We are in downtown Jim Thorpe, which is the seat of county government as well as a hub for tourism. Across the street from the visitor centre and train station is this historic building here, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Building, which is now senior housing. And it's one example of many ways they're trying to create more front doors here in the Poconos and all across Pennsylvania.

Two entire centuries ago, it was coal that built up Mauch Chunk. Nowadays, it’s Jim Thorpe, Carbon County.

The company that drove that industry, Lehigh Coal and Navigation, was headquartered in this lasting testament to history — and now, it serves as a prime example of adaptive reuse.

"It's very affordable. I mean, well, yeah. It's affordable," said Portia, a resident.

Portia and dozens of others call this home now. In the 1970s, it was converted into senior housing. And as she tells it, it's not easy to find anything like it around here.

"It's very hard. It's very hard. When I first started, there was a long line for every place. Usually other places are five-year waiting lists. This one here was the shortest list," she added.

In order to preserve this historic property as senior housing, enter United Neighborhood Centers. Based in Scranton, the organization has created more than a dozen properties like this regionally, providing four hundred units of affordable housing.

"We recognize that there was a need for new construction of affordable housing. Um, we are the only non-profit developer in the region, um, doing this sort of work. So we know how important it is," said Joy Hubshman of United Neighborhood Centers.

Joy and the folks at UNC were able to get critical funding for the major rehab project here in Jim Thorpe, and by 2018, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Building was brought up to current-day standards — HVAC, mechanical, electrical — a complete overhaul.

"We started having those conversations with the right people to say, okay, what can we do to get this building back to where it needs to be so that not only the existing tenants have that quality, safe, affordable housing, but just the community in general," she said.

Conversations like “More Front Doors.” The PMVB and United Way brought hundreds together to tackle the housing crisis in the region back in November 2024 at Kalahari. The Secretary of Community and Economic Development even spoke to the broader issue across the state.

And fast forward to March 2026 — another “More Front Doors,” this one more focused on Carbon County, hosted by the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, Reimagine Carbon, and the group formed from the first “More Front Doors,” Community Development of the Poconos.

"Effectively the American dream is, is, you know, invest in your children. They go to school, whatever the case may be. There's a whole lot of things that get in the way with that. But when the first part is, is you're spending over half of your income. And yes, a lot of people, dual-income families are spending more than half of their income on housing. That leaves very, very little for them to be able to afford the other necessities, let alone the things that we consider for disposable income," said Tom Campbell, Executive Director of Community Development of the Poconos.

That’s why the More Front Doors for Carbon County included local government, the AARP, and many others, including economic development leaders like Jared Soto.

"Housing is economic development. So just like in an example, like we could bring in as much industry as we want and we could create and like, have like, hey, there's jobs that are here, but if we don't have like the infrastructure to allow people to be able to afford at the places they live closest to the places they work, they'll look for opportunities elsewhere," said Soto, Economic Development Specialist with the Carbon County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development.

This was also a byproduct of the senior housing project in downtown Jim Thorpe. Some residents may have moved here from single-family homes elsewhere in the area, freeing up those homes to first-time homebuyers. More of that kind of big thinking about projects in a holistic sense is where United Neighborhood Centers is focusing its attention all the time.

"Because there's such a housing need, we at United Neighborhood Centers and United Neighborhood Community Development Corporation, we are always in pre-development with a project, working with community partners and different townships and boroughs to find what's going to make sense for that community. So like in Honesdale, we will be applying for funding. We will be securing what we need so we can put a shovel in the ground to get these new housing units built and into the portfolio for the region," added Hubshman.

The Timber Mill Project is slowly but surely moving toward funding, then approval, and then construction. It would add forty-two new units for folks looking for homes here in Honesdale, fitting into the neighborhood and doing what these like-minded groups and organizations have set out to do — create more front doors.

"Between the cost of preparing land and everything else, it's really difficult to build a new home for less than three hundred and thirty thousand dollars. But an existing home might be available for two hundred, or maybe even less. Now, it may not have the newest dishwasher and things like that. Where do we find these houses? Often times it's people who've called this home for a generation or two. If we can find housing for seniors, that frees up first-time homebuyer opportunities for people who are starting out their new careers in the businesses here in Carbon County," said Campbell.

"Yeah, a lot of work does go into the building of affordable housing in the region. Um, it could take several years to get a project up and running. Some challenges that were presented with may be on the local level — zoning infrastructure needs, certainly in some of the more rural areas we see that. Um, and that could delay a project or it can kill a project. Um, but you know, fortunately, we have a lot of really great, um, communities in this region that are supportive of affordable housing being constructed," added Hubshman.

To learn more about the real solutions at hand for solving the housing crisis in the Poconos, you can learn more at cdpoconos.org.