Agency conducting Marcellus housing study

by robert swift (Harrisburg Bureau Chief)
Published: September 29, 2010

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HARRISBURG - A state financing agency is launching a study to determine affordable housing needs in Northern Tier counties affected by the Marcellus Shale drilling boom.

The study by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Authority is prompted by a spike in rental prices and resulting shortage of housing during the past two years due to an influx of workers from the natural gas industry into a largely rural region.

PHFA wants to compare how rental prices have increased during the past two years and where the need for affordable housing is greatest, executive director Brian Hudson told a Senate committee Tuesday.

The study's target is a 10-county area, including Susquehanna, Wyoming, Bradford and Sullivan counties, and stretching westward to Dubois in Clearfield County. A senator requested that drilling areas in Southwest Pennsylvania be studied, too.

The information will be useful as PHFA considers how to use existing tax credit and rental development programs to help local residents displaced by rents that have doubled in many cases, Hudson said.

"We really think this is an area that is going to need the attention of the agency," he said.

Hudson announced the study at a hearing of the Urban Affairs and Housing Committee. The panel chairman, Sen. Gene Yaw, R-23, Williamsport, held the hearing as a follow-up to one on housing issues last January in Towanda.

Hudson singled out a federal housing tax credit program as one with the potential greatest benefit to the region. Administered by PHFA, the program provides developers with a tax credit to help finance construction of apartments that are rented to families meeting income guidelines. For example, in Lycoming County, a family of four must have an annual income below $32,460 to qualify.

The tax credit program has not been widely used in the Northern Tier, but PHFA wants to work with developers to change that, Hudson added.

PHFA also runs programs to provide financial assistance to first-time homebuyers and help homeowners facing foreclosure.

Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com

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