For 21 years STEP has been offering programs to assist county homeowners who might have found themselves in need of help to remain in their homes.
At their meeting this week, the Lycoming County Commissioners approved three subrecipient agreements which will help fund those STEP programs.
The STEP 2024-25 PHARE (Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement ) Subrecipient grant agreements approved will support STEP’s Homes in Need/Urgent Need for $200,000; Master Leasing for $150,000; and Supportive Housing for $175,000.
“The PHARE legislation was actually something that Lycoming County had a lot to do with back when it was originally done, and it really did help…bring new investment to a program that Lycoming County Commissioners started in 2005 and so we are in our 21st year of offering the Homes in Need Program and Urgent Need Program in Lycoming County,” said Rachelle Abbott, STEP’s president and CEO, who spoke at the meeting.
Abbott explained that the programs are intended to help support low to moderate income homeowners with repairs, energy efficiency, co-deficiencies and accessibility modifications.
“(It) really is focused on the home and ensuring that it stays on the tax rolls,” Abbott said.
“Over the long term, we’ve supported 355 households…$4.5 million in the last 20 years were invested into the homes. An additional $2 million were leveraged through other funding that was received,” she said, adding, “The homes in need program is extremely important.”
The urgent need program focuses on more immediate needs. There are currently 682 county homeowners on a waiting list for the program, she noted.
“The thing that’s incredible is that Lycoming County is extremely well suited with the governor’s housing action plan, because we already have programs like this and like the housing support programs, which are what they want to see on a county level, so that they can provide more investment into them,” Abbott said.
“The funds that are leveraged through the PHARE dollars are extremely impactful within our community. We leverage the weatherization dollars, NAP (Neighborhood Assistance Program) funds are leveraged both for the homes in need, in terms of the housing piece, but then also the housing support programs,” she added.
The supportive housing and the master leasing programs also address specific housing needs in the county.
“STEP started the supportive housing program in 2016 with assistance from the county as directed by the county and then the master leasing program STEP took over in 2024,” Abbott said.
The supportive housing program is specific to individuals who are in a crisis, she explained such as those who have experienced an illness diagnosis, car accident or the death of a spouse.
“Those are the individuals that we are looking to–those individuals that can’t pay their housing costs right now because of that incident, and then we help to support them through that gap until they’re back to self-sufficiency,” she said.
“So that is key. Really, none of our programs are handouts. They all are very specific to ensuring people are self-sufficient in the end. And so that program is super critical for many of the individuals within our community,” she said.
Abbott pointed out that the master leasing program supports individuals that are homeless and helps build relationships with the landlords.
“We get a lot of referrals from the prison system and from JPO (Juvenile Probation Office) and other individuals. And so we work with them. It’s a very small number, like six or seven a year. And then we work with them as the lessee, and then we build the relationship to teach them essentially how to be a tenant, how to gain income. Many of the individuals that are homeless in our community actually do have jobs. So they are getting an income.
“They just can’t get the amount that the rent is within our community. And so we help them with budgeting. We help them, oftentimes, get new jobs. And then in some cases, we actually work with the housing authority,” she said.
“Over the last three years in Lycoming County, we’ve had 1,175 referrals for the housing support programs; 264 of those applications were reviewed; and then of those, 136 were enrolled, and 130 of them were able to maintain long term sustainability. The six that did not complete those programs had to either move out of the area or we had to help them move in with someone else, because they just mentally couldn’t handle living on their own,” she said.
