Burns: Johnstown Housing Authority properties visited by police 550 times in June – an average 18 times per day
Calls on Johnstown council, mayor to help downsize public housing
Rep. Frank Burns July 25, 2025 | 10:50 AM
EBENSBURG, July 25 – Responding to the Johnstown Police Department’s June report showing it responded to 550 calls – an average of 18 per day – to Johnstown Housing Authority properties, state Rep. Frank Burns is asking the Johnstown City Council and mayor to join his fight to downsize the city’s public housing.
Burns, D-Cambria, has been the loudest and lone voice seeking the reduction, citing an excess of public housing that is being filled not by Cambria County residents, but importation of tenants and related poverty from Philadelphia.
Burns has championed the change because Johnstown has five times the public housing of comparably sized cities; 80 families per month, mainly from Philadelphia, move here for public housing; and half of the JHA’s 1,504 public housing units are occupied by transients from outside Cambria County.
“Now, we find out that Johnstown police are called to JHA properties more than three times as much as to the four other contracted areas they patrol combined,” Burns said, referring to the 177 calls to Dale and Lorain boroughs, and West Taylor and Middle Taylor townships.
When those calls are taken out of the equation, JHA properties comprised 17.3 percent of the Johnstown Police Department’s 3,173 dispatches in June, with the rest of the city comprising the remaining 82.6 percent.
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“I urge city council and the mayor to write their own letters or pass a resolution, adding their weight to my effort. It’s easy and the right thing to do, if you don’t mind stepping on some heretofore sacred toes.” – Rep. Frank Burns
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“The first step toward solving any problem is recognizing that you have one – and I think it’s time for Johnstown City Council and the mayor to take action,” Burns said. “If I can call on the Johnstown Housing Authority board, HUD, President Trump and Sen. Dave McCormick to right-size our public housing to meet current local need, so can they – if they want to.
“We hear a lot of talk about the need for teamwork in Cambria County, but too often it’s only a predetermined ‘team’ led by a hand-picked ‘quarterback’ who calls all the plays,” Burns added. “I urge city council and the mayor to write their own letters or pass a resolution, adding their weight to my effort. It’s easy and the right thing to do, if you don’t mind stepping on some heretofore sacred toes.”