HUB Is Home: Affordable housing for homeless veterans opens in Harrisburg

July 10, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

The ribbon is cut at the new HUB Veteran Housing Campus.

There’s a lot to like about Harrisburg’s newest apartment complex, which opened on Tuesday with 20 affordable units exclusively for homeless veterans.

Not only did the project rehabilitate vacant and blighted buildings at 5th and Kelker streets, but much of it was built by ex-offenders re-entering the workforce after incarceration.

Tarik Casteel, the president of TLC Work-Based Training, said that the completion of the Harrisburg Uptown Building (HUB) and the HUB Veteran Housing Campus represents a huge success for the city’s minority trades workforce, its veterans and its re-entrant population.

“I’m so overwhelmed today,” said an emotional Casteel, who spearheaded the project with his aunt, Juanita Edrington-Grant, director of the nonprofit Christian Recovery Aftercare Ministry (CRAM). “This is the first veteran housing complex in Harrisburg that I know of that’s built by minorities and ex-offenders.”

A construction contractor and Harrisburg High School graduate, Casteel himself was incarcerated on three occasions. He founded TLC Construction and Renovations and its nonprofit arm, TLC Work-Based Training, after serving time in the state penitentiary.

The nonprofit runs a certified trades apprenticeship program for former prisoners.

The HUB complex marks TLC’s first major undertaking as a property developer. The $5.3 million project was made possible by tax credits from the Pennsylvania Housing and Finance Agency (PHFA), one of the first-ever grants in its minority developer tax credit awards program.

PHFA Executive Director and CEO Brian Hudson said it’s unusual for a project to receive a tax credit award on its first application, as HUB did. But the veteran housing project hit all of PHFA’s award criteria, such as targeting an underserved population and investing in a low-income location.

In addition to creating 20 one-bedroom apartments for veterans, the project also razed a blighted structure to build the HUB office building on an adjacent lot. Many of the suites in the HUB will be occupied by minority-owned businesses and nonprofits, including TLC, CRAM and the Pennsylvania Diversity Coalition.

Casteel also touted the high level of minority business participation in the project. He said that 33 percent of the labor on the apartment building was from the local labor force, and 25 percent was from minority contractors.

At the adjacent office building, minority participation rose to 82 percent, he said.

State and local officials appeared at HUB’s ribbon cutting today, where many hailed it as a model for inclusive, responsible development.

“If we keep supporting our ex-offender population and breaking down stereotypes, look what can happen,” said Harrisburg’s state Rep. Patty Kim.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse said that the new campus “turned an eyesore into a source of community pride.” He heaped praise on Casteel, Edrington-Grant and Hudson, but also issued a warning.

The mayor said that development in the city will be stifled if the state legislature does not grant Harrisburg special tax provisions and allow it to exit Act 47, a state-run financial oversight program.

A recent report from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development proposes doubling property taxes in the city over three years if the legislature does not act.

Papenfuse and Kim both agree that the proposal would devastate developers and property owners in the city.

The mayor’s comments were followed by a jubilant ribbon cutting. Homeless veterans began moving into the HUB apartments at 1 p.m. today.

“Dead On Arrival”: Harrisburg mayor, state representative reject, vow to fight proposal to double city property taxes.

July 10, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg city hall

A proposal to raise Harrisburg’s property taxes by 105 percent over three years would lead the city into financial ruin and “state-assisted suicide,” Mayor Eric Papenfuse said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after a ribbon cutting for a building in Uptown Harrisburg, Papenfuse said that he would not support the enormous property tax increases that the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) proposed in a report issued yesterday.

The tax hikes were one of the measures that DCED said could help Harrisburg ease its exit from Act 47, a state-run financial oversight program. The proposed increases would affect only the city portion of a property owner’s total property tax burden.

Papenfuse and state Rep. Patty Kim said that the proposal would burden constituents and stifle growth in the city. They agree that Harrisburg can’t afford to lose the $11.8 million in revenue that the city generates under Act 47.

The oversight program enabled Harrisburg City Council to double the earned income tax (EIT) in 2012 and triple the local services tax (LST) in 2016. Unless state law changes, the city will have to lower those tax rates when it leaves Act 47 in 2022.

Kim is co-sponsoring a bill with Republican Rep. Greg Rothman that would codify Harrisburg’s current tax rates, allowing it to leave Act 47 and regain financial independence.

The bill measure would eliminate the longstanding structural deficit that plagued the city before it entered Act 47 – the result of Harrisburg’s small, largely impoverished tax base supporting large swaths of tax-exempt property.

“We can say it until we’re blue in the face, but it’s true,” Kim said. “How can you survive when 50 percent of your tax base is tax-exempt and 30,000 commuters come into the city every day?”

The local services tax, in particular, is essential to Harrisburg’s financial future, Papenfuse said, because it taps revenue from the city’s large commuter class. Property tax hikes would shift the burden of funding the capital city back on to its 49,000 residents, a large portion of whom live at or below the poverty line.

Kim, who served on City Council for seven years, called DCED’s exit plan “dead on arrival.”

Combined with anticipated hikes in Harrisburg’s water/sewer rates and school taxes, property tax increases would likely drive out existing residents, she said.

“Nobody would come to Harrisburg,” Kim said.

Papenfuse said that the state legislature will have 10 working days to pass Harrisburg’s tax provision in September, since council must approve a final recovery plan late that month. He said he would veto any plan that raises property taxes.

If the state fails to act, the mayor believes that the city could find recourse through the state judiciary.

The LST and EIT increases were approved by Commonwealth Court rulings, and Papenfuse said that a judge may uphold the current rates if the city could prove that public safety was in jeopardy.

Among DCED’s proposals for limiting Harrisburg’s expenditures was the consolidation of the Harrisburg Police Bureau into a regional police force. The exit plan also says that the city will unlikely be able to hire new police officers over the next three years.

Papenfuse said both those proposals are untenable, given a lack of regional cooperation and the city’s already-low levels of police manpower.

The mayor also rejected the option of adopting a Home Rule charter, which would allow the city to set its own tax rates. Papenfuse does not believe it would succeed in Harrisburg, or that the city would pass a charter in time to avoid an Act 47 exit plan.

Home Rule would also not allow the city to keep its current LST rate. Home Rule charters only set tax rates for residents of a home rule municipality, but the LST is paid by commuters as well as residents.

Papenfuse urged Harrisburg residents and property owners to comment on the DCED plan through July 24.

“We’d like everyone to say that the plan doesn’t work and we need legislative change,” he said.

Written comments can be submitted through the city website, and residents can also offer oral comments in a public hearing on July 24.

State recommends doubling property tax, reducing income and services tax to ease Act 47 exit.

July 9, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

If you winced when the Harrisburg school district levied a 3.6 percent tax hike in June, you may want to sit down for this.

Real estate taxes in Harrisburg city could increase by 105 percent over the next three years, if recommendations in a financial recovery plan submitted to city officials last evening come to pass.

The state Department of Community and Economic Development yesterday published Harrisburg’s Act 47 exit plan, a report intended to guide the city through the next three years in the state financial oversight program.

The plan, which was prepared by Harrisburg’s Act 47 coordinator Marita Kelley, calls for Harrisburg to restructure its revenue sources to align with tax rates set forth in the state code.

Act 47 has granted Harrisburg extraordinary taxing power that generates $11 million in revenue each year. The city doubled its earned income tax (EIT) rate in 2015 and tripled its local services tax (LST) in 2016.

Unless state laws change, Harrisburg would lose that revenue when it exits Act 47 in 2022.

To avoid facing a fiscal cliff, Kelley recommends that the city gradually surrender its extraordinary taxing authority and replace its EIT and LST revenue with real estate tax revenue over the next three years.

The exit plan calls for a complete reversal of the LST and EIT hikes by 2021. Simultaneously, Harrisburg would levy 20-percent real estate tax hikes for two consecutive years, followed by a 42 percent raise in 2021.

Harrisburg property owners pay taxes to three separate taxing jurisdictions: the city, the school district and Dauphin County. The hikes recommended today would only affect the city property tax.

Meanwhile, under the plan, bills for the city’s EIT and LST would decrease.

Kelley recommends reducing the EIT by .5 percent in 2019 and 2020, offsetting the 1 percent hike that City Council levied in 2015. The plan also calls for the city to reduce its LST by $52 for the next two years, bringing it down to a $52 annual, flat rate by 2022.

The astronomical real estate tax hikes still wouldn’t bring in as much revenue as the current LST and EIT rates. Budget projections in the exit plan call on the city to spend more than $13 million from its fund balance to mitigate annual deficits.

The plan makes clear that Harrisburg can’t afford any new expenditures. Kelley outlined initiatives the city could make to curb spending, such as paying down debt obligations, renegotiating existing loans, adopting financial management policies to improve the city’s credit rating, and developing a five-year capital improvement plan to prioritize its infrastructure improvement projects.

The plan calls for the city to adopt a more stringent hiring process, but does not advise a full hiring freeze like the one that Mayor Eric Papenfuse recently implemented.

It did, however, recommend against hiring more personnel in the city’s police department.

“The most pressing issue confronting the police bureau is sworn staffing shortages,” the plan reads. “Given the limited financial resources available through the exit process, it is unlikely that additional personnel can be hired. The city should fully evaluate more opportunities to more efficiently deploy existing personnel.”

To that end, Kelley calls for a staffing and shift study to enhance efficiency and reduce expenses in the city’s police force. She also suggests that Harrisburg could reduce its forensic staff and outsource some work to the Dauphin County forensic investigation team.

The city does have potential to find revenue in one of its emergency services. Staffing levels in the Harrisburg Fire Bureau have stabilized while other municipalities struggle to find firefighters, the report says. Harrisburg could generate revenue by extending fire-service agreements to its neighbors.

The city currently collects $5 million each year from the Pennsylvania legislature for offering emergency services to state office buildings and the Capitol complex.

Harrisburg does have two paths to avoid the real estate tax hikes. It could adopt a Home Rule charter, which would allow it to write its own tax code. Harrisburg would have to form a government study commission to initiate the home rule process.

The city can also ask the legislature to let it levy its current LST and EIT tax rates in perpetuity. City officials have been lobbying lawmakers for months in hopes of securing legislative change. In January, Papenfuse signed a 12-month, $60,000 contract with Maverick Strategies, a local lobbying firm, for that purpose.

Efforts to secure legislative change blew up in June, when a special taxing provision for Harrisburg failed to make it into the legislature’s final votes before summer recess.

If the legislature does pass special tax provisions for Harrisburg when it reconvenes in September, the city could exit Act 47 and maintain its current taxing authority.

If the state fails to act, the city would enter its 2019 budget cycle under the assumptions set forth in DCED’s recovery plan.

DCED will accept written comments on the exit plan until July 24. Written comments must be submitted to Kelley’s office at 400 North St., Harrisburg. Kelley will preside over a public hearing on July 24 to hear oral comments.

After the public hearing, Kelley has 10 days to file a final exit plan. City Council then has 45 days to adopt it as an ordinance.

Papenfuse declined immediate comment on the report. However, he has said previously that he could not foresee council approving a steep increase in the city’s property tax and that a mandate to do so likely would lead Harrisburg back into state receivership.

Click here to read the report.

July 10: The Department of Community and Economic Development issued the following statement in response to this story: “The recovery coordinator believes the significant property tax proposed in the Act 47 Exit Plan should be considered as a last option. As stated in the Exit Plan, the city should first explore reducing costs and renegotiating deals, entering into a home rule charter, and negotiating with the state legislature to extend the deadline for collecting the LST and EIT.”

This version has been corrected from an earlier version of the story, which did not take into account the city’s split tax rate for land and improvements.

Burg Blog: The Worst

July 5, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

About the only place you’ll find Scott Wagner’s face in Harrisburg–on a sign across the street from the state Capitol.

Who’s the worst person in Harrisburg?

I can name a few candidates.

In March, someone shot up the area outside Double D’s. That’s pretty bad.

How about the guy who, in May, was caught on video kicking his dog on Front Street? Also bad.

Heck, that fake student Artur Samarin made a return to the spotlight lately. Years of bad behavior right there.

According to the state Democratic Party, though, the worst person in Harrisburg is none of these. That dubious distinction goes to former state Sen. Scott Wagner, the GOP’s nominee for governor. In fact, there’s a whole campaign called, “Scott Wagner: The Worst of Harrisburg.”

Which I find bizarre. Not only is Wagner not of Harrisburg (he’s of York County), but, unless you travel in the rather specific circles of state politics or solid waste, you never see Scott Wagner or hear much about him here.

Yes, yes, I know. When the Dems say, “Harrisburg,” they don’t actually mean Harrisburg, as in the city. They mean “Harrisburg,” as in the dysfunctional state of government.

Then, I humbly suggest, they should say what they mean.

During the many years I lived in Washington, D.C., nothing irked me more than politicians who “ran against Washington.” Oh, that Washington is a horrible, horrible place. Please, voters of [insert name of distant state or congressional district here], send me back there!

And they would, like sheep. And nothing ever changed in Washington.

Now that I live in Harrisburg, I feel the same way. I don’t like politicians and their operatives using the name of my city as a pejorative, especially when they’re the ones who are responsible for the very gridlock, pettiness, bickering and dysfunction that they decry.

Visiting other parts of Pennsylvania, I’ve had people ask me, with a cynical tone, “So, how’re things in Harrisburg, huh?”

And I begin to tell them about Act 47 or our combined sewer system, knowing perfectly well that’s not what they mean.

So, now I will make an appeal that I’m pretty sure will fall on deaf ears.

Politicians: Please stop saying, “Harrisburg” when you actually mean the place where you all work. If you mean the state Capitol or the legislature—you know, that cursed, godforsaken place where your office is, where you all want to return come Nov. 6—say that. Don’t use the H-word. Here in Harrisburg, we have enough problems without you people dragging us into your bizarre, alternative world of political dysfunction.

Today, I received a press release from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, itself based in Harrisburg, entitled, “John Fetterman To Denounce Scott Wagner As The Very Worst Of Harrisburg.”

“Democratic Lieutenant Governor nominee John Fetterman will call Wagner out for what he really is—the very worst of Harrisburg,” says the release.

Yikes—you too, John?

Are you sure you don’t want to talk about our combined sewer system? It really is pretty bad.

Lawrance Binda is editor-in-chief of TheBurg.

Weekend Roundup with Sara Bozich

July 5, 2018 | by Sara Bozich

Happy Holiday Weekend!

I never do this, but since I skipped last week’s Weekend Roundup (sick baby on vacation = no fun), let’s kick this one off a day early.

My husband is fresh from neck surgery(!), so we’re laying low for a bit. Wishing you all a long, relaxing, safe weekend.

What are you doing this weekend?

(more…)

Council Roundup: HBG council passes sanitation, funding measures before summer recess.

July 3, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Harrisburg City Council at tonight’s legislative session.

Harrisburg City Council passed new sanitation laws and disbursed more than $2 million in federal grant funds on Tuesday night before adjourning for summer recess.

Over the course of a four-hour meeting, council made sweeping changes to laws governing trash and recycling collection violations in the city. The city’s new sanitation code establishes harsher fines and new enforcement powers, effective immediately.

Despite the lobbying of the city treasurer, council members rejected a provision that would have inaugurated annual trash billing. The city will continue to send homeowners and businesses monthly bills for trash services.

Treasurer Dan Miller said tonight that the proposed billing structure would save the city thousands of dollars in labor costs and increase its collection rate. But Councilman Westburn Majors, chair of the public works committee, said that many residents objected to the provision at public hearings.

Under the annual billing system, residents would have been billed their annual trash collection fee – more than $400 per household – at the beginning of each year. Residents could pay in one lump sum or pay monthly installments via direct deposit from their bank accounts.

Majors said that some residents were worried about the upfront costs of the annual payment or objected to sharing banking information with the city. The provision also did not subject commercial accounts to the same annual billing practice, he said.

“The goal is to treat residents and commercial property owners the same,” Majors said.

Under the new ordinance, owners of vacant properties will no longer be billed for trash services at those parcels. Council added an amendment tonight requiring all vacant property owners to apply for a vacant property exemption, which will be valid for one year pending approval from the city’s Department of Public Works.

The hallmark of the new sanitation code is a new fine and enforcement structure, aimed at curbing illegal trash disposal across the city.

Under the new ordinance, serious offenses – including illegal dumping, accumulation of trash exceeding 1,000 pounds, improper waste disposal and failure to register as a private trash hauler – are considered category 1 violations, punishable by a $1,000 fine or up to 90 days in jail.

Category 2 violations include failure to bag waste, obstruction of streets and sidewalks or interference with enforcement and will be met with fines starting at $100. Fines will increase up to $500 for each subsequent offense.

The ordinance also permits the Public Works Department to designate enforcement officers to patrol public streets for violations, and it authorizes police officers to issue citations and enforce the ordinance.

Council also voted to disburse $2 million in funds from the Community Development Block Grant, a program of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

More than a dozen local nonprofits and city departments will receive grants ranging from $5,000 to $300,000.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse vetoed the allocations that council passed last week. He objected to a last-minute amendment granting $15,000 to Breaking the Chainz, an eligible organization that submitted an incomplete application.

Rather than override his veto, council tonight struck down that amendment and reverted back to the awards proposed by the city’s administration weeks ago. These are:

Christian Recovery Aftercare Ministries (C.R.A.M.): $40,000
TLC Work Based Training: $45,000
A Miracle 4 Sure: $50,000
Latino Hispanic Community Center: $25,000
Fair Housing Council: $25,000
PPL/IN HOUSE: $20,000
Shades of Greatness: $15,000
Heinz-Menaker Senior Center: $25,000
Neighborhood Dispute Settlement: $5,000
TriCounty HDC: $250,000
Habitat for Humanity: $100,000
Housing Rehabilitation Programs (city-run): $321,642

More than $600,000 of the $2 million grant will go to debt service, and $400,000 will reimburse the city for CDBG administration.

Council also approved a new, five-year labor contract with the city’s firefighters tonight, which will lock in 2-percent annual wage increases and establish a new policy to increase retention. Under the new contract, any firefighter who resigns from the city within that five-year period must reimburse the Fire Bureau $5,000 in training costs.

Lastly, council passed a resolution reestablishing Harrisburg’s Environmental Advocacy Council, a seven-member body that will be filled by appointments by council and the mayor’s office.

City council is not scheduled to meet again until Aug. 29. However, it may have to convene a special session once the city receives its Act 47 exit report from the state Department of Community and Economic Development on July 9.

Wheel Good Health: Cora rolls into town & healthy living follows

July 3, 2018 | by Yaasmeen Piper

Cora arrives at the PA state Capitol in Harrisburg.

“Our goal is to be where the community is.”

So said Darlene Demore, director of regulatory communications for the health insurance company, Aetna, from the back of a 38-foot RV known as Cora.

“We are Aetna Cares,” she said. “We go where the people are.”

Cora is a mobile health clinic, a joint project between Aetna and the marketing/communications firm, Latino Connection. Together, they are taking good health on the road, traveling throughout central PA and the entire commonwealth.

When first stepping into the RV, guests are greeted by a smoothie bar stocked with fresh fruit. To the right is a Wii setup for “Dance Dance Revolution,” “Guitar Hero” and other interactive games. Toward the back of the vehicle is a sitting area with four pairs of virtual reality goggles.

Outside of Cora is a bio-measuring machine. In less than a minute, the machine produces a ticket with with your height, weight, body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage, as well as your ideal weight and BMI.

“We’re just educating people on how to take better care of their health in a fun and approachable way,” Demore said. “We want to help remove any kind of barriers that stop people from being the best that they can be.”

The name Cora stems from the word “corazon,” meaning heart in Spanish. According to George Fernandez, Latino Connection’s CEO, the name reflects Aetna’s commitment to the health of the community.

“I knew I wanted to name [the RV] something people can relate to,” he said. “This is a way for Aetna to engage not only their members but the community at large.”

The idea of Cora came from Jason Rottman, CEO of Aetna Better Health of Pennsylvania, who wanted the company to bring a healthy experience to the community. That idea grew into a smoothie bar, which grew even further to become the 38-foot vehicle people visit today.

Cora debuted in early June in Lebanon. Today, less than a month later, more than 5,000 people have visited Cora, with more than 1,000 BMIs measured.

“The BMI machine has been very successful,” Demore said. “It’s something about seeing that number on paper that motivates you.”

Fernandez recalled the time that Cora was able to engage a child with autism.

“He was having a bad day,” he said. “It was super hot outside, and he was having sort of a flare up moment where he wanted to just go home. The parents were actually leaving, and a volunteer helped them to come aboard Cora and told them about Cora’s experience.”

In just a few minutes, the child did not want to leave.

“He stayed on for about 45 minutes, a little bit longer than someone who typically comes aboard Cora,” Fernandez said smiling. “But it made his day, and it made his family’s day.”

Cora is at the “Welcome America” festival in Philadelphia until July 4. The event is estimated to bring in over 250,000 people over the course of three days.

Cora has an additional 50-plus stops scheduled until mid-December. Demore is hoping to expand Cora’s stops for another year and add new features such as dental screenings and blood pressure and glucose checks.

“If we can help one person or a million people, it doesn’t matter,” Demore said. “Even if we make one person make a change in their life, one healthy change or have one moment where they think, ‘Maybe I can do this.’ That’s golden.”

To find out where Cora will be next, visit https://aet.na/betterhealthpa

Another Loss: Long-time owner gets OK to demo 2 blighted buildings in downtown Harrisburg

July 3, 2018 | by Lawrance Binda

HARB last night gave permission to raze these two buildings in downtown Harrisburg.

Another slice of historic Harrisburg seems fated for the wrecking ball, as a long-time property owner has received permission to raze two small downtown buildings.

By a 4-1 count, the Harrisburg Architectural Review Board (HARB) last night voted to allow retired area attorney Gilbert Petrina to demolish 512 and 514 N. 2^nd St., a commercial building and an apartment building, respectively, that he has owned for at least 35 years.

Petrina’s son, Gilbert Petrina Jr., attended the meeting, saying that his father, who is in his 80s, was too ill to attend.

The younger Petrina told the board that he and his father wished to tear down the buildings, following receipt of a city condemnation notice for the long-vacant properties.

“My goal is to get these down as quickly as possible,” Petrina said. “They’re a blight. They’re a hazard.”

Several board members pointed out that the properties were blighted only because they had been neglected for so long by the owner.

“I’m disappointed the properties have reached this point,” said member Jeremiah Chamberlin. “Ten years ago, they would have been restorable.”

Chamberlin, who lives nearby, pointed out that, over the years, several people had tried to buy the buildings in order to save them, but Petrina was not responsive to those overtures.

“I don’t know why my dad held onto them,” the younger Petrina said.

Indeed, the buildings are in terrible shape, with broken windows, boarded-up back ends and a distinct lean.

Attorney Jeffrey Clark, who owns the building next door, said he fears the buildings could collapse, damaging his property.

“The building is a complete blight,” he said of 512 N. 2^nd St., a late 19^th-century, two-story, 1,500-square-foot commercial building. “It’s a fire hazard, it’s a safety hazard, and it’s an aesthetic nightmare.”

The second property, a three-story, circa-1920 apartment building, larger at about 2,000 square feet, seems to be in slightly better condition.

Petrina said that, someday, he’d like to build a new structure on the site. Until then, he proposed using the lots for parking and said that he already had interest from the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, which occupies the historic Gannett Fleming building on the opposite corner. He said he hoped that parking revenue would help offset the cost of the demolition.

That proposal led to pushback from both residents and the city.

Several members of the neighborhood group, Capitol Area Neighbors, were in attendance, and they objected to any proposal for another surface parking lot.

“When we get more temporary parking, people get used to it and keep it as temporary parking,” said member Kathy Speaker MacNett. “I don’t want more property to become parking.”

Assistant city Solicitor Tiffanie Baldock said the city could not allow additional commercial parking in that area anyway because doing so would violate its agreement with Park Harrisburg/SP+, which runs the parking system under a long-term lease with the city.

“From the city’s position, a temporary parking lot would not be possible,” she said.

Nonetheless, Petrina, who lives in Virginia, said he still would proceed with the demolition and reiterated that, someday, he hoped to build on the site, though he lacks a plan to do so. He said that he wanted to start demolition as quickly as possible and told his engineer, who attended the meeting, to solicit bids.

“I just need it down flat, and we can go forward from there,” he said.

Take 2: HBG mayor issues CDBG veto, council to reconsider allocation

July 2, 2018 | by Lizzy Hardison

Habitat for Humanity and TriCounty HDC, which together sponsored a “building blitz” last week on Allison Hill, are proposed recipients of CDBG funds this year. Photo: Diane McNaughton.

For the second time in his administration, Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse has vetoed City Council’s allocation of federal housing grants.

Papenfuse overturned a bill disbursing $2 million in grants to more than a dozen nonprofit organizations and city programs. The source of the money was the Community and Development Block Grant (CDBG), a program from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Papenfuse today said his veto was due to council’s decision to award a $15,000 grant to Breaking the Chainz, a mentorship program that works with at-risk youth. Council granted the organization money even though it submitted an incomplete grant application.

Fifteen organizations applied for funding this year, according to Dave Madsen, chairman of council’s Community and Economic Development Committee. Last week, council passed a bill awarding grants ranging from $5,000 to $320,000 to 13 of those applicants, including Breaking the Chainz.

The city’s Department of Community and Economic Development screens and ranks grant applications according to a formal system every year. They did not recommend Breaking the Chainz for any funding. Even though the program met CDBG eligibility guidelines, its incomplete application meant that it ranked below other eligible organizations.

But council voted last week to reduce a proposed grant to TLC Work Based Training from $45,000 to $30,000, freeing up $15,000 for Breaking the Chainz.

Some council members expressed concern about veering from the ranking system, but the amended bill passed 4-3.

Papenfuse said the decision took money away from a deserving applicant and set bad precedent by breaking with the accepted grant-screening procedures.

“Their actions raise questions of fairness and transparency,” he said. “We have gone out of our way to establish an independent and trustworthy scoring process.”

Papenfuse has used his veto power once before, when he overturned CDBG allocations in 2016.

On Monday, Madsen said that both TLC and Breaking the Chainz provided valuable services in helping to keep residents out of the criminal justice system. TLC provides workplace training for formerly incarcerated people entering the workforce, while Breaking the Chainz reaches at-risk youth through mentoring, he said.

“Something we’re currently struggling with in the city is a high population that ends up in the criminal justice system,” Madsen said. “We wanted to do a full-court press in addressing the issue.”

Council is set to vote on a veto override at a legislative session tomorrow, according to a meeting agenda. But Madsen said that council members don’t plan to award any money to Breaking the Chainz anyway.

In the week since council passed its CDBG funding bill, Madsen learned that the organization may have trouble fulfilling administrative requirements tied to the federal funds.

Barring any last-minute amendments from council members, the body will likely revert back to the allocations recommended by the city Department of Community and Economic Development.

According to city Solicitor Neil Grover, council doesn’t have to override the mayor’s veto – it could simply vote to amend the bill it passed last week.

If the override vote does not pass, the entire CDBG bill dies, Grover said. Council members would have to introduce a new bill and publicly advertise it before voting to allocate funds.

Council adjourns for summer recess after its July 3 legislative session. But Madsen said that the break won’t start until council finishes its CDBG business.

“We have to get this done before we go anywhere to meet federal requirements,” he said.

TheBurg Podcast: “From Boom to Gloom” Edition.

June 29, 2018 | by TheBurg Staff

TheBurg Podcast is back after a short hiatus! The Harrisburg news cycle has kept us busy in the past few weeks, but we’re breaking down the most important developments in the city in our newest episode.

We start by discussing the city’s so-called “fiscal crisis” and then recap a chaotic school board meeting. We wrap up on a more hopeful topic – the groundbreaking of the new federal courthouse at 6th and Reily Streets, which took place earlier this week.

You can stream the episode here, or subscribe to TheBurg Podcast in the Apple or Android podcast apps.

Read more about the topics covered in this podcast at TheBurgNews.com:

Harrisburg imposes austerity measures, hopes for legislative action as it faces hard realities of Act 47.
Mayor’s communication on Act 47 “irresponsible,” HBG councilman says, as 14 jobs affected by hiring freeze.
“I’m done:” School board members threaten walk out, exchange barbs over spontaneous action on superintendent contract.
Mandate or Suggestion? State calls on Harrisburg school district to seek new financial managers
Speeches & Shovels: After years of delays, officials break ground for new federal courthouse in Harrisburg.
Burg Blog: The “Right” Stuff.
Harristown to purchase, renovate historic property that once housed iconic Harrisburg hotel, restaurant.
Facing ouster by PennDOT, newsstand owner fights for his right to stay in the Harrisburg train station.
Following public outcry, PennDOT rethinks plan that would oust train station newsstand.

TheBurg Podcast is released semi-monthly by TheBurg Magazine. It is recorded in the offices of Startup Harrisburg and produced by Lizzy Hardison. Special thanks to Paul Cooley, who wrote our theme music.

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