Good morning. I’m Cindy Daley and I work with Regional Housing Legal Services. Regional Housing is a nonprofit law firm that works to create housing and economic opportunity in underserved communities in Pennsylvania and to effect systematic change for the benefit of lower-income households.
You’ve already heard from the knowledgeable and passionate speakers before me about Pennsylvania’s aging housing stock and why it is so important to help owners repair their properties. So I’m going to focus on economics. Now, I’m not an economist, so I’m going to keep this very simple and make three points.
First, the private market cannot solve our home repair problem. If it could have, it would have. Needed repairs cost more than many property owners can afford. And in communities with low property values, the cost of repairs may exceed the value of the property, meaning no bank will lend money for the repairs. Yet, it still makes economic sense to make these improvements, which is my second point.
Substandard housing costs money. It costs the state, which means it costs taxpayers.
- People who live in substandard housing get sick more than people who live in better quality homes, resulting not only in medical costs but also in lost productivity at work and in school.
- Lead poisoning, which causes irreversible brain damage, is a tragedy for the children who are its victims and for their families. It is also a cost to the commonwealth in medical expenses, special education, and potentially a lifetime of public assistance. Studies have even linked criminal behavior in young adults to lead poisoning in early childhood.
- People with disabilities who need, but cannot afford, accessibility modifications, often end up in nursing homes. Again, we pay with Medicaid dollars – lots of Medicaid dollars all for want of a $15,000 home modification.
- Blighted properties – many of which are occupied – reduce the value of neighboring properties. It is difficult to sell a home with a blighted property on the block, so some owners just walk away, abandoning their properties. Owners lose equity, and governments lose tax revenue.
Third, it makes economic sense to make a public investment in home repairs. As I’ve just said, not investing in home repairs costs the commonwealth money. This is the cost of doing nothing that we are already paying.
When I’ve made this point in the past, I was told, “Yes, but we can’t take money away from Medical Assistance, Education, or Corrections to invest in housing.” This year we don’t have to. Pennsylvania still has billions of dollars from the Fiscal Recovery Fund. Our tax receipts are higher than anticipated. So now is the time to make this investment. Now is the time to support our neighbors by improving their homes, and to develop an infrastructure of home repair organizations and contractors to make sure Pennsylvanians will continue to have safe and healthy homes into the future.
Thank you.