BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Bethlehem's Community Development Committee met Tuesday for a look into area health needs and financial efforts.
- The Community Development Committee heard from development and health officials Tuesday
- The consensus: Bethlehem is doing a lot of things right, but progress comes with challenges
- While data shows the city is making strides in addressing violent crime and recreational access, mental health has dropped
Community Health Needs Assessment report
Kristen Wenrich, director of the Bethlehem Health Bureau, shared results from the city’s most recent Community Health Needs Assessment that’s conducted every three years.
“We not only do it to meet our accreditation requirements, we conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment to get a clearer picture of the different health issues that are impacting the residents of Bethlehem,” Wenrich said. “After we collect our data and analyze the data, we come up with a list of key priority areas that we’re going to focus on over the next three years.”
The bureau made use of the “MAPP” tool, or “Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships.” Along with making use of resident engagement for results, some of the partnerships also involved around 25 different organizations that assemble for a series of board meetings during the fall.
“And although these groups were made up of diverse individuals, the themes really aligned. And when asked about quality of life, the resounding consensus was that the quality of life in Bethlehem was a good or excellent level.”Kristen Wenrich, Bethlehem Health Bureau director
After prioritizing a consensus on health issues, the bureau forms a Community Health Improvement Plan, and even holds focus groups with residents that discuss quality of life, among other things, in the city. Those groups were centered toward senior citizens, adolescents, Hispanic residents and members of the Community Health Advisory Committee.
“And although these groups were made up of diverse individuals, the themes really aligned,” Wenrich said. “And when asked about quality of life, the resounding consensus was that the quality of life in Bethlehem was a good or excellent level.”
Focus group members were also asked what they thought of community assets like health facilities, recreational offerings, cultural centers, school systems, diversity and emergency services. There was also discussion surrounding safe housing, food access, roadway quality along with physical and mental health needs.
Some notable numbers she mentioned included the following:
- Violent crime dropped from 376.31 per 100,000 people in 2019 to 273.1 per 100,000 in 2022
- In 2021, over 82% of city residents had a preventative care visit within the year prior
- 76.2% of city residents have access to public parks
- A walkability score of 63.1
- Just over half of residents live within a half-mile of a grocery store
- 35.5% of city homes have a potential risk to lead paint
- 23.3% of city residents reported being physically inactive in the past month
- 116 overdoses responded to with EMS services
- 41.8% of city residents reported a decline in mental health within a month
Financial programs
Laura Collins, director of community and economic development, shared more on the Financial Accountability Incentive Reporting program.
“The goal is to help council better understand and have transparency into the economic development tools that we utilize here in the city,” Collins said.
Alicia Miller Karner, deputy economic development director, went over the inventory of both the tax and non-tax incentives, including the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program, City Revitalization and Improvement Zone, Enterprise Zone loan program, Community Development Block Grants as well as Business Infrastructure and Development loan program among others.
The LERTA program drew the most discussion from the panel.
The three LERTA terms include Northside (Oct. 1, 2017-Dec. 31, 2023), Southside (Jan. 1, 2018-Dec. 31, 2022) and Affordable Housing (Sept. 7, 2021- Dec. 31, 2026).
“LERTA creates a tax abatement on the increase on the real estate tax payments on new construction and property rehabilitation,” according to the report.
“We have 32 active LERTA projects,” Karner said. “Now we have more applications than that — when I say they’re ‘active’ projects, that means they’ve applied for the LERTA, they’ve completed the construction or renovations and they’ve come into the assessment portfolio.”
Karner said the 2022 dollar value for the entire LERTA program in Bethlehem totals $1.973 million.
“That’s the value that these projects are recognizing,” she said. “And some of them may be in their last year of abatement, some may have 40-percent abatement selective, some may be 90-percent — it runs the gamut.”
“It sounds like it is successful as far as getting properties that were blighted or maybe the tax base was very low, and we’re really increasing that tax base and just the value and everything with the LERTA overall. It sounds like it’s a very win-win program.”Committee member Grace Crampsie Smith
The 32 projects have also seen $875 million in property investments as well as $208 million in assessments, she added. The city, county and school districts have seen somewhere around $17 million in tax money from the projects.
“I think that there’s some pretty compelling evidence when it comes to LERTA, and particularly in these targeted areas around the former Bethlehem Steel site industrial corridors, that there has been value in bringing businesses to these locations,” Karner said.
Committee member Grace Crampsie Smith said she was impressed with the value LERTA brought to the community.
“It sounds like it is successful as far as getting properties that were blighted or maybe the tax base was very low, and we’re really increasing that tax base and just the value and everything with the LERTA overall,” Smith said. “It sounds like it’s a very win-win program.”
Committee chair Paige Van Wirt said that while LERTA has been effective, she felt that the city still needs to act on loosening zoning ordinance regarding single-family neighborhoods.
“I just think that [we should be] incentivizing small builders — I’m not talking about big 200-unit apartment buildings,” Van Wirt said. “I’m talking about two, three, four-unit multi-family homes that are built by people who live in our community and overseen by people in our community.”
