By RACHEL RAVINA | rravina@thereporteronline.com | The Reporter
BRYN MAWR — Montgomery County’s homelessness situation and apparent lack of affordable housing is grave.
These topics were the focal point of a conference that took place Monday at Bryn Mawr College. Hosted by the HealthSpark Foundation, of Lansdale, the conference, “Meeting the Moment: Taking Action on Homelessness and Affordable Housing in Montgomery County” brought 250 people together with a vested interest in addressing the issues and brainstorming possible solutions.
Advocates, developers, elected leaders, first responders, government officials, and nonprofit executives were among those in attendance.
“Montgomery County is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis,” said Kayleigh Silver, administrator of the Montgomery County Office of Housing and Community Development.
Around “one-third of our residents are struggling to afford where they live,” Silver said during a panel discussion.
Factors in housing crisis
Rising rents, interest rates, housing costs, and increases to overall cost of living have been contributing factors to the problem over the past few years, said HealthSpark Foundation President and CEO Emma Hertz.
“In Montgomery County, historically affordable communities like Schwenksville, Hatfield and Pottsgrove … have seen rents and home (prices) increase by over 200 percent in some communities since 2019,” Hertz said.
Locally, around 74,000 households “live above the poverty line but below what it actually costs to live in Montgomery County,” Hertz said, noting those making between $45,000 and $75,000 are considered the “largest growing cohort of housing unstable families.”
Silver added that 20 percent of Montgomery County homeowners are considered “cost burdened,” while 47 percent of renters pay more than 30 percent of their income to rent.
“We are at a crisis of housing affordability, and more and more people are feeling that strain and that burden,” Silver said.
Eviction rate rising
Evictions are also on the rise, with 22 evictions per day reported in Montgomery County — the third highest eviction rate in Pennsylvania.
“I think what’s happening in Montgomery County is more acute, simply because you have more population and you have more urban density,” said Stacie Reidenbaugh, president and CEO of 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, a bipartisan advocacy organization based in Harrisburg.
The group strives to find land use solutions, focusing on breaking down barriers and working to implement more inclusionary zoning practices, some of which Reidenbaugh said could be useful here in Montgomery County.
“This is not a Republican issue, this is not a Democrat issue, this is an everyone issue,” Reidenbaugh said.
‘A very concerning story’
Montgomery County’s growing population of homeless was a topic of conversation during the Feb. 12 conference.
“How did we get here? In one of the wealthiest counties in the state, how does that happen?” Hertz said.
Officials have long attributed factors to the area’s uptick in homelessness, including the COVID-19 pandemic, effects from the remnants of Hurricane Ida back in 2021, increasing cost of living, and lack of affordable housing stock.
