After just under a year of meetings, analysis and community feedback sessions, the Pittsburgh Affordable Housing Task Force has released its initial draft recommendations to support housing opportunities throughout the city.
“Every resident of Pittsburgh, especially those struggling with low incomes, should have the opportunity to be part of our city’s growth. At the same time, they shouldn’t become victims of it,” said Mayor Bill Peduto.
“The Affordable Housing Task Force has listened to residents citywide, and heard loud and clear their thoughts on housing issues, which change from neighborhood to neighborhood. It is city government’s job to protect the needs of all its residents and neighborhoods, and these recommendations will help us ensure that a basic need—shelter —can be protected and provided for all.”
The task force makes five broad recommendations: establish a citywide Housing Trust Fund, enacting incentive-based inclusionary housing requirements, expanding the use of low-income housing tax credits; creating a system to monitor and preserve deed-restricted affordable housing, and creating a system to renovate and preserve existing affordable housing stock.
Pittsburgh Councilman Danny Lavelle introduced legislation creating the task force in January 2015. He co-chairs the task force with and Pittsburgh Director of Planning Ray Gastil who told city council two weeks ago that the trust fund would need a $10 million annual investment.
“One of the things that is critical to any kind of affordable housing effort in the city is a dedicated source of funds to pay for it,” said Gastil. “It’s great to talk about things, but there’s a severe shortage of somewhere between 19- and 21-thousand units. You need money to address that.”
The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh has already established a trust fund for affordable housing in East Liberty, to be funded through a portion of taxes generated by current and future development projects. Also—most notably in Crawford Square—the authority has already preserved its affordable housing component by buying out one of the development partners before the deed covenants requiring a set number of affordable housing units expired.
The city and authority have also already employed another of the recommendations—incentivizing developers to create a set number of affordable units as part of any development plan—in addressing the redevelopment of the Penn Plaza Apartments site.
To support existing affordable units, the task force recommends initiatives such as: controls over reassessment spikes; the Rental Registration ordinance; just cause eviction protections and notification requirements for tenants of developments receiving direct public subsidy, and other tenant protection and relocation assistance initiatives.
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