A portion of real estate transaction fees could be used to help others obtain affordable housing, if Mercer County commissioners establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

L. DeWitt Boosel, executive director of Mercer County Housing Authority, and Dennis Puko, executive director of Mercer County Regional Planning Commission, will explain and answer questions about the proposed trust fund during a public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the courthouse assembly room.

County commissioners are being asked to establish the fund, which will be funded by transaction fees when real estate deeds and mortgages are recorded at the county Recorder of Deeds office.

"Under Act 137, Pennsylvania allows counties to establish housing trust funds for their counties. It will grow and be used to meet housing priorities as determined by the county commissioners," Boosel said.

A real estate transaction fee, in addition to the current real estate transfer fee, will fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, he said. Commissioners will determine the amount of the transaction fee.

"We have been talking to as many people as we could as to possible uses" for the fund, the housing authority executive director said. Supporters of the trust fund are proposing that housing for people living on the county’s average income be targeted. The fund could be used for housing development and for housing projects operations, he said.

It will take about 18 months for the fund to grow before it can be spent, he said.

More than half the counties in Pennsylvania already have Affordable Housing Trust funds established in their counties, but Mercer County does not, Boosel said. "With the housing needs in Mercer County, we see this as pretty vital," Boosel said.