Agencies bring two housing funding requests to Lebanon County officials

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

Lebanon County Commissioners fielded two affordable housing funding requests totaling nearly $596,000 at a workshop session on Wednesday, July 9. 

The requests came from representatives of the Lebanon County Housing Collaborative for almost $496,000 and a Lancaster Lebanon Habitat for Humanity official for $100,000. 

The monies, if approved at a future meeting of commissioners, would be paid through Act 137, which is funded through a dedicated portion of deed and mortgage fees, meaning taxpayers don’t directly pay for the program.

Also Wednesday, commissioners received a report on the state of the county’s employee pension fund.

Read More: Lebanon County Commissioners told employee pension fund is healthy

Lebanon County Housing Collaborative request

Bryan Smith, executive director of Lebanon County Christian Ministries (LCCM), and Nicole Maurer Gray, executive director of Community Health Council of Lebanon County (CHC), requested $495,946, noting that funding would be allocated over a period of time.

That funding, if awarded, would be in addition to a $750,000 grant provided by WellSpan Health to the housing collaborative initiative, which was recently announced exclusively by LebTown.

Read More: LebTown exclusive: WellSpan grant helps launch Lebanon County housing collab

“If you didn’t see, we were awarded that grant, which is extremely exciting, which was certainly step one in our vision,” said Smith, who gave most of the presentation. “So in a quick nutshell, the concept is that we would do some work over a 10-year period, utilizing some different public-private partnerships to be able to fund the project. The root of this came out of what you all had helped fund with the housing study, which is now already almost three years ago.”

Read More: New study highlights countywide housing problems, provides potential solutions

Smith said the WellSpan grant will be used to fund the Lebanon Rescue Mission’s Agape Safe Haven housing project over five years in the amount of $200,000, LCCM’s light eviction program for five years, the creation of a five-member housing collaborative board, and the salary for an individual to implement the collaborative’s programming goals. 

“We’ll hopefully work with organizations like Habitat and local government and many other entities to bring folks together for the purposes of addressing housing,” Smith said. “It is not lost on us, it is all housing, but certainly a big portion of that will be affordable housing or housing that’s intended for individuals with lower income. So we are in the process of trying to identify investment partners once we were awarded the WellSpan grant based upon a 10-year plan.” 

Smith noted there’s a “strong indication that the city wants to support this,” adding the topic will be discussed at the next city council meeting.  

“They obviously don’t have an Act 137 fund so for them it’s getting a little more creative on how they’re going to support us but they are looking at, the mayor’s looking at, presenting a solution that will provide at least the defined investment period and time,” he said. “Through the process of looking at this from a funding perspective what we wanted to do was create some stable investment and be able to stretch this grant process to a 10-year period.”

Smith stressed that at least three years is needed to assess if the collaborative is working and five years would determine if it is “completely effective.” 

“We believe that if we hit the five-year period and there’s been zero progress it’ll be important for us to step back and say there’s no reason to continue six to ten if we’ve not made an impact in progress. But that’s why we are creating an advisory board. That advisory board as of right now will be Nikki, myself, Dan (Lyons, executive director of the Lebanon County Housing Authority),” added Smith.

Commissioner Bob Phillips said he supports the collaborative, noting the credibility of LCCM, CHC, and WellSpan. He asked about the city’s possible participation in the collaborative, including how much they planned to support financially.

“The city’s ask in year one is $4,600 and then it goes to $18,000 and $23,000. If you look at the total, it’s about a third of the 100 percent between the county and the city,” Smith answered.

Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz asked if all municipalities could participate in the housing collaborative, and Smith said it is an “open market” for local municipalities. Litz also asked about the collaborative’s “deliverables.”

“I would say that, you know, obviously the city’s an obvious partner, both because of their willingness and they have a short-term plan to impact housing even within this next fiscal year,” answered Gray. “So the city was an obvious choice as a pilot program for sure.”

Gray also expounded upon the first question asked by Litz. 

“What we’re hoping is that we have some other municipalities who have attended some of our housing workshops and who definitely seem interested in some of the ideas being put forth, creative things like developer incentives or certainly land that’s available, working with developers, et cetera,” Gray said.  “Part of this person’s job will be doing municipal education around opportunities for workforce, affordable housing, creative developer incentives, et cetera, knowing that what ends up working in one municipality will likely end up working in another one.”

Commission chairman Mike Kuhn said he believes York County had a good housing collaborative model. Gray agreed, noting there are similar programs in Adams and Franklin counties, too.

“What we’re trying to do with our housing collaborative is build the same type of common table that they’re building in those counties. So we have a lot of ability to work with other counties even on creative solutions and what they’re doing in other places,” Gray said. “And as a side note, both of those organizations have somebody at the helm of those organizations. So the funding that we’re asking for is helping to sustain that person who’s coordinating these efforts.”

Lancaster Lebanon Habitat for Humanity request

Andrew Szalay, president and CEO of Lancaster Lebanon Habitat for Humanity, said the funding sought for their program would be applied to two Lebanon city properties, one in the 1000 block of Walnut Street and the other in the 300 block of North 5th Street.

“I’m here asking for you and the county to support, utilize this wonderful fund that the state and you have made available for $100,000 investment towards the project,” Szalay said. “Home ownership and low-income home ownership obviously is a real turning point for families providing stability.”

Szalay said he’s traveled all over the country meeting with low-income housing programs, Habitat for Humanity, and similar initiatives.

“I have never met somebody that’s grown up in a Habitat for Humanity home that’s ever regretted it. They have grown older and probably come into either buying their own home,” said Szalay. “They have only said wonderful things about the fortunate events they’ve had for the stability and the health and outcomes that they’ve had. They’ve realized that has played a role in their life and I’m looking forward to making these two homes available the same way and building up the wealth because home ownership is the number one way Americans build wealth.”

Commissioners informed both housing organizations that they would consider their requests at a future meeting. The next meeting of the Lebanon County Commissioners is at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, July 17, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 207 of the Lebanon County Municipal Building, 400 S. 8th St., Lebanon.

Commissioners went into executive session following the workshop to discuss union negotiations.