About 20 percent of all single-family homes in State College borough are rentals, the highest portion seen in recent memory, borough Planning Director Carl Hess said Monday night.
In an informational report to the Borough Council, Hess said 497 single-family homes in the borough are available for rent, up some 74 percent since 1994. Last year alone, he said, six borough homes were converted to rentals.
Hess said the trend illustrates that rental conversations are still a viable business strategy. It ‘tells us that investors will take advantage of those opportunities for rental properties if they still exist,’ he said.
The situation presents a challenge for the borough on at least a couple fronts, borough officials have said. Because rental properties in State College tend to see more violations — such as noise offenses, disorderly conduct and alcohol problems — they can detract from the quality of life in some areas, officials have said.
As of 2007, rental houses logged an average of 1.5 violations apiece for the year, according to the borough. Incidents dubbed violations include significant problems, such as disorderly conduct and alcohol offenses, and relatively less severe issues like failure to remove snow and cut grass.
Among owner-occupied houses, meanwhile, the average number of violations per residence was 0.2.
Another challenge for the borough: Single-family homes traditionally have housed full-time members of the local workforce, who pay the borough’s earned-income tax. As more Penn State students have begun renting and living in those single-family homes, the shift has eaten somewhat into the borough tax base. Most Penn State students do not hold full-time jobs.
Hess, citing a neighborhood sustainability report, said a variety of options may help the borough address the trend. He mentioned suggestions for improved communications between students and more permanent residents; for a restorative-justice program; and for varied community-engagement efforts, among other ideas.
The borough might also try to ‘increase fines (for violations) until they become a deterrent,’ Hess said. He said changes in the student-rental ordinance could be adjusted to encourage better upkeep of rentals’ exteriors.
Likewise, the borough could increase support for first-time-home-buyer programming, to try to make borough homes more affordable to more home-buyers, Hess said.
Ongoing discussions about the subject are expected soon at the council level. On Oct. 11, for instance, council members are scheduled to discuss an inclusionary-housing proposal, designed to encourage the development of more affordable, workforce-oriented dwellings in the borough.
In other news at the Monday council meeting, members heard an update from the Art in Public Places Committee. The borough formed the volunteer group earlier this year, asking it to determine how to spend $5,500 left over from the borough’s Centennial Fund. State College celebrated its centennial year in 1996.
Mayor Elizabeth Goreham, who serves on the art committee, said the group has given $3,000 to the Community Art Collective. That organization is planning a community mural for the 100 block of West Calder Way.
Art committee members have suggested that the other $1,500 be granted to a new committee within the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, the nonprofit parent organization of the annual arts festival. They said the new committee could assess and create an inventory of the borough’s public art and handle public-art plans in the future.
Because of financial limits, the borough itself just isn’t in a position to take on a mission like that, Goreham said. Council members are expected to vote Oct. 4 on the new-committee suggestion.
