
10/26/21: Staffing shortages have complicated maintenance, housing head to tell board
The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh will consider hiring maintenance workers from outside of the city, with a board vote on the measure set for Thursday. The authority has faced recent criticism regarding maintenance at its low-income housing complexes. Early this month, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found that over three years, more than half of the properties managed by the HACP failed federal Department of Housing and Urban Development inspections. Nationally, in the same time period, around 10% of similar facilities failed. Authority Executive Director Caster Binion told PublicSource that of 44 vacant positions at the agency, 26 are in the maintenance department. He said the COVID-19 pandemic drove a surge of retirements from that department. Amid a national staffing crisis, the authority has had a hard time filling posts, especially since its policies require that such employees live in the city. Binion said that staffing shortages have forced the authority to contract out plumbing and plastering work, but that hasn’t addressed all of the agency’s needs. “We’ve got to have staff to do some of this stuff,” he said.
10/26/21: Demolition proposed for Oakland
The City Planning Commission will decide whether a prominent developer can demolish three Oakland townhouses. The three townhouses on the 100 block of Halket Street are owned by Walnut Capital, a developer with a large portfolio of Central Oakland rentals. Walnut Capital has asked the city to rezone 18 acres of Central Oakland and South Oakland, in preparation for a massive redevelopment dubbed Oakland Crossings. The three properties now before the City Planning Commission, though, are not part of the Oakland Crossings footprint.
10/18/21: Rankin and Swissvale site to be sold piecemeal to nonprofit developer
Allegheny County will sell portions of the Carrie Furnace mill site to the nonprofit Regional Industrial Development Corp. for $80,000 per acre, Development Director Lance told PublicSource. The 168-acre site sits mostly within Rankin and Swissvale, and roughly 100 acres are conceivably developable, according to a summary agreement Chimka shared with PublicSource. The agreement divides the developable land into three tracts, and obligates RIDC to buy 39.5 acres near the Rankin Bridge, though it can do so piecemeal. RIDC then has the right, for 10 years, to make the first offers to buy the remaining tracts.

10/15/21: Hawkins Village, in Rankin, would go from 196 apartments to around 110
The Allegheny County Housing Authority plans to start demolishing the 80-year-old Hawkins Village apartment complex in January, agency Executive Director Frank Aggazio told PublicSource. The authority’s board, at its monthly meeting, voted to submit a slightly revised application to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which must approve the demolition. The agency’s initial application had failed to mention some meetings with residents that had happened in 2019. Aggazio said he anticipated HUD approval “within days.” Hawkins Village, in Rankin, includes 196 apartments. Aggazio said in an email to PublicSource that all residents have been “relocated and adequately housed,” some in other public housing and others in private units that accept vouchers. He said that after demolition of the entire complex, around 110 new apartments will be built in two phases with a total cost estimated at $37 million.10/14/21: URA concludes that other public benefits counterbalance market rents on South Side
There won’t be affordable apartments in a seven-story building slated for the South Side Flats, but the Urban Redevelopment Authority agreed to sell the land sought by developer Somera Road in light of pledges of other public benefits. New York City-based Somera Road is involved in a multi-phase development on the South Side, and doesn’t want any public subsidy or tax break for a planned 246-unit apartment building two blocks west of the Hot Metal Bridge. The URA owns the land. Last month the URA board withheld its approval for a proposed transfer of the land, as members asked whether the developer could include units affordable to households of modest income. This month, URA staff told the board that the inclusion of affordable units would blow a hole in the developer’s $75.3 million financing plan. The financing is built on a large mortgage backed by rents of more than $1,000 for the apartments, most of which will be one-bedroom or studio units, with just 27 two-bedroom suites.
- Leasing 17 apartments in a nearby building to households with modest incomes
- Involving minority-owned contractors in 25% of the work and women-owned contractors in 10%
- Investing $4.7 million in public improvements including streetlights, an ice-skating rink, a playground and a town square
- Reserving 5,000 square feet of retail space for local businesses that would pay rents of roughly half of the neighborhood’s market rates.
10/14/21: URA gets ready to pay lawyers to fight evictions
The Urban Redevelopment Authority board voted to allocate $450,000 in affordable housing funds to a program that provides legal help to tenants facing eviction. The URA last year launched the Legal Assistance Program as part of the Housing Opportunity Fund. The HOF is backed by $10 million a year in City of Pittsburgh deed transfer tax revenue, and is meant to preserve and develop affordable housing. Last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to spur mass evictions, the URA allocated $250,000 to the Legal Assistance Program, and Pittsburgh City Council added another $550,000. As of last month, the URA had designated legal providers to defend tenants, but the money had not been spent. URA board member Lindsay Powell said that with local curbs on evictions expiring on Oct. 31, the need for the program will likely increase. “Come November, I am sure, unfortunately, we’re going to see a surge of eviction petitions filed,” Powell told the board at its monthly meeting. “Providing legal assistance is so critical and can be the difference between someone staying in their home and being put out into the street.” The allocation is part of the HOF’s 2022 budget, which now goes to council for final approval. The budget also includes:- $3.8 million to help finance development of new rental units, mostly reserved for households earning less than 30% of the area median income
- $2,150,000 to assist homeowners with repairs
- $950,000 to build or rehabilitate houses for sale to households at or below 80% of area median income
- $700,000 to cover down payments and closing costs for first-time home buyers
- $525,000 to assist renters facing short-term emergencies and at risk of losing their homes
- $425,000 to help landlords with 10 units or fewer to make improvements so they can accept Housing Choice Voucher holders
- $1 million to cover the URA’s costs to administer the programs.
10/12/21: Citizens Bank sent back to the drawing board on East Liberty branch plan
Citizens Bank won’t be permitted to demolish a half-century-old building in East Liberty in favor of a proposed smaller branch, following the City Planning Commission’s rejection of its plans. Citizens wants to raze an 11,000-square-foot building on Penn Avenue and Centre Avenue, constructed by Mellon Bank 52 years ago, and replace it with a 2,600-square-foot building, eight parking spaces and some landscaping. A bid by preservationists to have the existing structure declared historic failed to win City Council approval. Since the site is in a specially planned district, it’s up to the City Planning Commission to decide whether Citizens’ plan suits the neighborhood.
10/12/21: Community concerns delay California-Kirkbride apartment bid
A developer will need to take another stab at winning community buy-in before the City Planning Commission votes on a request to change the zoning in part of California-Kirkbride. Affordable housing firm Northside Properties Residences wants to build a 25-unit apartment building on Brighton Road near Freedmore Street. The developer can’t build to that scale today, because the zoning allows only smaller-scale housing. So Northside Properties Residences wants to extend a nearby commercially zoned district to include 27 more lots, most of which are owned by the developer or the City of Pittsburgh.
10/11/21: Salem’s chosen from among four contestants for talks on former Shop ‘n Save site
Salem’s Market & Grill will get a shot at negotiating a lease for a key spot in the Hill District, Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration has announced. Salem’s won out over three competitors for first dibs on the former Shop ‘n Save site in the Centre Heldman Plaza, which is owned by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. The contestants made their pitches to the neighborhood in September, in a virtual meeting. In a subsequent online poll by the Hill Community Development Corp., Salem’s was the first choice of 47.5% of respondents, and the second choice of 28%.
10/1/21: Elevator problems drove city’s condemnation notice for 24-story Stanwix Street tower
Update (10/4/21): The City of Pittsburgh has permitted tenants to reoccupy 625 Stanwix Street, and the building code violation has been marked as abated. The state Department of Labor and Industry has allowed the residential tower’s elevators to go back into service, according to city officials, addressing the issue that prompted the issuance of a notice to vacate. Update (10/2/21): An attorney for JoCo Sky told PublicSource that the company has arranged hotel stays for all residents of 625 Stanwix Street, and for their pets. The company is also providing 24-hour security to residents while they prepare to vacate, and is paying their travel costs. The company expects to repair the elevators this weekend, and then to request reinspection by the state. A major Downtown office-and-apartment tower that has been undergoing redevelopment has been condemned by the City of Pittsburgh after its elevators failed a state inspection. The 24-story 625 Stanwix Street currently includes both offices and some 80 residences, branded as The Venue Apartments and characterized online as “luxury apartments.” Residents are being relocated to hotels and are being given rent credits, according to Ken Scholtz, an attorney representing the owner, who responded to PublicSource’s questions.
10/1/21: Landlords didn’t rush to court when eviction curbs ended
The first full month of unfettered evictions did not result in a surge in filings by local landlords hoping to oust tenants. Landlords in Allegheny County filed cases against 507 tenants in September. That’s down slightly from the August total, almost even with July, and less than half of the normal pre-pandemic tally. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s curbs on evictions, driven by fear that mass displacement would worsen the COVID-19 pandemic, were in place for nearly a year before they expired on Aug. 26. The CDC’s actions followed expirations of state and local rules that suppressed evictions for the first five-and-a-half months of the pandemic. Even without the CDC rules, though, Allegheny County courts are operating under an order issued by President Judge Kim Berkeley Clark on Aug. 6, which extends through Oct. 31. The order does not bar the filing of cases or ejection of tenants, but allows district judges to slow the process substantially if the tenant has applied for rental assistance. The county is operating a rent relief program meant to help tenants affected by the pandemic to stay in their rentals. – Nick Tommarello contributed.September recap:
News from the City Planning Commission, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh and moreThe history and possible futures of an American steel town
Where the sausage is made: A nine-member panel privately plots a course for the Hill
Electric buses are the future for Allegheny County. But progress depends on funds.
Develop PGH archives
2020 Census: Pittsburgh’s slight decline came with ‘massive’ demographic shifts in 2010s
August development coverage Rich Lord is PublicSource’s economic development reporter. He can be reached at rich@publicsource.org or on Twitter @richelord. Develop PGH has been made possible with funding from The Heinz Endowments.