Housing instability can affect anyone. Why don't neighborhoods tolerate more affordable housing projects?
By Alex Caban-Echevarria
Most people living in cities don’t know about the invisible lines drawn around their neighborhoods. In Allentown, these differences are noticeable between the city center, with dense blocks of apartment buildings and storefronts, and the outskirts of downtown with row houses, suburban lawns and set-back homes of every kind. These neighborhood zones designate what can go where.
In any zone, affordable housing projects need approval by zoning hearing board officials and require a $500 application fee. The process is not exciting, except for a recent case, whose opposition created controversy. Although the project is moving forward, these roadblocks illuminate how neighbors can be rigid to change.
“I hate being here objecting to this”
The item on the agenda at this March zoning board meeting was an affordable housing proposal, presented by Ripple Community Inc., to convert the Emmanuel Church of Christ into apartments. A group of Allentown residents, 10 of them represented by a lawyer, took the stand with a housing expert to oppose the project. The neighborhood complaints seemed to surprise the people attending the meeting, which consisted mostly of housing advocates and Ripple’s community supporters.
When the church closed its doors two years ago, the plan was to use the building for apartments by donating it to Ripple. This community nonprofit would house 12 low income units below market rate.
Sherri Binder, the executive director of Ripple, spoke about Ripple’s proposal at a previous zoning hearing board meeting. Along with the apartments, Ripple plans to have a community center, offices and medical respite rooms, for those who need a safe place to recover after surgery or other medical treatments. Ripple asked for zoning exceptions for the required number of parking spaces, the residential units themselves, and the medical respite rooms, which are considered temporary shelter.
Although these use variances, or exceptions to how the church is zoned, were approved by the board, it was only after residents got a chance to voice their concerns. The person who testified at this March meeting was Alan Jennings, a notable housing advocate in Allentown as the former executive director of Community Action Lehigh Valley and currently sitting on the Allentown Redevelopment Authority board, an organization renovating abandoned properties.
“If I were Sherri Binder, I’d be pretty pissed I was sitting here,” said Jennings as he sat down to answer the lawyer’s questions. “It feels really weird opposing a homeless shelter,” he said. Referring to the affordable housing project as a shelter, which it is not, could be seen as a strategy to ensure greater opposition to the plan. Throughout his testimony, Jennings reiterated his support for affordable housing, just not in this particular neighborhood.
“You can’t have a functioning marketplace where everybody is poor,” said Jennings to gasps from the crowd. “It’s irresponsible to put a place like that in a neighborhood where people are trying to maintain the value of their homes, and gain equity in their property,” Jennings continued. The church project is near West Park, where most single-family homes are owned by the residents. The implication that affordable housing units will cause a neighborhood to decline relies on a stereotype of people who live in low income housing.
“You’re going to get more blight and modest decline,” Jennings said. “I hate being here objecting to this, but I think it needs to be in a place where you’re not going to have people look across the street and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m getting out of here, because look what they brought in now.’”
As the crowd shuffled uncomfortably in their seats, Jennings continued. “Do you want a bunch of people who are destitute, who are having difficulty, they might have a record, they might have behavioral health issues, they need services, need attention? It takes one problem property to take a block down. It takes one block to take a neighborhood down. It takes one neighborhood to take the city down.”
“Fear of change is a defense mechanism”
The zoning hearing board was not the only place Ripple had to fight for their project. They went back and forth at various city council meetings about funding. Council dangled promises of money for the project before finally giving them $1 million of Allentown’s American Rescue Plan funds in a November 2023 vote.
A year ago, before Ripple applied for zoning board approval and funding, 100 community members joined Ripple to celebrate the project. “When the congregation realized that the original life of the property was coming to an end, and it was time to close the doors of their church, their priority was to continue to see the building serve the community the way that it had for so many years,” said Binder in her testimony. “That’s how they came to be connected to us and make this extraordinary gift.”
The residents opposing Ripple’s project are concerned for their property values, crime, congestion and parking. Parking is the biggest worry on the 15th and Chew St. block, located in the West Park Historic District. “We’re already having issues with parking,“ said Dale Livingston, who spoke on behalf of residents after Jennings. Without a spot, Livingston said residents play musical cars. People on this block are currently using the church parking lot, and without it, 20 neighborhood cars will need to fight for street parking.
“I have a VA disability tag,” Livingston said. “I applied for a handicap parking spot in front of my house. On my block there’s only two. People are inconsiderate and when they can’t find a parking space they park in the handicap space. They don’t care if they get a ticket.”
Using rideshare, public transportation or walking are some of the ways residents can get around without a car, but the city’s walk score is 67, and the transit score is 37, which means people rely on cars as the main form of transportation. Allentown also has major highways allowing people to easily get to New York City and Philadelphia. Day-to-day, people commute to school and work, drive to grocery stores (of which there are few downtown) and recreational places (ones that are not downtown) like Coca-Cola Park, Cedar Beach Park and Pool and Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom.
“The number of vehicles has drastically outgrown the number of available spaces,” said Jon Haney, the interim director of the Allentown Parking Authority. “That’s the burden on neighborhoods and the challenge of the parking authority to try to find ways to mitigate that.” Haney described how the parking authority is looking into new solutions, like redeveloping dilapidated structures or using vacant lots for parking.
These concerns and opposition to affordable housing are not unique to Allentown. In Bethlehem, the First Presbyterian Church is proposing an even bigger project, with over 200 units, and is facing similar pushback. Signs began showing up in First Presbyterian’s neighborhood ranging from “Oppose high density development,” to “What would Jesus do with 32 acres and a housing crisis?” Ripple is a faith-based organization in the Lehigh Valley, where most housing organizations are too, like the Lehigh Conference of Churches that recently opened a drop-in center inside an Easton Housing Authority apartment building.
Churches have been places in communities that help people in need. “We’ve seen a reckoning among communities of faith across many denominations being called to housing as a mission, and seeing it as a way to more align with the needs of the community,” said Sara Satullo, the Bethlehem deputy director of community development.
Affordable housing means something different to everyone; these proposals initially mean change for their homes and neighborhoods. “Fear of change is a defense mechanism,” said Stefanie Sinno, Ph.D., the psychology department chair at Muhlenberg College. “People say, ‘I’m going to control this little bubble’ when really, that control isn’t theirs.”
Residents with strong opposition are a small but vocal population, often driven by a fear that changes in their neighborhoods will impact how they live. It’s commonly referred to as NIMBY or “Not in My Backyard.” Residents feel they need to protect themselves from perceived threats to their suburban way of life. What they fear is upper middle-class regression. “It could certainly be from classism, racism, issues with immigration status that could lead to a misperception of what affordable housing is going to do,” said Sinno.
Natalie Noye, a psychology doctoral student at Immaculata University describes these perceived threats as “a preference or favor to those who are similar,” which causes NIMBYism in neighborhoods with little diversity. Because of ingroup and outgroup bias, people tend to view others “with suspicion or hostility,” Noye said. “Affordable housing is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing, especially for people who have a roof over their head and have stable and comfortable housing.” This mindset won’t work for neighbors when Ripple moves in.
“Extremely low income renters are one financial crisis away from losing their housing”
In the U.S., there is a deficit of 7.3 million affordable and available homes. In Matthew Desmond’s latest book, Poverty, by America, the statistics are straight-forward: Rent has more than doubled over the past two decades, which has risen faster than income. Housing costs have become the fastest growing expense for Americans in the last 50 years.
Living in an affordable home means only paying a third of your income on housing. Anything more than that is considered being cost-burdened. In Pennsylvania, out of 5 million households, 1.3 million are cost-burdened. This is due to the cyclical nature of the rental market, Desmond explains in his book, which discourages renters from trying to buy homes because of bad or no credit, few available mortgages and eviction or criminal records. Housing services that address these issues recognize how people become housing insecure.
For example, people of color are more likely to be evicted and face more barriers for both buying homes and renting. In Allentown, neighborhoods with high home-ownership rates also tend to see less people of color living there.
Housing for previously incarcerated people is also more challenging because of the criminal justice system’s disproportionate effect on marginalized or low income communities. “Extremely low income renters are one financial crisis away from losing their housing,” said Andrew Aurand, senior vice president of research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “We saw it happen during the pandemic. We know it can trigger housing instability.”
People with mental illness are more likely to be unstably housed, and research shows that affordable housing supports recovery and prevents crime. People experience health benefits from stable housing, which limits stressors, especially in children and adolescents at greater risk for developmental problems. Stable housing can also lead to better health outcomes, while substandard housing often exposes residents to long term illnesses like allergies and asthma from lead poisoning or mold; can result in extreme injuries, burns or smoke insulation from dysfunction of appliances or result in use of emergency services.
“Housing is the jumping off point for almost everything,” said Karen Pooley, Ph.D., who teaches urban studies at Lehigh University and previously worked with the city of Allentown and the private urban planning firm czbLLC. “It’s educational success. It’s economic stability. It’s access to opportunity. Everything stems from housing, and housing is a household’s biggest investment.”
Economic instability impacts people differently. “One person might have the support and the resources to figure out how to stabilize their economic instability,” Noye said. “Some people might not have the support or the resources or not know that they have the support or the resources, so then they live with that economic instability, and that stressor remains, which can have long term effects on a person.”
Ripple is working not only to house people who traditionally have been excluded from homeownership and stable renting, but to keep them housed and move them toward greater stability. Their existing affordable housing program, RCI Village, has 88% of people still in stable housing, Binder explained in her testimony.
The affordable housing gap is documented at all levels of income: students, recent graduates, first responders, service workers, and even teachers have trouble securing affordable housing. “Anybody who’s coming out of school looking for an apartment is going to struggle to find affordable housing,” Pooley said. “It’s one of those challenges that’s not only in the margins anymore. This is something everybody is or knows somebody who’s experiencing it.”
Even people with full time jobs still find themselves struggling to stay housed. “A preschool teacher, a single mom of two, has worked at Wesley Methodist Church for 16 years,” Satullo said. “She loves her job, but she’s paying $1,550 a month on rent. She had been working three jobs to be able to make her rent payments and had gotten pretty sick over the winter because she was so rundown from lack of sleep.” Satullo said this teacher feels stuck, because she doesn’t want to leave her job or her house, but something has to give.
Allentown sees this predicament every day. Part time workers in the service industry have even less stability, often relying on tips. In the Lehigh Valley, a full-time worker making minimum wage (which is $7.25 in Pennsylvania), would be able to afford only $377 for rent per month.
“The decisions that we make in the next few years could determine whether or not the problem continues to worsen”
No community in the U.S. has enough housing. Cities like Allentown have begun to encourage developers to create affordable housing through incentives in zoning codes. Trevor Tormann, an Allentown senior planner, is currently working on a project called ZONEAllentown, the first complete rewrite of the zoning code. Tormann explained that the new code prioritizes a building’s physical attributes over what it’s used for. By doing this, a building could be higher if it includes affordable housing for people who make no more than 80% of the area median income.
“It’s a reference document, and so we are talking about the goals of the project,” said Tormann. “One goal is being housing supportive, creating walkable and vibrant neighborhoods. We ask questions: Are we maintaining the character of your neighborhood? Is it going to be green and healthy? Are we attracting employment to the city?” ZONEAllentown is in phase three of the project, presenting the new code to Allentown communities and asking for feedback.
As a region, the Lehigh Valley is thinking holistically about housing and the neighborhood impacts. “We have an opportunity to work together,” Satullo said. “The decisions that we make in the next few years could determine whether or not the problem continues to worsen.”
Less than an hour from the Lehigh Valley, New Jersey’s Mount Laurel Doctrine makes every neighborhood provide its “fair share” of affordable housing, calculated by who lives there. Since its adoption 50 years ago, these zoning practices have been an example of inclusionary zoning, which are often encouraged with incentives.
“While the Mount Laurel Doctrine prevents exclusionary zoning based on income, we know that there is a higher population of people of color who are lower income in the state of New Jersey,” said Alex Staropoli, the managing director of external affairs at Fair Share Housing Center, a nonprofit formed since the doctrine’s founding. In his book, Desmond notes that New Jersey’s property values have not suffered from more affordable housing, which shows how similar cities, like Allentown, could do the same.
“It’s several mutually reinforcing pieces of a puzzle that help ensure that our community members are housed”
When residents’ concerns and community needs are at odds it makes it difficult to build much needed housing. “People worry about what is going to change about their community, not about asking the right questions,” Sinno said. “A more positive response would be to ask who we are offering affordable housing to, why we are doing that and why they need a house.”
Who gets to decide what’s best for a community? As Binder explained, Ripple has the opportunity to not only be a part of the neighborhood, but create spaces to make them better. “We as an organization believe that healthy communities begin with safe spaces,” she said in her testimony. “Our community center is a really important space for people to have extra support.” It’s not as simple as building more houses, but creating and fostering neighborhoods that meet a community’s diverse population.
The proposal emphasized how the office space, community center and medical respite rooms should all be in the same place. “It’s several mutually reinforcing pieces of a puzzle that help ensure that our community members are housed,” Binder said. “And not just housed, but connected to their community, part of the neighborhood, and really successful in maintaining that housing long term.”
Allentown mayor Matt Tuerk said at a recent press conference, “With housing being so critically important, we wanted to make sure we build, recover and regain our strength in the city of Allentown as part of the Lehigh Valley.” In addition to the new Bridgeside Estates, the Allentown Housing Authority sold and rehabilitated two homes last year to low income families with the help of state funding. This homeownership program aims to give more people access to home buying.
First-time home buyer education programs in Allentown especially work with low to moderate income residents, like the one at Community Action Lehigh Valley. “It’s important to educate yourself about home buying even before you start the process,” said Susan Gottwald, director of housing counseling. Gottwald oversees seven yearly seminars in both English and Spanish, working with community partners such as mortgage lenders, realtors, home inspectors, and home insurance agents, who sit on an advisory board.
“The seminar provides a comprehensive overview of the home buying process, with community partners who present the curriculum in the education course,” said Gottwald. Whether you are years or months away from buying a home, Gottwald believes taking the seminar is an important first step. Their foreclosure counseling also prevents people from losing their homes, whether in a crisis like the 2008 crash or now, post-pandemic. “It economically empowers people.”
Despite the pushback, Ripple is moving ahead with their project, although it’s unclear how long it will take to complete. But Binder acknowledges the power in projects like this. “I live in this neighborhood,” Binder shared in her testimony. “I live in this community. My home is my home, of course. But my home is also my neighbors, it’s the people around me, it’s the connections that I have with friends in the community. The same is true for all of our community members, whether or not they currently have a place to call home.”
