Councilman Nathaniel Goodson of Upper Darby Township and PHA
Commissioner/Senior Advisor to the HUD Secretary Estelle
Richman received awards from the Southeastern PA First Suburbs
Project and Building One Pennsylvania.
From the Southeastern
Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project and Building One Pennsylvania:
(Chichester) - Local elected
officials and other community leaders celebrated November 29th an
announcement by U.S. HUD Deputy Secretary Maurice Jones of the
commitment of $500,000 for a demonstration project in southeast
Pennsylvania to reform practices within the Housing Choice Voucher
program that reinforce the concentration of poverty and limit
opportunities for families.
Deputy Secretary Jones made the announcement at an
awards ceremony held by the First Suburbs Project and Building One
Pennsylvania. The development of a regional housing mobility
program is part of the organizations' policy agenda to promote
inclusive, stable and economically prosperous communities.
"One of the most reliable ways of closing the
achievement gap for low-income children is to give them the
opportunity to attend a low-poverty school," said John McKelligott,
chair of Building One Pennsylvania and a former school board
director and president for the William Penn School District. "This
effort begins to recognize the critical role of housing policy in
educational outcomes."
Research shows that 89% of housing choice vouchers
allocated in the southeastern Pennsylvania suburbs are used in only
a handful of communities - all of them fiscally challenged.
"This program will provide dollars to open up new
opportunities for people seeking good places to live and work,"
said Marlon Millner, a Norristown councilmember and board member of
the First Suburbs Project. "At the same time, Norristown and the
Norristown Area School District, which serve almost half of the
county's entire housing choice voucher population, can focus on
stabilizing our community and creating more opportunity in the
future."
The goals of the housing mobility program are:
-
To recruit new landlords and open up rental housing in higher
opportunity towns to very low-income families who are effectively
excluded by HUD's current rent ceilings for housing vouchers (data
on school achievement and local employment availability is used to
define "high", "medium" and "low" opportunity towns);
- To give families the information and assistance they need to
make better housing choices;
- To stabilize fiscally challenged towns with declining job
markets and struggling schools in which very low-income families
are increasingly concentrated by HUD's current housing choice
voucher practices.
Approximately 200 local leaders attended the award
ceremony to honor several leaders who were instrumental in
advancing the housing mobility program, including U.S.
Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.; Rev. Marlon
Millner, Norristown Municipal Council and McKinley
Memorial Baptist Church; Isaac Dotson, Yeadon
Economic Development Corporation; and
Tom Gemmill, St. James Episcopal Church,
Lancaster. Accepting an award on behalf of HUD was Estelle
Richman, Senior Advisor to the Secretary.
Additionally, U.S. Congressman Patrick Meehan was
recognized for his leadership on the recently enacted federal
transportation bill, which he supported as a means of repairing our
infrastructure, creating jobs and making our regions more desirable
to private investment.
"This is a promising beginning for our effort to
coordinate housing, schools, transportation and infrastructure
investments in a manner that supports diverse, inclusive and stable
middle-class communities," said McKelligott.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project
and Building One Pennsylvania are comprised of local elected, faith
and civic leaders who have joined together to stabilize and
revitalize their communities, reinvigorate local economies and
promote regional opportunity and sustainability.