BETHLEHEM, Pa. – At a finance committee meeting of the Bethlehem Area Board of School Directors Monday night, Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds gave a detailed presentation on the city’s housing crisis.
According to Reynolds’ presentation, housing costs in Bethlehem skyrocketed between 2019 and 2023, prompting the mayor’s administration to launch the “Opening Doors” initiative. Designed to transform housing in the city, Reynolds says prioritizing affordable housing will serve the district by allowing families and school employees to put down roots in the community.
Elaborating further, Reynolds said the current housing crisis in Bethlehem — which he attributes to high demand and limited supply — prompts many BASD employees to commute from elsewhere in the Lehigh Valley or more affordable areas such as Carbon County. These long commutes may prevent them from becoming more involved with extracurricular activities for their students, according to Reynolds.
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Among the many statistics it cited, Reynolds’ presentation said that 16 of the Lehigh Valley’s 20 most common jobs do not pay enough on average for someone to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Bethlehem without roommates.
The mayor concluded that those most impacted by the housing crisis are “younger versions of ourselves,” as he made the case for Opening Doors to the committee.
Bethlehem Deputy Director of Community Development Sara Satullo also spoke on Monday, offering some potential housing solutions she said could better serve BASD’s needs.
According to Satullo, the city has considered using federal grant funds to develop the Pembroke Village public housing development into a “mixed-income” development. Satullo said such an approach would incentivize upward economic mobility for families living in the area, as they could consider buying in the neighborhood instead of being pushed out of public housing for earning too high of an income.
According to Satullo, a similar proposal known as “The Gateway on 4th” is in the works on Bethlehem’s Southside. The project — made possible by a $4 million land donation by Lehigh Valley Industrial Park — seeks to construct 120 mixed-income apartments in the area of East Fourth and William streets.
2024-25 budget
In other news, BASD Chief Financial Officer Harry Aristakesian provided an update on the district’s 2024-25 budget process. According to Aristakesian, revisions made to the proposed budget since a March 25 workshop have allowed the district to close its deficit gap from approximately $11.8 million to approximately $8.06 million.
The Bethlehem Area School District will hold its next regular board meeting on Monday, April 22, in the East Hills Middle School auditorium.