NEPA Youth Shelter organization buys apartment building in Scranton

JIM LOCKWOOD, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
·2 min read

NEPA youth shelter map

SCRANTON — Recent rising rents forced the nonprofit NEPA Youth Shelter to come up with another way to find apartments for homeless young adults.

The organization in December bought its own multiunit rental building in Scranton’s Hill Section at 1330 Pine St., which contains five apartments.

Incorporated as a nonprofit in 2016, the organization since 2017 has operated an after-school, drop-in center at 541 Wyoming Ave. in Scranton for area high school students from all backgrounds, including LGBTQ+ individuals, who constitute a high percentage of the homeless youth in Lackawanna County.

In 2019, the organization started helping homeless young-adult clients, ages 18-21, some of whom were still in high school, get apartments for up to one year. Entry into the housing program requires an application and an interview.

Over the past five years, the organization has helped place 16 young adults in apartments at several locations. But recent rent increases made continuing that program no longer possible, said the organization’s founder and executive director, Maureen Maher-Gray.

“We were using apartments on the open market, but we got priced out,” Gray said. “If I can’t get housing on the open market, I’m going to make my own. And that’s exactly what I said to my board (of directors) and they were like, ‘Yeah, go for it.’”

So, NEPA Youth Shelter purchased the 1330 Pine St. building for $225,000 in December 2023.

Overall, the building is in good condition but needs some work in interior renovations and repairs, she said.

In April, the organization published a public notice in The Times-Tribune requesting proposals from contractors for remodeling work, including refinishing floors, building a closet within existing space, adding a window to a fire escape, adding an emergency exit and making the first floor as disabled-accessible as possible, among other items. This project is scheduled to begin May 13 and take up to three months to complete.

On Thursday, a group of volunteers from Keller Williams visited the building for a “day of service” to pitch in on various tasks, such as painting and removing old carpeting, to help get apartments ready for use.

For more information, visit nepayouthshelter.org online or on Facebook, or call 570-904-7449.