Pittsburgh launches initiative to protect housing affordability
The city of Pittsburgh showcased some new affordable housing in the Garfield neighborhood on Friday. The mayor said he's trying to counter predatory landlords that he says are destroying Pittsburgh's neighborhoods.
New single-family dwellings on Hillcrest Street are part of an initiative the city is calling Keep Pittsburgh Home.
"I believe that everybody has a right to decent affordable housing in this city," Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey said.
And that's what the Gainey administration hopes these homes will allow. The mayor also pointed out that in addition to community-driven housing, these homes will keep families in the city putting down roots and, in a way, weeding out entities Gainey says are destroying neighborhoods.
"Y'all know who I'm talking about, who are buying up our existing housing stock and converting family homes into financial assets," he said.
Gainey says predatory tactics by housing wholesalers represented 25 percent of housing transactions. Gainey says 4,000 were converted into short-term rentals, with 80 percent being absentee landlords.
Open Hand Ministries is building the homes on Hillcrest Street after getting the property from the land bank.
"In order for us to do this project, we had to get investment from the Federal Home Loan Bank as well as the URA," said Wayne Younger.
"Our desire is that the people who live here and preserve these communities will be able to stay here to benefit from the communities as they improve," Younger added.
The money used to help subsidize construction on these and other planned homes comes from a city $30 million housing bond and $36 million dollars in federal relief funding.
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