The CSPA Q&A: State Sen. Frank Farry

After working in municipal government in Middletown Township for over seven years and serving in the Pennsylvania House for seven terms, state Sen. Frank Farry in 2022 was elected to the state Senate, where he now chairs the Urban Affairs & Housing Committee. 

Ahead of his participation in City & State’s Affordable Housing in Pennsylvania Summit, Farry spoke with us about what is being done to combat the housing crisis, what obstacles remain and what to watch for across the state – and at our event.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

What is the Urban Affairs & Housing Committee working on, and what progress have you made when it comes to housing?

We have a lot of different legislation that comes through – funding for certain housing programs and programs relating to landlords/tenants. We passed a first-time homebuyer savings account piece of legislation, which was a very good bill, and we have several pieces of legislation relating to blighted properties that we’ve passed. We have included some county demolition rehabilitation funds for Allegheny County. One thing that we included in the state budget is increasing the historic preservation tax credit from $5 million to $20 million – that is incentivizing developers to take historic properties and redevelop them. We’re two years away from the 250th birthday of this country, and we just took a step forward to help ensure more historic properties are preserved. And I don’t mean preserved to be used as a museum, or “George Washington slept here” preserved – but to actually be utilized. 

There are a lot of redevelopment opportunities out there – we don’t need to be knocking down forests and developing all the farmers’ fields, if you will. A lot of things come with that – there’s demand for services, police, fire, EMS, schools, there’s greater congestion on the road. I will debate you on the affordability of some of these apartments when the rents are $3,000 a month, more than some people’s mortgages. But if we can reach blighted properties or properties in need of redeveloping, we can incentivize or provide the tools to the county or to the municipality, especially in a public-private partnership where they can work with developers.

What are some of the biggest obstacles when it comes to solving this crisis? 

What I’m hearing where I live is that affordability is complicated by three things: the cost of housing, interest rates and property taxes. You have a crisis of housing stock, you have a crisis of affordability, and developers are gonna look to develop what they think is best suited, right? I mean, they're also impacted by the high cost and interest rates for their projects. But their project also has to be palatable to the municipalities. 

I think NIMBYism is a huge issue. You know, there’s been a movement to not call it affordable housing and call it workforce housing. But I’m also respectful of people who bought a property in a community now being radically changed; I can understand why people have issues with that. Pennsylvania has some pretty strong private property rights: as long as you’re developing within the zoning permissible for your property, you can build what you want. My recommendation: Work with your local elected officials and figure out what is the right thing for the character of your community. At the end of the day, that developer is not doing it because they want to eat up green space, they're doing it because they want to make some green.

Good planning is important. We have to ensure we have a strong public transit system, coupled with affordable housing and the proper amenities, to attract people to come here to work and to attract job creators to locate their businesses here – all those things work in concert. And we want to make sure that that’s all working because that’s what’s best for Pennsylvania.

What do you want to see more of going forward in order to solve this crisis?

I'd like to see the first-time homebuyers’ bill pass out of the Senate. But you know, I don't know that the silver bullet’s coming from Harrisburg – and I actually don't think there's a silver bullet that’s crafted for this thing. I think the national economy changing is honestly going to be the most impactful, and stabilizing interest rates. 

I spoke at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry last month, and the chamber estimates we’re short 100,000 housing units in the commonwealth. You have to figure out a way to increase the supply, whether it’s incremental, by the redevelopment of a blighted property, or through more comprehensive planning and ensuring that people can put money away so they can afford to buy that first house.

What are you hoping that attendees of the summit take away from your panel? And what are you looking to get out of the event?

I always think it’s good any time people can get together and discuss one of probably the top five issues that are out there, in terms of the needs of our community. I also think it’s good as a policymaker in the commonwealth to have the opportunity to let people know, whether it’s a citizen or a stakeholder, some of the things we have going on in Harrisburg that may end up being helpful to them. All the pieces of legislation we introduce – that didn’t come from rolling around in our own brains, right? A lot of it comes from actually meeting with people and hearing what the issues are, if something’s not working the way it should or if something needs to be updated. So I’m hopeful that there may be something we can all take from it.

City & State’s Affordable Housing in Pennsylvania Summit takes place July 30 at the Doubletree Philadelphia Center City. For more information, including tickets, click here.