Advocating for affordable housing
According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, low-income and extremely low-income households across Pennsylvania cannot afford to pay their rent because there is a shortage of affordable and available rental homes priced for those whose incomes are at or below the poverty line (or 30% of the area median income). With rents consuming more than half their income, many of these households must choose between paying their rent or paying for food or healthcare—often experiencing housing instability such as eviction.
The Partnership’s advocacy agenda serves as an educational tool for our community on the importance of legislative policy and community action in addressing affordable housing and homelessness. Aligned with our organizational goals and guiding principles, our advocacy agenda is designed to support efforts that prevent and end homelessness in our community, and to educate our partners, local businesses, people who have experienced homelessness, and the greater community.
Take Action
Take action through the National Alliance to End Homelessness to advocate for what works. The Alliance provides a tool to help you personalize a message to elected officials to make your voice heard.
Our key areas of focus are on national and local efforts including: investing in affordable housing, emergency solutions, Continuum of Care programs, rental assistance, and substance use and mental health supports. Here’s what you need to know about national, state, and local policies and programs supporting these key areas.
Decriminalizing Homelessness
Housing Not Handcuffs: Housing Not Handcuffs is a national campaign created by the National Homelessness Law Center and the National Coalition for the Homeless to end the criminalization of homelessness and advocate for housing as a human right.
What Communities Need to Know About the Criminalization of Homelessness: The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) is building a nationwide network of advocates working to combat legislation that criminalizes homelessness and attacks best practices like Housing First. Sign up to receive NAEH advocacy alerts.
Supreme Court Case Johnson v. Grants Pass: Help spread awareness about this important case and the ramifications for people experiencing homelessness. Use the social media toolkit on your personal and professional platforms to spread the word.
Take Action
Join the movement and sign on to the Alliance’s statement of principles against the criminalization of homelessness.
Investing in Affordable Housing
Build Back Better Act: Prioritizes critical investments in affordable homes, including in rental assistance, public housing, and the national Housing Trust Fund.
PHARE State Housing Trust Fund: The Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement Fund (PHARE) creates, rehabs, and supports local housing, blight remediation, supportive services, homeownership counseling, and home purchase.
Federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit: Provides tax incentives to encourage developers to create affordable housing through the acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of rental housing targeted to lower-income households.
State Housing Tax Credit: Supports the creation and preservation of affordable housing for families unable to afford decent housing and those who are cost burdened. At least 10% of the tax credits target households with incomes at or below 30% of area median income. The PHFA will administer the state tax credit and are in the process of establishing guidelines and procedures that are similar to those for the federal LIHTC program.
PennHOMES: The PennHOMES program can provide a soft loan to a development that restricts one-half of the PennHOMES assisted units for households with incomes at or below 50 percent of the area’s median income. The remaining PennHOMES assisted units must be restricted for households with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area’s median income. The PHFA administers the PennHOMES loan program.
HOME Investment Partnerships: The Pennsylvania HOME Program is a federally funded program that provides municipalities with grant and loan assistance to expand and preserve the supply of decent and affordable housing for low- and very low-income Pennsylvanians.
Take Action
See the issues the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania is taking up at the state and national levels and how you can take action on affordable housing policy.
Follow the National Low-Income Housing Coalition’s Legislative Action Center to see how you can help advocate for investments that ensure the lowest income renters have an affordable place to call home.
Emergency Solutions
HUD Emergency Solutions Grants Program: Supports street outreach, emergency shelter, homelessness prevention, rapid re-housing assistance, and HMIS; as well as administrative activities
Chester County Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Funds: Support extreme weather emergency shelter (code blue), emergency shelter, case management, and many other critical services.
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG): A federally-funded block grant that provides annual grants on a formula basis to states, cities, and counties to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment, and by expanding economic opportunities, principally for low- and moderate-income persons.
Community Services Block Grant (CSBG): A federally-funded block grant that provides funds to eligible nonprofit community-based organizations or governmental entities that work to ameliorate the causes and conditions of poverty in disadvantaged and low-income communities across Pennsylvania.
Take Action
Read more about how the National Alliance to End Homelessness is working with policymakers to increase funding for homeless assistance programs and how you can help.
Continuum of Care
HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) Program: Promotes community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness; provides funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, and State and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to homeless individuals, families, and communities by homelessness; promotes access to and effect utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families; and optimizes self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing.
Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness (CoC program): Provides guidance, advocacy, and resources to support Chester County’s homeless crisis response system through coordinated entry and a network of partner organizations providing information and referral, outreach and engagement, emergency shelter and temporary housing placements, housing location services, housing resources, stability support services, and case management.
Take Action
Read more about how the National Alliance to End Homelessness advocates for continued investment in the federal Continuum of Care program that helps decrease the number of people experiencing homelessness and how you can help.
Support the Chester County Partnership to End Homelessness and its partners in preventing and ending homelessness in our local communities.
Rental Assistance
HUD Housing Choice Vouchers: Assists very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. The program includes Section 8 Vouchers, Emergency Housing Vouchers, Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Vouchers, Project Based Vouchers and many other rental assistance programs.
Chester County Housing Choice Voucher Program: Provides decent, safe, and affordable housing opportunities for lower income families in privately owned rental units. The program includes Tenant-Based and Project-Based Rental Assistance with a home ownership option for those who meet certain criteria within the rental assistance programs.
Take Action
Follow these advocacy tips from the National Housing Law Project, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, and the National Homelessness Law Center on how to use source of income laws to prevent evictions and increase emergency rental assistance utilization
Substance Use and Mental Health Supports
Pennsylvania SOAR (SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery) Program: Provides access to SSI/SSDI for eligible adults who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and have a mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a co-occurring substance use disorder.
HealthChoices: Provides mental health and drug and alcohol services for Chester County residents who receive Medical Assistance. This managed care program is overseen by the Department of Human Services and its subcontractor, Community Care Behavioral Health Organization. HealthChoices members have a choice of providers throughout the county and the region to receive a full array of treatment options.
Chester County Office of Mental Health: Does not provide direct care, but works with local agencies to provide services and resources for eligible individuals and families as a point of entry for public mental health services.
Chester County Department of Drug and Alcohol Services: Drug and alcohol treatment is available in Chester County regardless of insurance. The department funds several free prevention programs in Chester County, including school-based prevention, community-based prevention, student assistance program (SAP), environmental strategies (such as Project Sticker Shock), community education, and information and referral programs.
Mental Health Court: Provides treatment, support and stability to justice-involved individuals who struggle with Serious and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI). The program offers pretrial diversion (giving successful participants the opportunity to have their charges expunged) or post-conviction (giving successful participants the opportunity to mitigate their exposure at sentencing).
Take Action
Support the advocacy and policy work of the National HealthCare for the Homeless Coalition to improve the health care system, increase access to treatment and care, and educate policymakers and health care providers on the causes and consequences of homelessness.