Housing is something Eileen Hartnett Albillar has worked on her entire career, and it's also something she has seen up close in ways that stick with you.
When Albillar was working with homeless youth in Bucks County early in her career, these weren't kids from somewhere else. They were from right here. They were kids who had slipped through the cracks — families that had hit a crisis point and couldn't recover because there was nowhere affordable to land.

In Bucks County, the problem is layered:

• The housing inventory is too low, and what's available is priced out of reach for working families and first-time buyers.

• The regulatory process for new development can be slow and costly, which drives up the cost of construction and ultimately the cost of housing.

• The region has lost ground on affordable housing options, and it has not replaced what was lost with anything adequate.

• Families who can't afford to buy and can't find affordable rentals are making impossible choices — commuting longer distances, doubling up, or leaving the county altogether.

What Albillar wants to push for in Harrisburg:

• State investment in affordable housing programs that actually reach working families — not just the lowest income brackets, but the middle: teachers, nurses, service workers, young families starting out.

• Streamlining development processes so it's easier and less costly to build the kinds of homes people actually need — smaller homes, starter homes, more density in the right places.

• Protecting existing affordable housing from being converted or demolished without something better in its place.

Albillar believes the state is not going to solve this overnight, but leaders have to start making different decisions, and Harrisburg has to be part of that solution.