By Nikil Saval, Pennsylvania State Senator, First Senatorial District
Every person has the right to a safe, healthy home, but on any given day throughout Pennsylvania, this right is betrayed. Tens of thousands of people across our Commonwealth are experiencing housing insecurity, while hundreds of thousands more live in homes that are physically unsafe simply because they can’t afford to make much-needed repairs.
Pennsylvania has some of the oldest housing stock in the United States. These older homes are notoriously hard to warm in the winter and cool in the summer, resulting in crushing utility burdens for their residents and emitting dangerous and damaging greenhouse gases that fuel our climate crisis, and, in turn, spur the increased extreme weather events that exacerbate the deterioration of our homes.
As a state senator, the struggles of Pennsylvania residents and communities are my struggles, too.
That’s why I’ve introduced the Whole-Home Repairs Act (Senate Bill 1135), a sweeping bipartisan bill to establish a one-stop shop for home repairs and weatherization while creating new, family-sustaining jobs in a growing field. This bill is the first of its kind in the nation, allowing Pennsylvanians to stay warm, safe, and dry in homes they can afford, and providing communities with the means to fight the detrimental effects of displacement, instability, and blight all at once. In short, the goal of the Whole-Home Repairs Act is to make our communities resilient.
The Whole-Home Repairs Act works by doing three things:
1. It funds habitability repairs and energy efficiency updates for homes throughout Pennsylvania.
2. It funds support staff to help people access the assistance they need in the order in which they need it, maximizing the amount of funding they can get for their homes.
3. It funds training programs and provides stipends to trainees to build up the local workforce needed to meet the demand.
At a time of intense political polarization, I’m proud to have introduced the Whole-Home Repairs Act with every Democratic Senator signed on as a co-sponsor, along with four of my Republican colleagues. Companion legislation is being introduced in the Pennsylvania House by my colleagues, Representative Sara Innamorato and Representative Rick Krajewski. Across our Commonwealth, home repairs and weatherization are wildly popular among residents, with 87% of registered voters indicating support for policies to weatherize homes to make them more energy efficient. This is because the harms of Pennsylvania’s affordable housing crisis know no political nor geographic bounds.
Last month, I traveled throughout the state to launch the campaign to pass the Whole-Home Repairs Act. In each region that my team visited, the landscapes were different, but the testimonies from residents were the same: Pennsylvanians love their homes, take pride in their communities, care about their neighbors, and are struggling to survive.
Our housing crisis and our climate crisis are inextricable. The fight for affordable utilities, the fight for safe communities, the fight for housing security, and the fight for equity and justice are all the same fight. And passing the Whole-Home Repairs Act for my constituents—for all Pennsylvanians—is how we come out swinging.
Right now, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly is deciding on the annual budget, and we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a historic investment in our communities. Pennsylvania has billions of dollars in American Rescue Plan funding from the federal government, as well as a surplus of more than $6 billion in state revenue.
Pennsylvania residents are struggling under the protracted hardships of the pandemic, and Pennsylvania can be a national leader in helping its residents recover. We can fix our homes, and we can build our local workforce and create new jobs while we do it. We can permanently move the needle on our affordable housing crisis and our climate crisis by passing the Whole-Home Repairs Act.
It’s up to us. We know the need is great, and we must continue to show widespread support to generate the necessary political will for the Whole-Home Repairs Act to become law. Your voice can make a difference. I hope you will join me by adding your name in support of the Whole-Home Repairs Act: www.PASenatorSaval.com/WholeHomeRepairs.