U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner joined U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie on Wednesday morning in Bethlehem to tout two projects bringing much-needed housing to the city.
Yet the housing-focused visit came as President Donald Trump continued to decline to sign a landmark bipartisan bill that would streamline federal housing regulations, construction permitting and environmental reviews in order to build more housing nationwide.
Trump canceled plans to sign the bill into law at an event last month, and said he would not sign it until Congress passes a bill that requires proof of citizenship for all voters, calling the housing bill “unimportant” in comparison to the voting bill. The housing bill could become law without Trump’s signature Friday, but if the president vetoes it, it would be sent back to Congress without legal approval.
Mackenzie, who voted in favor of the housing bill, told The Morning Call he is “confident” that it will become law despite Trump’s unwillingness to commit his support.
“[The bill] is now before the president, and I’m confident that one way or the other, it is going to become law,” Mackenzie said.
Mackenzie also acknowledged in prepared remarks that housing is one of the “top needs” for residents across the Lehigh Valley, as rent and home prices spiked in 2020 and have remained elevated since then.
“We saw that there were [housing] shortages in our local community, and we wanted to make that something that we would work on as a priority if I was elected,” Mackenzie said. “So we have been doing that, making housing a priority. We’ve had so many great wins here locally. We want to continue to build on that momentum.”
Turner and Mackenzie toured the Brinker Lofts building in South Bethlehem, a former 19th-century cold storage facility that developer Jefferson Werner converted into an apartment building that opened in 2019 with help from a federal opportunity zone designation.
The opportunity zone program was established via Trump’s 2017 tax reform bill and provides real estate developers with tax breaks in exchange for building in areas designated “distressed” low-income communities. Capital gains from opportunity zone investments are then invested into equity funds that support job creation in the distressed areas.
The “Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a signature piece of legislation signed into law by Trump last summer, expanded the opportunity zones program and made it a permanent part of the U.S. tax code.
“I was very impressed, encouraged to see such an old building reimagined and reused to be a blessing to families, young professionals and others going forward,” Turner said following the Brinker Lofts tour. “But why else are opportunity zones so important? They create jobs. They create family formation. They create affordable housing. They create new entrepreneurs.”
Following the tour, Turner and Mackenzie hosted a news conference at the site of the Gateway on Fourth development, a future affordable housing project in Bethlehem.
At least two-thirds of the units at Gateway on Fourth will be designated as “affordable” (meaning rent is 30% or less of the renters’ monthly income) for people who make 60% or less of the area median income. The project is a partnership between the city; Lehigh Valley Industrial Park, which bought and donated the land; and Pennrose developers, which specializes in subsidized affordable housing.
Pennrose is receiving $16 million in state tax credits to finance the project. On Wednesday, Mackenzie announced that $1 million in a federal appropriations bill will also go toward the project’s construction, although that funding has not yet received final approval.
The Bethlehem Planning Commission is reviewing architectural plans for the Gateway on Fourth development at its monthly meeting Thursday.
Bethlehem leaders have called the city’s lack of affordable housing “its most pressing crisis,” and have formulated a comprehensive strategy called Opening Doors to increase housing availability citywide. Between 2019 and 2023, the median home sale price nearly doubled from $182,000 to $302,000, and median monthly rent skyrocketed from $1,354 to $1,910. While prices have since stabilized, rent and home costs are well above prepandemic levels, squeezing prospective renters and homebuyers out of the market.
Bethlehem Economic Development Director Laura Collins urged federal officials to increase low-income housing tax credits, which is the program that made Gateway on Fourth possible.
“However we can get more funding for that program, I’m happy with that,” Collins said.
Reporter Lindsay Weber can be reached at Liweber@mcall.com.