are due to expire — a problem noted in the wide-ranging housing plan that Gov. Josh Shapiro unveiled in March.

“If the state doesn’t know the breadth of the problem, it can’t begin to address solutions,” said Dina Schlossberg, executive director of Regional Housing Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm.

The measure was originally introduced as a bill sponsored by state Sens. Vincent Hughes and Nikil Saval, Democrats representing Philadelphia.

As things currently stand, Saval said, his office sometimes learns about properties with expiring affordability provisions “sort of late in the game,” which leads to a scramble to find a solution.

Expiring affordability requirements are a relatively new problem, said Vincent Reina, director of a housing research center at the University of Pennsylvania.

The federal government’s primary tool for financing affordable housing, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, was created in 1986. But the program didn’t really ramp up until the late 1990s, Reina said. Many properties have 30-year affordability restrictions, which are now starting to expire.

“The scale of properties approaching this point is now getting to the highest levels we’ve seen.”

With enough advance notice that a property’s affordability restrictions are ending, advocates and government officials have more time to try to find a solution. That could include offering more funding to keep the units affordable, or finding a buyer who is willing to do so.

Knowing where the properties are located and who owns them is important for assessing how vulnerable they are to losing their affordability requirements, said Korey Lundin, a senior attorney at the National Housing Law Project.

“It’s really important to know this information as far in advance as possible.”

At least 11 states — including Florida, New York, and Texas — already compile similar databases. Similar tracking requirements were also included in a bill Philadelphia City Council passed in 2023.

Pennsylvania’s statewide database will include information on where each property is located, when its affordability restrictions expire, and whether there is an option to extend them.

It will be compiled by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, which administers a number of programs that fund affordable housing.

The data will be publicly available by the end of 2027 and must be updated every year.

Creating the database will not require additional funding; the agency believes it can “absorb the cost” of the project “using current resources,” according to a legislative analysis.

The lack of a price tag could be one reason the initiative was included in the budget package, which is negotiated by the governor and legislative leaders. Pennsylvania faces a structural budget deficit and Republican lawmakers have argued that the commonwealth needs to rein in spending to avoid future tax increases.

Lawmakers in both parties have introduced a number of housing bills this year — including legislation to make it easier to build accessory dwelling units and create an expedited approval process for new construction. Shapiro also proposed a $1 billion debt-funded investment in infrastructure, including housing.

None of those proposals, however, made it into the final budget deal, which often serves as a vehicle for major policy changes.

The lack of housing initiatives included in the budget is “unfortunate,” Saval said.

“Any year you’re not making progress on a worsening crisis, it’s a step backwards.”

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