Siger pitches preview of Shapiro administration's new state housing action plan as a "blueprint for action"

By Tim Schooley – Reporter, Pittsburgh Business Times, May 16, 2025

Story Highlights:

- Gov. Josh Shapiro proposes $50 million for housing restoration and $10 million for affordable housing.
- Pennsylvania needs 690,000 new housing units by 2040.
- Action Housing aims to generate $128 million for affordable housing projects.

The administration of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro proposes to add a $50 million fund for housing stock restoration and to add $10 million to the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability Fund as two major planks of its new Housing Action Plan for the commonwealth.

The basic outline of the governor’s new plan was presented as a preview by Rick Siger, secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development, at the annual meeting of affordable housing nonprofit Action Housing at the Omni William Penn hotel downtown.

“This is really a blueprint for action,” Siger told a packed banquet room for Action Housing, an organization very active at the moment pursuing a host of new affordable housing projects throughout the region.

The need for housing in the region, state and country has become a nagging topic as home production nationwide has largely failed to catch up to demand in the aftermath of the mortgage crisis of the Great Recession.

Lena Andrews, in her first year as CEO of Action Housing, provided some basic benchmarks of the housing crisis both local and national, citing research that the United States is short 7.1 million homes nationwide.

She added that 47% of renters in the City of Pittsburgh are cost burdened, which is defined as paying more than 30% of their household income on housing.

Action Housing is active with projects of its own to help ease the shortage, currently engaged in development or preserving 490,000 square feet of space for affordable housing, which translates to 460 units.

She told the assembled audience of construction professionals and affordable housing development executives and others that Action Housing is on track to generate $128 million in public and private dollars for its various projects and needs at an institution that owns upwards of 2,000 affordable apartments in 47 buildings throughout the region.

She noted the challenge. “Affordable housing is expensive to build and to operate,” she said. “It’s a challenging time.”

After a brief video address by Shapiro emphasizing his housing priorities, Siger provided an outline of the core policy approaches as well as the time frame in which the administration is working to move forward with its new Housing Action Plan.

According to Siger, Pennsylvania is expected to need 690,000 new housing units by the year 2040, which will require an increase in production pace of the 400,000 homes currently expected to be delivered in the state by then.

Emphasizing a need to meet housing demand of all kinds and price ranges, including affordable, he detailed a priority to help to provide funds for maintaining and upgrading established homes, noting that 25% of the homes in Pennsylvania were built before 1940. A $50 million fund allocation is proposed in the new state budget, with specifics on how the funding would be distributed still to be detailed.

A $10 million increase in funding for PHARE would come on top of previous increases that raised it by $40 million in previous years. This program has become increasingly essential in Pittsburgh for distributing Low Income Housing Tax Credits. A $5 million fund is also proposed to support first-time homebuyers in overcoming the initial cost challenges that come with home ownership.

The Shapiro administration also proposes funding and administrative support to help local municipalities overcome their planning and permitting challenges and snags, as well as cross-agency support to help the homeless in communities throughout the state.

Siger emphasized the implementation process includes getting the housing priorities passed in the new state budget this summer and to complete the action plan itself by mid-September, moving on to implementation by the end of the year.

He emphasized housing is a key priority for the Shapiro administration.

“It really is a big economic challenge for our state,” he said.

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