This story was originally published by NEXTpittsburgh, a news partner of PublicSource. NEXTpittsburgh features the people, projects and places advancing the region and the innovative and cool things happening here. Sign up to get their free newsletter.
To get affordable housing in Allegheny County, you’ll first need to figure out what makes any given rental unit affordable.
Some units are priced affordably because they’re created and managed by developers in exchange for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits [LIHTC], which reduce the developer’s federal tax liability.
Some standard market apartments accept housing choice vouchers, which, if applied for and obtained by the applicant completely independently from their apartment search, can cover part or of their rent with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] funds.
Other units are set aside for tenants who obtain project-specific vouchers, which place recipients in an individual HUD-funded property.
Beyond the fractured application processes, some residences might also serve only certain communities — veterans, individuals over 60, single parents — further adding to the dubiousness.
Once you’ve finished with the paperwork, then it’s time to wait.
Ed Nusser, Allegheny County’s director of housing strategy, says the waitlists for each of these programs are massive.
“It is a lot of a burden to put on an individual who’s just trying to find stable, affordable shelter,” Nusser says. “It’s like, ‘get all your paperwork together and keep it together because you’re going to need it six more times!’”
“We simply don’t have enough affordable housing units. The city’s Housing Needs Assessment speaks clearly to that.”
He refers to Pittsburgh’s 2022 Housing Needs Assessment — the most recent one produced by the city. It found, in part, that 40% of city renters spent more than 30% of their income on housing, with more than a quarter of those individuals — about one out of 10 Pittsburgh renters — spending over 50% of their income on housing.
The monthly expenses associated with an affordable unit are typically locked to 30% of its tenant’s income so long as that tenant’s household income is at or below 80% of the area median income [AMI]. According to 2025 HUD data, 80% AMI in the Pittsburgh Metro Area is $85,850 for a household of 4 — HUD’s average.
The long wait lists attached to affordable housing send a paradoxically positive message to Nusser: It means prospective residents are obtaining the information required to apply for them. Still, the process — and wait — can be a barrier to entry, he says.
“But at the same time, there are always things we can do to make that process better for folks,” Nusser says. “We’re continually looking at how we build a better ecosystem to serve individuals that need affordable housing so they can spend less time scanning and sending documents and more time finding apartments that work for their family.”
That will partially take the form of the first-ever countywide Housing Needs Assessment, which Nusser says will hopefully launch later this year.
In the county’s Department of Human Services, Housing Coordinator Chuck Keenan and his colleagues are pursuing a time-saving solution: A common affordable housing application.
“This is not done — this is an initiative we are trying,” Keenan says. “If we make this work, we’ll be the first one in the country to do it.”
Ten years ago, the county’s shelter system for unhoused individuals was in a similar state of fragmentation, requiring people to research shelters and apply to programs individually. Now, Allegheny Link serves as a single access point.
Keenan says conversations started in 2023 and have been ongoing with no end in sight. The complication arises from the fact that the common application would require buy-in from every housing developer in the county.
“We’ve been meeting with HUD for a couple of months to try to make this work, but it’s been tough for people to want to give up the autonomy that comes with managing your own waitlist, having their own control over the process,” Keenan says. “Hopefully it works, but until that happens, it’s just very fragmented.”
With office conversions and new construction, affordable housing continues popping up throughout the region.
On Thursday, April 17, the City of Pittsburgh launched the Pittsburgh Affordable Housing Development Project Explorer, which allows users to view how complete any given development is within the city — “Completed,” “Under Construction,” “In Progress” or “Pipeline.”
The dashboard displays only projects that originate from the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, the Urban Redevelopment Authority or through the local “inclusionary zoning” ordinance, which requires private developers to include affordable units in new construction in some neighborhoods. It does not include Allegheny County Housing Authority projects.
The release announcing the dashboard says the city has added 1,600 units of affordable housing between 2022 and 2024, with 1,200 more ambiguously “in the pipeline.”
The 2022 Housing Needs Assessment found that the city has a supply gap of about 8,200 units for renters earning less than 30% AMI; a gap of 2,900 units for renters earning less than 50% AMI; and a surplus of 4,600 units for renters earning between 50-60% AMI.
Here are updates on a few developments we’ve been watching:
Lytle Street Apartment Building
Hazelwood Green’s first residential development will break ground this summer and is expected to be under construction for 18 months, according to TREK President Bill Gatti. The 50-unit project is expected to cost $24 million.
Of the 33 one-bedroom and 17 two-bedroom units, a respective 26 and 14 units will be affordable to people earning less than 80% AMI. Additionally, 13 of the 14 affordable two-bedroom units will be available exclusively to single parents pursuing college degrees through the Pittsburgh Scholar House’s Housing Program.
John P. Robin Civic Building at 200 Ross St.
ACTION-Housing purchased the civic building from the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh for $3,975,000 in October 2024 and will convert its 104,920 square feet into 68 one- to three-bedroom apartments and commercial and community spaces.
Redevelopment is estimated to cost more than $55 million, according to reporting by news partner PublicSource. The project will be funded through a mix of “Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits and URA financing,” a URA webpage for the site reads.
ACTION-Housing did not respond to questions about the project’s timeline.
Penn Lincoln Apartments
ACTION-Housing broke ground on the new Wilkinsburg affordable apartment building on Feb. 28. It is named after the historic Penn Lincoln Hotel that once stood in the same spot. The five-story building will boast 41 units for households earning at or below 60% AMI — around $64,500 for a household of four in 2025. It will have one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
Of the site’s 63,301 square feet, its 12,000-square-foot ground floor will be commercial space. The $27 million project is expected to be completed in 2026, according to its webpage. ACTION-Housing did not respond to questions about the project’s timeline.
May Building
At the intersection of Fifth and Liberty avenues, Beacon Communities is gearing up for a renovation project in the May Building. The $18.5 million renovation will leave no stone unturned and prioritize energy efficiency and green building standards thanks to a Green and Resilient Retrofit grant the project received in November 2023.
The currently 88-unit building will have 86 studio and one-bedroom units once renovations are completed. About 50 units will be set aside for households making up to 50% AMI. In 2023, Beacon told NEXTpittsburgh that construction would begin in the second quarter of 2025 and take 14 to 18 months, but that timeline is no longer accurate. A Beacon representative wrote that it is “working with PHFA, our investor, and funders to create a contingency plan that will allow us to still close in 2025.” PHFA is the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
First and Market
Beacon Communities is redeveloping the 11-story First and Market building into 93 affordable housing units for seniors. The Downtown project is operating under a $43 million budget, with nearly $4 million from the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, about $3 million from the Urban Redevelopment Authority and additional funding from PNC and Key Bank.
Units will be available for senior citizens with incomes between 20% and 60% AMI. Construction kicked off late last year and the project is expected to be complete by the end of August 2026.
City’s Edge
A Lower Hill TREK development will add 110 rental units to the area come June 2026. The City’s Edge building is Phase 1 of 6 in TREK’s massive Bedford Dwellings and Middle Hill revitalization project, for which the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh was awarded a $50 million federal Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant in 2023.
Of City’s Edge’s 110 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, 18 will be market rate, 50 will be LIHTC affordable and 42 will serve as replacement units for the 411-unit Bedford Dwellings complex, which TREK will demolish and rebuild starting in 2026 through 2029.
All sites in the Choice Neighborhoods project combined will offer a total of 823 units of housing total, split between townhomes and standard apartments. Current Bedford Dwellings residents will be moved into TREK’s new construction units as they come online ahead of the Dwellings’ demolition to minimize resident impact.
All construction is expected to be completed by mid-2030, two years before the Choice Grant is up.
Roman Hladio is a reporter for NEXTpittsburgh. He wants to hear the stories created in Pittsburgh. When not reporting, he plays difficult video games that make him upset and attempts to make delicious meals out of mismatched leftovers.
