The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh’s board has approved multiple initiatives aimed at increasing affordable housing, creating more accessible housing, and helping low-income homeowners in Homewood and the Hill District make health and safety repairs.
Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh (RTP), based at 2800 Susquehanna St. in Homewood, won approval for $75,000 in authority grants, in addition to acquiring grants from McAuley Ministries (for the Hill District) and the RK Mellon Foundation (for Homewood).
[pullquote]“We have a lot of partner organizations and good people like (OBB Executive Director) Jerome Jackson helping us. We get a lot of referrals from church groups, and the homeowners are typically below 200 percent of the poverty level.”
STEVE HELLNER-BURRIS
Executive Director
Rebuilding Together
Pittsburgh[/pullquote]Authority Housing Director Tom Cummings said the grants will help RTP, working with neighborhood nonprofits, rehabilitate up to 24 homes in Homewood, and 20 more in the Hill District.
“RTP is working with Operation Better Block (OBB) to identify homeowners who are in need of repairs to their homes in all three Homewood neighborhoods (North, West, and South) and with the Schenley Heights Collaborative, FOCUS and Hill House to identify the homes in the Hill District,” he said.
“Both of these efforts are part of RTP’s Core Home Repair program. Professional contractors are engaged for roof repairs, electrical upgrades and plumbing repairs. After the initial scope of work stabilizes the home, RTP staff leads crews of corporate volunteers and community-based workers in an effort to provide additional health, safety and weatherization repairs.”
Steve Hellner-Burris, RTP’s executive director, said the organization typically does this kind of work on around 150 houses each year throughout the city and in neighboring communities like Penn Hills, Wilkinsburg and Plum.
“We have a lot of partner organizations and good people like (OBB Executive Director) Jerome Jackson helping us,” he said. “We get a lot of referrals from church groups, and the homeowners are typically below 200 percent of the poverty level.”
The board also approved deploying $176,000 in state grants for its Home Accessibility Program for Independence, which provides a maximum $10,000 to retrofit apartments for disabled individuals at or below 120 percent of the poverty level.
Board member and former state Sen. Jim Ferlo, said while he approved of the program, he’d rather see such accessibility issues addressed when units are built.
“We should be including this basic level of accessibility—ramps, lower wall switches, larger doors, when we’re doing all this new construction,” he said. “It should be required. It’s cheaper to do it then than to come back and do it later.”
Ferlo said the board also approved a $21.2 million plan to build 65 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, 47 of them affordable and 18 at market rate, in Fineview. The units would provide replacement housing for residents of the Allegheny Dwellings public housing complex.
Also in reference to affordable housing, the board voted to extend the contract of Grounded Network Solutions, which is developing an interactive model that will help the Affordable Housing Task Force look at which combinations of tax incentives, zoning abatements, Section 8 vouchers might be used—and where—to provide the best outcomes when integrating affordable housing throughout the city.
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