— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
The City of Bethlehem is going to talk even more about “affordable housing.”
Talk, talk, talk, but dinner will be served, so perhaps this is worth a stop.
“Join the City of Bethlehem and our partners for an update on efforts to make housing more affordable for us all. Dinner provided!” the city proclaims on Facebook.
Perhaps a first step would have been not raising property taxes.
I actually read the city’s 92-page report — which is a kind word for it — on a “housing strategy” earlier this year. I read these things so you don’t have to.
I reached page 86, which finally got to what the City of Bethlehem can’t do because the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code sets the rules.
The city can’t require developers to set aside units for low-income people, nor can it control rent, or even compel mediation before tenants are evicted.
People suggested these things, and no doubt will continue to, but it makes no difference. The city can’t do it. The report should have led with that, rather than hiding it at the end.
What city government can do is … talk. And then talk some more.
I asked a city official in February about the point of all this and was told Bethlehem will work with the state to promote its policies.
Good luck with that.
As for this event, who knows what may come of it? Will the usual people gather, indulge in “brainstorming” and magical thinking, go home happy, peppy and charged up, and then nothing happens?
The reality is, the city can’t do much about housing costs beyond keeping taxes down.
Affordable housing means many things, but the federal government says housing should cost 30% or less of income to be deemed affordable.
The old-fashioned way to achieve that was to work for more income and accept reality until then, by living with family or sharing a place.
Now, wishful do-gooders are encouraging people to think that the government will step in. It rarely does, because people who are already paying rent or a mortgage or for home maintenance do not want to pay for others’ housing. It’s that simple.
See the city’s Facebook page for details. The event Thursday will be at Northampton Community College’s South Bethlehem branch, 511 E. Third St. Look for Room 605.
Doors open at 6 p.m. The event is at 6:30 p.m.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 