Habitat Advocates for Affordable Housing by Leon Reed
Gettysburg Times, January 6, 2023
The Gettysburg area represents a bit of a paradox: a relatively low wage area where incomes are relatively high, population is growing slowly, affordable housing is in short supply, with an unprecedented building boom only at the upper end of the market. Wait, what’s that? Low wage but high income – how does that work? Well, despite the hospital and the college, the local job base is concentrated in low wage retail sales, hospitality, travel, and agricultural jobs. But the 65% of the workforce that leaves the county for work or the 21% of the population that’s 65+ is relatively affluent. And, oddly, a county that grew by 2% in the last decade is seeing a housing boom. And if you’re affluent, you have a variety of choices: Cannon Ridge, the Preserves, the Links, Amblebrook -- there’s plenty of housing choice.
The local workforce? The working poor? Cops and school teachers? Library workers? Health care or child care aides? Well, there’s no housing for you and none is being built.
This problem isn’t confined just to Adams County. Habitat for Humanity International concludes that, “Although the economic and social benefits of affordable housing are well-documented, the cost of renting a home is at an all-time high and homeownership in the U.S. is at its lowest rate in decades.”
Adams County Habitat for Humanity is helping ease the affordable housing shortage by building new houses, rehabilitating aging houses, and looking for partnerships that can allow us to expand our reach. We are also working with the @ Home Coalition to address systemic barriers to solution of the affordable housing market. Some of these problems require national level solutions but it might be possible to address some of these issues locally. Items from Habitat for Humanity International’s “National Advocacy Agenda that we’re taking a look at include, a) Promote construction and land use regulation to better enable the development of affordable homes; b) Promote successful foreclosure prevention programs; c) Promote inclusionary housing policies; d) Encourage tax incentive programs to build affordable homes; e) Promote public funding for the rehabilitation and repair of existing housing; Improve and grow energy efficiency programs; f) increase financial education and housing counseling programs; and g) Promote infrastructure investment (transportation, open space, sidewalks, streetlights).
Adams County already gets high marks for some of these initiatives, such as SCCAP’s work to promote energy efficiency and to work with banks and landlords to prevent evictions and foreclosures. Others may be promising options for the future. One thing is for certain: affordable housing isn’t just a humanitarian issue. It’s also a matter of dollars and cents: the kinds of employers and entrepreneurs Adams County wants to attract want to know that if they relocate or expand here that their employees will be able to find a home at a price they can afford. Together, we can solve this problem.