By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Aiming to maintain its stock of affordable housing units, Township Council has authorized a series of grant programs that provide money to owners to keep them in good shape and to help out owners who may be facing foreclosure issues.
The money $350,000 apiece for each of the three grant programs comes from developer fees, said Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun. The township assesses a fee on developers who do not include affordable housing units in their developments, and on non-residential projects.
Lawrence Township’s inventory of affordable housing includes 369 for-purchase units and 131 rental units, scattered in housing developments across the township. They were included in developments to satisfy the township’s fair-share obligation to provide affordable housing, as mandated by the state.
One of the grant programs allows the township to purchase housing units that are in foreclosure and put them into the affordable housing program, Mr. Krawczun said. There have been three or four foreclosures in the last two years, he said.
”We buy the unit prior to foreclosure, rehabilitate it and put it back into our inventory,” Mr. Krawczun said. When the unit is sold, the money is put back into the affordable housing trust fund, he added.
Grant money also can be used to make repairs to the units, he said. A unit might need a new roof, a water heater or a furnace, for example. The repairs are not cosmetic, such as new kitchens or bathrooms.
Owners might not realize they can contact Lawrence Township for help in repairing housing code violations, Mr. Krawczun said, so the township periodically reaches out to them. Sometimes, units come to the township’s attention when they are put on the market for sale, he said.
Some grant money may be used to help developers who want to build a small-scale development and include a couple of affordable residential units in it, Mr. Krawczun said. A would-be developer might want to build a two-story building with retail stores on the first floor and apartments on the second floor, he said.
”The idea is simply to keep the inventory stable or to create an incentive for a small project to be built,” Mr. Krawczun said.
For more information, contact township planner Andrew Link at 609-844-7087 weekdays, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., or by email at [email protected].

