Council Corner

Affordable Housing

Over the past two years, Borough Council has been exploring affordable housing strategies to help combat the rising costs of housing in the borough. In 2023, FHI Studios conducted an Affordable Housing Study, which analyzed the borough’s changing demographics and affordability trends. The study also conducted stakeholder outreach and identified potential goals to address the growing housing challenges for both rental units and homeownership opportunities. It was presented to Council on October 5, 2023.  

Some key components of the demographic study were:

  • Media is growing
  • Media has become wealthier
  • Media is becoming more renter oriented
  • Media has lost minority residents 
  • Homes are getting more expensive

The key preliminary goals of the report were to:

  • Maintain and expand affordable housing for households making under $75,000
  • Create opportunities for people to access starter homes, especially first-time homeowners and young families
  • Provide more options for seniors to age in place
  • Create opportunities for homeownership
  • Ensure that all new larger multi-family building includes affordable housing
  • Eliminate discrimination in the housing market that restricts access to protected classes

Recommendations included:

  • Exploring inclusionary zoning
  • Develop borough-owned property for affordable housing
  • Establish partnerships with local property owners to build affordable housing
  • Low-income household tax relief
  • Deepen partnerships to expand access to existing housing support programs and expand access

For the full report and presentation, please see the related documents in the right column of this page. 

 In 2024, Borough Council held two strategy sessions in a public setting to discuss the recommendations highlighted in the Affordable Housing Study. The purpose of the sessions was to identify priorities and action items to work on over the next three years.  The Media Borough Affordable Housing Strategy was presented to Borough Council in November and December of 2024. It is meant to be an actionable document that will be reviewed and discussed throughout the year in the Community Development Committee meetings. 

For more details, please see the full Media Borough Affordable Housing Strategy.