by Matt Petras
When Autumn Young-Dorsett lost her job as a life skills assistant teacher due to the COVID-19 pandemic, paying the bills became a lot more difficult. Her employer continued to pay her until mid-June, at which point she had to file for unemployment. Mortgage payments presented the biggest burden, but other expenses also added up.
“The car payment arrangement, car insurance, life insurance. Everything has just gone back,” Young-Dorsett said. “It feels like I’m going backwards.”
She’s been getting guidance from the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, a community group that in 2012 sold her the home she currently lives in with her children. She’s since filed for housing assistance from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency but has found the process confusing. In late July, she received a response by email from the agency. It asked her for proof of income, and since she hasn’t yet received any unemployment compensation, she wasn’t sure what to do next.
Residents like Young-Dorsett are facing unprecedented housing insecurity during the pandemic, and a slew of programs are available to help families in need. Among the programs are the Pandemic Mortgage Assistance Program available through the PHFA, the CARES Rent Relief Program administered by the PHFA and managed locally by Allegheny County and the Housing Stabilization Program from Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA].
The programs appear to be helping. But even with the help, some local community advocates worry that help isn’t coming fast enough or is not big enough to stave off a bout of evictions and foreclosures they see on the horizon.
Director of Allegheny County Economic Development Lance Chimka notes that it’s extremely difficult to quantify the need for rent relief in the county. An analysis from earlier this year estimated the need to be between $25 million and $56 million, with a median of $40 million, for the period of March through December, according to Chimka. And this only covers the additional demand caused by the pandemic.
Autumn Young-Dorsett, pictured here in Mellon Park, bought her home in 2012 from the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation. (Photo by Jay Manning/PublicSource)
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‘A patchwork of safety nets’ presents challenges for Pittsburghers facing housing insecurity
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