CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) - Cumberland County is the fastest-growing county in the state and that means there’s a growing need for affordable housing.
"Which is lovely for the county but also puts a tremendous burden on the housing market," said the Cumberland County Housing and redevelopment authorities executive director Mary Kuna.
Safe Harbour, a non-profit that provides housing for the homeless has been working on an affordable housing project for 7 years and it is now under construction.
"Affordable housing is a basic human right and there is just not enough affordable housing in Cumberland County," said Safe Harbour president and CEO Scott Shewell.
The Harbour Village complex is being built off of Spring Garden Street in South Middleton Township.
Once it is completed, there will be six residential buildings providing 40 units.
“A mix of townhouses and apartments,” said Shewell.
Right now, in Cumberland County, there are more than 250 households waiting for an affordable place to live. 122 of those families are unsheltered.
"Meaning they are living somewhere humans are not supposed to be living...whether it's a tent, an underpass, maybe they are sharing a space with someone else but its really not a home," said Shewell.
Safe Harbour is thrilled to be able to bring the complex to the area, but it won’t be enough to solve the housing crisis.
"Over the last year, a large number of calls we've been receiving are individuals or families who say my landlord has come to me and said they will renew my lease however rent is going to increase significantly…I had one family who said their rent is going up $400 a month," said Shewell.
The Cumberland County housing and redevelopment authorities are trying to keep those families in their homes by offering incentives to landlords who accept the voucher program.
"We're trying to get more and more landlords to accept what would be known as section 8 or housing voucher and we have seen a huge turnout of landlords willing to work with us, work with our clients," said Kuna.
The first building in the Harbour Village is expected to be completed by September 2023, with the remainder of the complex being completed by November 2024.
A majority of the funding for the project is coming from federal low-income housing tax credits.
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