ORWIGSBURG · SCHUYLKILL COUNTY

Neighbors of Applewood

40 homes. Affordable housing for seniors and people with disabilities.

USDA must hear from people by
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2026
MFHPortfolioManagement@usda.gov
copy: michelle.groshens@usda.gov

What is happening

Applewood was built with a federal USDA loan. That loan is the reason the rent here is based on what people can actually pay.

The owner has asked USDA for permission to pay the loan off early and sell the property. If USDA says yes without attaching protections, the rules that keep Applewood affordable end with the loan.

What that means for real people

Some residents could have to pay more than five times their current rent to stay in their homes. Market rent would be more than their entire monthly income. Every household here is a senior or a person with a disability. That is who Applewood was built for. Several have lived here 12 to 18 years.

The owner has said he expects whoever buys Applewood to keep it affordable. We are asking USDA to put that in writing, so it is a promise rather than a hope.

How you can help in five minutes

You do not have to live here to help. Family, friends, neighbors, caregivers, doctors and local business owners can all write. More kinds of voices is exactly what makes a difference.

  1. Send one short email

    The whole letter is already written inside this button. It opens your email with the message filled in. You only add your name and one or two sentences of your own.

    Email USDA now

    If that button does not work on your device, the same letter is further down the page under “A letter you can copy.”

  2. Make one phone call

    Congressman Meuser's Pottsville office. You only need one sentence, and it is written out below.

    Call 570-871-6370 Or use his website form

  3. Tell one other person

    Print a flyer for your church, your shop, the library, or a neighbor's door.

    Download the flyer (PDF)

A letter you can copy

Change the parts in the boxes. Anything true is worth saying.

To USDA Rural Development, I am writing about the request to prepay the Section 515 loan on Applewood Apartments in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. I am a   (tenant, family member, neighbor, caregiver, doctor, business owner).   (One or two sentences in your own words. What would happen to the people who live there?) Please deny this prepayment. If it is approved, please require that rents keep being calculated the way they are now, and that Rental Assistance continues. Thank you,   (your name, your town, today's date)

If you telephone, this is all you have to say

“I'm calling about Applewood Apartments in Orwigsburg. USDA is deciding whether to let the owner pay off the federal loan early, and 40 homes could lose their rent protection. I'm asking your office to open a congressional inquiry with USDA Rural Development.”

If they say they are not sure how they can help, that is normal. Say: “You don't have to solve it. I'm just asking your office to open an inquiry and ask USDA some questions.” Then ask for the person's name.

Who to contact

Congress does not publish email addresses. Use the website form or telephone. USDA does take email, and that is the one that counts most.

The one that decides

WhoHow to reach them
USDA Rural Development
The people deciding		 MFHPortfolioManagement@usda.gov
Copy: michelle.groshens@usda.gov

Email, not post. There is a mailing address, but anything posted from about September 2 onward will not arrive before the deadline. If post is your only option, ask someone to send it by email on your behalf. Nobody should miss this because of that.

Federal offices — these can open an inquiry with USDA

Each link below goes straight to that office's “help with a federal agency” page. That is the right one for this. If you land somewhere else, look for those words.

WhoHow to reach them
Rep. Dan Meuser
Our congressman		 Help with a federal agency
or call 570-871-6370
Sen. John Fetterman Help with a federal agency
or call 717-782-3951
Sen. Dave McCormick Help with a federal agency
or call 717-231-7540

State offices — they help a different way

State legislators cannot open a federal inquiry, but they carry real weight locally and can press on housing at the state level. Worth contacting, after the three above.

WhoHow to reach them
State Rep. Jamie Barton
He lives in Orwigsburg		 repbarton.com/contact
or call 570-668-1240
State Sen. David Argall dargall@pasen.gov (he does publish one)
or call 570-621-3400

Our neighborhood

This is what is actually at stake. Forty homes at the edge of the fields, and the people who have made a life here.

Two neighbors bringing an upright piano down the walkway on a dolly, heading for an apartment door.
Neighbors bringing a piano down the walk and into an apartment. This is what people here do for each other.
A concrete path running between mown lawns towards the apartment buildings on a misty morning.
The path between the buildings, early on a September morning.
A large maple tree on a lawn at the edge of the parking area, with fog lying over the farm fields behind it.
The maple at the end of the lot, with the fields behind it.
The sun rising through trees above the parking lot, with an apartment building at the right.
Sunrise, from the parking lot.
Fog lying across a crop field beyond the lawn, framed by the branches of a tree.
The farm fields that back onto Applewood.
Photographs of neighbors will be added here as people give their permission.

No one's photograph goes on this website unless they have said yes, and anyone can change their mind at any time.

Everything you can print

Flyer for shops, churches and the library (1 page)

What to say and where to send it (2 pages)

The tenants' petition to USDA

Please print and share these freely. They were made for exactly that.

That is everything urgent.

If you have sent your email, you have done the part that matters. Thank you.

There is more in the Menu at the top of this page: what happens after this is over, and who runs this site.