Stoneleigh Fellow Vincent Reina and his Housing Initiative at Penn colleagues wrote an article for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette identifying five key statewide trends–independent of the COVID-19 pandemic–fueling Pennsylvania’s current housing crisis.
According to Census Pulse data, about 17% of Pennsylvania renters missed rent in June, and a quarter had little or no confidence that they could pay rent in July. In Pittsburgh, this could translate to nearly 20,000 renter households that are unable to pay rent this month.
The consequences of rent delinquency on this scale are enormous. Households that cannot pay rent are forced to pile up arrears and will be at risk for losing their homes when the state eviction moratorium is lifted on Aug. 31. Further, without rent, landlords can’t service their mortgages and will likely face issues paying property taxes.
