York County Economic Alliance presents 10-year economic action plan update; highlights housing and early-childhood work

David Gonzalez, director with the York County Economic Alliance, gave York City Council a progress report on the county's 10-year Economic Action Plan (EAP) on May 6, outlining priorities, preliminary outcomes and next steps for a midterm update.

Gonzalez said the EAP, adopted in December 2020 after engagement with about 2,000 stakeholders, contains seven focus areas including workforce, entrepreneurship, equity, quality place and rural economy. He described several findings from an EAP housing study: nearly half of renters and more than a quarter of all households in the county are cost-burdened (spending more than 30% of income on housing); median household income has increased about 24% since 2011 while median home prices rose roughly 131%; and 30% of residents aged 20–34 are neither homeowners nor renters in their own name.

Gonzalez described grants and programs launched using EAP direction: the Bloom Business Empowerment Center and a Bloom business partner program that to date has awarded about $648,000 countywide and $403,000 to 51 small businesses in the city. On early-childhood education, he said the county identified a gap of roughly 4,000 childcare spots countywide and has awarded about $1.9 million through an "Every Child Has Opportunities" initiative to expand and sustain seats and support educators (about $261,000 to help roughly 52 educators).

Gonzalez said the EAP is at its five-year midpoint and staff plan a progress review to update data, retool priority actions and develop a public community dashboard to track metrics. He said the Alliance is tracking indicators including new-business creation, job-creation and housing-cost trends and intends to publish a five-year impact report.

Council had no substantive questions on the floor that evening; Gonzalez offered to share the plan and reports online for public review.