Two approaches aim to ease Allentown’s housing crunch
Two newly funded projects in Allentown are taking different tacks to the same problem: how to increase the city’s supply of affordable housing as home prices climb and inventory tightens. One project by the Allentown Housing Authority proposes constructing an affordable single-family home on a vacant city-owned lot off Ridge Avenue; the other is a faith-based effort to convert underused church spaces into housing.
Each proposal received $100,000 from the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) program. The awards were part of a larger $1.45 million funding package announced in June to support housing work across the Lehigh Valley.
Building a prototype on Ridge Avenue
The Allentown Housing Authority plans to use its PHARE grant to begin work on a model affordable home at 228 Ridge Ave., a vacant parcel the authority has owned for some time. The home is intended to serve households earning up to 80% of area median income and to demonstrate that modest, ownership-oriented housing can be developed on small city lots.
Housing Authority Executive Director Julio Guridy framed the project as a response to sharp increases in local home prices. He noted that average home sale prices in the Lehigh Valley have pushed into the mid- to high-five-figure ranges that put ownership out of reach for many working-class families. The Ridge Avenue prototype is intended to be replicable — a template that could be applied to other vacant parcels in the city to expand affordable homeownership opportunities.
Repurposing church property across town
Elsewhere in Allentown, a coalition of churches is exploring whether underused sanctuaries, classrooms and adjacent property can be converted into affordable housing. That project, which also received PHARE funding, asks a different question than the Ridge Avenue plan: rather than building new structures, can existing community spaces be reimagined to provide stable, affordable homes?
Together, the two proposals illustrate two distinct strategies being pursued locally: building on vacant land and reusing existing infrastructure. Both aim to address a common set of challenges facing Allentown residents — limited housing inventory, rising market prices and a long waitlist for public housing services.
- PHARE awards: $100,000 to each Allentown project
- Target households: Ridge Avenue project aims for households at or below 80% AMI
- Strategies: new construction prototype vs. adaptive reuse of church properties
"The goal is to demonstrate that modest, affordable homes can still be built in neighborhoods where homeownership has increasingly slipped out of reach," the housing authority's executive director said.
Local context and potential impact
The Allentown Housing Authority already manages a roster of programs intended to help low- and moderate-income residents, and demand for subsidized housing remains high. At recent public presentations, authority leaders cited long waitlists and ongoing needs for more units and pathways to ownership. The Ridge Avenue effort aims to create a visible example of what affordable homeownership can look like in an urban neighborhood where smaller lots and higher surrounding values can make traditional development costly.
The church coalition’s approach taps into a different kind of resource: existing buildings and community relationships. Adaptive reuse has the potential to create housing while keeping community anchors intact, but it can also present regulatory, design and financing hurdles that developers must navigate.
Both projects will be watched closely by municipal leaders, neighborhood groups and residents who say the city needs more accessible housing options. If the Ridge Avenue house proves economically viable on a small city parcel, it could provide a blueprint for using other vacant lots to expand owner-occupied units. If the church conversions succeed, they could demonstrate how nonprofit and faith-based institutions contribute directly to alleviating housing shortages.
| Project | PHARE grant | Main approach |
|---|---|---|
| 228 Ridge Ave. (Allentown Housing Authority) | $100,000 | New single-family prototype for ownership (≤80% AMI) |
| Church coalition adaptive reuse | $100,000 | Convert underused church spaces into affordable housing |
Both proposals are early-stage efforts funded for planning and initial work; further steps will depend on detailed designs, regulatory approvals and additional financing. For Allentown residents facing tight housing markets, the initiatives represent practical experiments in expanding affordable options through both new construction and creative reuse of existing property.
As the projects advance, city officials and housing advocates say they will be important case studies for how Allentown can deploy limited public resources to produce measurable housing outcomes.
