PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/tag/affordable-housing/)
Safety issues had threatened the shelter’s expected Nov. 15 opening. The shelter has remained open through the winter months for 19 years and, last year, served 900 people experiencing homelessness.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA] presented three potential designs Thursday night for an East Liberty development meant in part to bring some former residents of the demolished Penn Plaza back to their neighborhood. But some attendees raised pointed questions about the community input process, which they felt excluded them. “The problem is ‘the community’ is the Village Collaborative,” said Celeste Scott, housing organizer at Pittsburgh United, referring to a community group that has had early involvement in the URA’s vetting process. “That is the problem that they’re not giving an answer to.”
A group of former Penn Plaza residents and community activists questioned why the URA had chosen Village Collaborative, a community group unveiled last year by the HELP Initiative. The collaborative is made up of faith leaders in the East End.
There were bed bugs at the Glen Hazel subsidized housing facility, but the two organizations responsible for ongoing renovations gave conflicting accounts on if the infestation halted construction. Some residents reached out to PublicSource about the issue, and they were on the same page. “The contractors aren’t allowed to work in the mess, but we’re allowed to live in the mess,” said Ralphina Coleman, a resident of the Bernice Crawley high-rise in Glen Hazel, a small neighborhood south of Hazelwood. The bed bugs are the latest in a list of frustrations this year that residents felt at the high-rise for seniors and people with disabilities. Michelle Sandidge, chief community affairs officer for the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh [HACP], said no construction stopped at the building.
“Much of what I heard today was the same sort of fight that brought me here to council, that I was fighting 20 years ago,” said Pittsburgh City Council President Bruce Kraus. “It was protect the integrity and the sweat equity of generations of homesteaders that made that piece of real estate ripe for development.”
A newly announced committee will conduct a national search to replace Robert Rubinstein, departing executive director of Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority. Rubinstein’s last day in the role will be July 31, the mayor’s office and URA board of directors jointly announced Thursday.
Richard Morris, housing director of The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, said the program is an opportunity for seniors in particular “to get some extra cash.”
The question of who is benefiting from development is one government officials, developers and neighborhood leaders grapple with as new construction drives change in Pittsburgh.
Should a murder conviction disqualify a person from public housing?
As housing prices and rents rise in the Pittsburgh region, some residents face an additional hurdle — they're often denied housing they can afford.
Economists and developers believe the new tax plan will slow down the construction of affordable housing. Banks and corporations will have less they want to save on their tax bill, therefore, making it less attracting for them to buy Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
