DEVELOP PGH
A 2017 photo of the Bedford Hill Apartments in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Bedford Hill is owned and managed by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)

Develop PGH Bulletins: Pittsburgh, Allegheny housing agencies want to help tenants escape impoverished areas

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Develop PGH Bulletins will update you on the Pittsburgh region's economy, including close coverage of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, City Planning Commission and other important agencies. Please bookmark, check back frequently, sign up for the Develop PGH newsletter and email rich@publicsource.org with questions, tips or story ideas. 9/24/20: Two housing authorities team to help families out of impoverished areas
The public housing agencies for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have joined hands in an unusual dual effort to win federal money to help low-income residents to move to lower-poverty areas. The boards of the Allegheny County Housing Authority [ACHA] and the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh [HACP] have both, in the past week, voted to apply for a piece of the new $50 million Housing Choice Voucher Mobility Demonstration grant program offered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD]. The program is meant to fund more housing vouchers and services to families moving to lower-poverty neighborhoods.

MENTAL HEALTH
Outside of the Allegheny County Jail building

‘It almost broke me.’ How the pandemic is straining mental health at Allegheny County Jail.

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No personal visitors, hardly any time for inmates outside of their cells and chronic vacancies in mental health and health staff raise concerns that the mental health of Allegheny County Jail [ACJ] inmates is deteriorating, according to inmates recently incarcerated there, family members of current inmates, advocates and current and former ACJ staff.  

COVID-19
A brown haired toddler with a tracheotomy wears a hospital gown covered in panda bears as he sits on a hospital bed.

COVID-19 could kill my toddler. Stay home for him and others with underlying health conditions.

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By necessity, I have to pay very close attention to what is going on in the world of infectious disease as the parent of a medically complex child. In the weeks leading up to COVID-19 reaching pandemic status, I began to circle the wagons, knowing that despite whatever measures were taken, we were going to have to go back into isolation. 

affordable housing
Terri Ward, treasurer of the Bernice Crawley Highrise Tenant Council, reached out to PublicSource about her building's bed bug problems. (Photo by Tom Lisi/PublicSource)

Bed bugs at Glen Hazel senior community stir new resident frustrations

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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.