ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Leaders throughout the Lehigh Valley have long been calling for more affordable housing options for people at the lowest end of the income scale. 

But the latest measure in the local fight to curb the housing crisis focuses on a different part of the population — households that earn too much to qualify for low-income housing programs but not enough to afford the cost of living. 

Easton now requires developers to include “workforce housing” in projects that use public funding or tax incentives. Allentown City Council is set to consider similar legislation this week. 

What is workforce housing? 

Experts and advocates typically use the term “affordable housing” to refer to housing that’s meant for people earning 60% or less of the area’s median income (AMI). 

That cutoff stands at about $48,000 across the Lehigh Valley, where the median household income recently hit a record high of $82,000 regionwide. 

But it’s significantly lower in the Lehigh Valley’s three cities: about $69,000 in Easton and Bethlehem, and $55,500 in Allentown, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Workforce housing targets households earning 80 to 120% of AMI. It’s meant for “the forgotten middle” class, according to Easton City Councilman Frank Pintabone. 

He led Easton’s push to adopt workforce housing requirements, which are tailored to help those earning less than the city’s median income. 

If a developer is proposing to build 10 or more housing units and the project relies on grants, tax incentives or other public support, it must set aside at least a quarter of those units for people who fall within the city’s new “workforce” income brackets. 

Developers can only rent workforce studio apartments and efficiency units to households that earn no more than 75% AMI; that cutoff is set at 80% for one-bedroom units, 90% for two-bedroom units and 95% for units with three or more bedrooms. 

Easton’s ordinance also prohibits units designated for workforce housing from being rented for more than 30% of a household’s annual income; paying more than that for housing is considered unaffordable by industry standards. 

The units’ workforce-housing designation and their affordability cap must remain in place for 20 years. 

Developers can opt out of the mandate by paying the city $30,000 for each unit they would have been required to designate for workforce housing. 

That in-lieu fee would bring in $750,000 for a 100-unit project, money the city plans to use to acquire, rehabilitate and develop other workforce housing units. 

There is a lot that municipal governments cannot control, so local officials must step up where they can to ease the housing crunch for residents, the councilman said. 

“(The) bottom line is: we need to do something,” Pintabone said. “Nobody knows exactly what it is, but we have to do something.”

“(The) bottom line is: we need to do something.”  – Easton Councilman Frank Pintabone

“I can’t do anything about gas (prices). I can’t do anything about bread, milk and eggs. But I can do something to help people be able to live comfortably in the city of Easton,” Pintabone said. 

He’s optimistic his counterparts in Allentown will do the same. 

Council members Cynthia Mota, Ce-Ce Gerlach and Jeremy Binder are pushing workforce housing legislation in the state’s third-largest city. 

They need just one more supporter among their four other colleagues to secure its passage, though it will likely be tailored to better fit Allentown, Gerlach said. 

Workforce housing also is part of Northampton County Executive Tara Zrinski’s broader pitch to modernize the Gracedale nursing home.