The Shapiro-Davis Administration is taking action to address housing affordability in communities across the Commonwealth.

PENNSYLVANIA – Governor Josh Shapiro and Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis are committed to building a Pennsylvania where families can afford to build a better future, which means expanding safe, affordable housing across the Commonwealth. 

The Shapiro-Davis Administration launched Pennsylvania’s first-ever Housing Action Plan to boost housing supply, improve home quality, address homelessness, and support growing communities statewide. 

In a recent op-ed, Lt. Governor Davis shares how his home-buying experience mimics the challenges many Pennsylvanians face in the current housing market and how the Shapiro-Davis Administration is working to tackle this issue.

Read more from the Lieutenant Governor’s Op-Ed here and below.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Austin Davis: Josh Shapiro is helping Pennsylvanians afford to live here
Lt. Governor Austin Davis

• Back in the spring/​summer of 2023, I had been lieutenant governor for just a few months when I sat down to make a final, impassioned plea in my campaign to win a new position: Homeowner.
• My wife, Blayre, was expecting our first child, and the pressure was on to find a new home that would accommodate our growing family. At this point, we had put in competitive offers on seven homes, and we’d lost out on each one, despite the fact that Blayre and I were both blessed to have good jobs and good credit scores.
• We were dealing with a housing market that’s out of whack, with limited supply and few affordable options for young families like ours. Every home that came on the market saw multiple offers, many above the asking prices and often offering all-cash.
• So that’s when I wrote a letter to the owners of the latest house we’d looked at, hoping that a personal appeal from a hard-working couple, with a little girl soon on the way, would put our offer over the top. We were fortunate that, on our eighth offer, we finally closed the deal and were able to move in that summer, just before our daughter Harper arrived that fall.
• Your home is your castle, your American dream — it’s the place where you wake up and close your eyes at night, the place where you make memories to last a lifetime. It’s been a marker of adulthood for generations of young people who’ve graduated, landed a job and looked forward to getting married and starting a family. But for many, finding an affordable home has felt frustratingly out of reach.
• Gov. Josh Shapiro and I know this is what Pennsylvanians are facing across the state, from here in Allegheny County to the growing suburbs of southeastern Pennsylvania and many communities in between. Housing costs have skyrocketed, and we’ve seen declines in homeownership.
• More than one million households spend over 30% of their income on housing, making them “cost-burdened” — a policy term that means someone is paying too much for their rent or mortgage, compared to their income, and likely struggling to pay the rest of their bills, like groceries, utilities, child care and transportation.
• I hope every family like ours finds a safe, affordable place they can call home, so they can live their American dream, right here in Pennsylvania. The Shapiro-Davis budget will make that happen.