A proposal for tiny house villages for people facing homelessness drew fire from a Pittsburgh Department of City Planning official, but won a mixed response from planning commissioners ahead of a public hearing in two weeks.
Pittsburgh Councilor Deb Gross briefed the City Planning Commission on legislation she sponsored, alongside Councilor Anthony Coghill, to allow “temporary managed communities” in the Golden Triangle and along some riverfronts.
“Over 100 cities around the nation have created these tiny house villages for people who are housing insecure, already,” Gross told the commission. As a result, she said, thousands of people are sheltered, rather than living outdoors. Locally, though, “We’ve seen far too many tragedies already, just this year, just in the last few months, of deaths in the unhoused population.”
City Zoning Administrator Corey Layman, though, said the legislation, modeled on Denver’s zoning code, was “out of context” with Pittsburgh’s ordinances. He added that it could have the unintended effect of making existing Pittsburgh encampments, which don’t meet its specifications, “nonconforming and illegal,” potentially forcing the city to remove them.
“The city may assume liability for activities within the [temporary] camps,” he added.
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The proposed ordinance would:
- Allow nonprofit entities or government-related organizations to seek permits to build and manage temporary communities
- Require a community meeting before any decision on a permit
- If a permit is granted, allow the agency to build temporary structures for no more than 50 people who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of becoming homeless
- Require restroom and bathing facilities
- Prohibit storage of “junk”
- Allow fences of up to 6’ in height, plus gardening (but no agricultural animals) and dumpsters.
Gross said she and Coghill drafted the legislation out of frustration with the city code’s current rules and processes for permitting housing for people facing homelessness: “It’s just not fast enough. It’s slow, it’s expensive,” she said.
Layman said the city’s planning and law departments are working on changes to the zoning code, meant to improve the process, which they plan to bring to the commission “in the next couple of months.”
The commission is expected to take public testimony on the temporary managed communities proposal on Feb. 20, and vote on whether to recommend adoption. The legislation will then go back to Pittsburgh City Council for a vote, and if approved would go to Mayor Ed Gainey for signature or veto.
Commissioner Rachel O’Neill said she “can’t support this legislation because I think it acts in direct conflict with its stated goals” by effectively rendering existing encampments unlawful.
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Commissioner Mel Ngami wondered whether tiny house villages elsewhere were “standing the test of time.”
If not? “You’re just essentially creating a slum, but in a built environment, in a lot of ways, in which you’re just, kind of, packaging them in a space,” Ngami said.
Other commissioners, though, were more amenable.
Commissioner Peter Quintanilla said he’s seen tiny houses “done quite beautifully and it can be really great.” There may be issues to resolve, he said. “But in general, let’s just figure out how we can make it happen.”
“I want to see this pursued, absolutely, as diligently as possible” via compromise between the planning department and council members, said Commissioner Holly Dick.
Rich Lord is PublicSource’s managing editor and can be reached at rich@publicsource.org.
