Donna Gorton invited state Rep. Kyle Mullins to an after party in her brand new apartment.
Mullins (D-Lackawanna County) joined community members at a celebration of the opening of Gorton’s new home — the newly opened Bucktown Center.
United Neighborhood Community Development Corporation’s Bucktown Center, located in downtown Dunmore, is an affordable apartment complex for older adults aged 62 and up. The Development Corporation is the nonprofit housing and economic development subsidiary of United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania (UNC).
The $19 million project, funded through the Low-Income Housing Tax program managed by the Pennsylvania Finance Agency, Federal HOME funds, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Lackawanna County and PNC Bank, welcomed its first residents in July after just over a year of construction.
Gorton is one of about 45 residents in the now fully leased complex. She moved in in July, and she’s loving it so far.
“We need it. There's a lot of elderly people, you know, things are going up so high, so this is really nice that we can afford it,” Gorton said.
Bucktown Center features 40 apartments — 37 one-bedrooms and three two-bedrooms. There's four fully handicapped accessible units and one that is equipped for a hearing and visually impaired resident.
Housing insecurity in older adults
Pa.’s Department of Aging notes that Pennsylvania has more than 3 million older adults, making the Commonwealth the fifth-oldest state in the country.
And according to the Department of Aging’s Secretary Jason Kavulich, housing is a huge issue for that population.
“Housing is the number one challenge for older Pennsylvanians everywhere,” Kavulich said. “This is a solution. We're standing in a solution. This is what we need in Pennsylvania, more units like this, more houses like this, beautiful facilities for older adults to live affordably so they can age with grace and dignity in the communities that they love and deserve to live in.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, “Older adults are one of the fastest growing groups affected by housing instability. Each year approximately 168,000 people above 65 are faced with eviction.”
That instability is often fueled by the cost of living. Many older adults on fixed incomes struggle with housing costs.
The National Council on Aging found that “In 2021, 11.2 million older adults were housing cost-burdened, spending over 30% of their income on housing.”
What constitutes affordable housing?
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines affordable housing as, “housing on which the occupant is paying no more than 30 percent of gross income for housing costs, including utilities.”
Joy Hubshman, the director of community housing development at UNC, oversaw the Bucktown Center project from start to finish. She said eligible residents may earn a maximum 50-60% of Lackawanna County’s median income, or about $36,000 per household.
“For someone that meets that qualification, our rents range anywhere from $800 to $900 a month, and that's a fully inclusive rent. So it includes all utilities,” Hubshman said.
Bucktown Center also offers options for people even further below the $36,000 mark.
“We do have four units set aside for extremely low income individuals that are closer to that 20% area median income,” Hubshman said. “We sit with everybody, we go through an application process and make sure they meet those guidelines, you know, prior to moving in.”
Creating housing stability for older adults
Research from The Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development, a research organization serving Northeast Pennsylvania, found that in 2020, the average price of a one bedroom apartment in an apartment complex averaged $1,004 per month and about 42% of the monthly median income for single-person households in Lackawanna County, exceeding what is considered affordable housing.
As of July 2025, RentCafe estimated the average rent in Pennsylvania to be $1,776 with the average apartment size being 890 square feet.
Gorton is much happier with her Bucktown Center apartment than where she was previously living in Dunmore.
“Some of the apartments, they’re not great. They’re charging astronomical prices. So this really helps out,” she said.
Hubshman said places like Bucktown Center contribute to more sustainable housing for those that are housing insecure.
“What's unique to the buildings that we manage is we also have somebody on staff that's here to work with our tenants,” she said. “If there's any transportation needs, if there's any food insecurities, our service coordination and the resources that UNC has within the community, because our goal is not only to build these buildings, but also make sure our tenants stay stably housed, and that's why we have that service coordination piece that you don't necessarily see at private apartment complexes.”
Kavulich said supporting affordable housing for older adults makes housing for al Pennsylvanians more accessible.
“This is a victory, and this is a solution,” Kavulich said. “These are the solutions we need to help as we age as a community. One in four people in Pennsylvania over the age of 60, it's moving to one in three, housing will remain our largest challenge. We have to continue to innovate and build spaces like this, and that opens up housing for you and me to move into, and for young families to move into.”
