U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Office of Community Planning and Development

CITIZEN'S SUMMARY

Located in the southwestern part of the state, its second largest city and formerly known as the "Steel Capital of the Nation" and "Iron City", Pittsburgh is situated at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, where they form the Ohio River.

Action Plan

The Pittsburgh Consolidated Plan presents a strategic vision for developing the capacity for enhancing the supply of affordable housing, creating increased employment and investment opportunities, and preparing a qualified workforce in the city. It includes a One-Year Action Plan for spending approximately $31.7 million of CDBG, HOME, Emergency Shelter Grant funds and program income in 1995.

Citizen Participation

The City took a proactive approach to addressing and resolving neighborhood and citywide needs and issues. A series of Neighborhood Strategy Meetings were conducted in nearly all of the city's neighborhoods at which residents were asked to present their ideas and opinions on the community development needs of the city and how the Mayor and his administration can best serve its citizens and respond to their concerns. Following these, a number of task forces were established to continue the dialogue with residents and consider potential resolutions to the issues. Public meetings were then held to solicit public input into the ConPlan, followed by another after preparation of the draft Capital Budget, the Six Year Development Plan and the ConPlan.

COMMUNITY PROFILE

According to the 1990 Census, Pittsburgh's population was 369,879, down almost 13% from 1980 and approximately half of what it was at its peak in 1950. Unlike some other cities, however, both the county (Allegheny) and the region in which it is located have also declined in population.

The economic restructuring of the Pittsburgh region is well known. In broad terms, the collapse of heavy manufacturing resulted in a loss of over 120,000 manufacturing jobs throughout the region over the course of the 1980s. At the same time, finance and service industries increased employment by almost the same amount, and growth in retail, communications, and distribution industries had brought the region's unemployment rates to record lows by late 1990. By 1990, the four county labor market had matched its all time job high of 1979, although the economic mix had changed dramatically. While shelter costs in the city are low, relative to the nation, household incomes have declined to the point where almost one-third of the households can no longer afford the housing they now have. Differentials in household incomes are expected to increase over the coming years, and "affordable housing" will remain a long term and significant problem for residents of the city.

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT NEEDS

Conditions

Because of regional out-migration, both Pittsburgh and Allegheny County currently exhibit high proportions of elderly relative to the rest of the nation. The region should experience continued population loss as the disproportionately high share of elderly dies. At the same time, the Baby Boom generation has already formed households and started families. With far fewer persons in the next, "Baby Bust" generation, the coming two decades will see a significantly reduced demographic capacity to form new households and replenish the population.

Both the white (currently 74% of all households) and African American (currently 23%) populations in the city experienced declines over the previous decade: by 16% and 6% respectively. 75,172 persons or 21.4 percent of the population lived below the poverty level, an increase of the 1980 rate of 16.5 percent. Thus, while the overall population declined 13%, the number of persons below poverty actually increased by 10.5% (from 67,285 in 1980 to 75,172 in 1990). But 90% of the 21,000 non-elderly residents in Housing Authority communities are racial minorities, and 69% of African American households are low income compared with 46% of white households.

Housing Needs

The overwhelming need in Pittsburgh is for additional affordable housing, particularly for renters. Fundamental to this discussion of affordable housing is the household budget and the cost of housing within that budget. Clearly, the decline in household incomes experienced by this city and region has had a significant impact on the ability of local households to afford housing. Even with little or no inflation in housing cost, the decline in real incomes has by definition expanded the pool of households experiencing a housing cost burden. Almost 30 percent of all Pittsburgh households, or 44,981 households, spend 30% or more of their income for shelter in 1990, and almost all of these households (40,508 households or 90%) had incomes below the city median.

Housing Market Conditions

Population, households, and housing units have all declined in the city over the last decade. Renter occupied units declined (-9.6 percent) at a rate greater than the overall occupied housing stock (-7.6 percent) and almost twice as great as the decline in owner occupied units (-5.6 percent). The effect has been to increase the proportion of home-owning households in the city to 52.3 percent. As would be expected in a city with an older population, the rate of home ownership is considerably higher than the national central city average (48.6 percent). It is identical to the midwest region central city average (i.e., 52.3 percent). Vacancies remain high, at 16,676 total units or 9.8 percent of the total housing stock. The city lost 12,584 units over the previous decade to demolition and disaster, units which were largely substandard and unsuitable for rehab,

Affordable Housing Needs

The preponderance of the affordability problem in Pittsburgh is indeed among renters:

Over 70 percent of the households which spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing - that is, which spend an amount on housing which is sufficient to place an exceptional burden on the household budget - are renters.

These 32,062 rental households represent almost 44 percent of all rental households in Pittsburgh.

Twenty percent of all rental households in the city, or over 14,500 households, spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing.

Sixteen percent (12,910 households) of homeowner households spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing.

A total of 52,510 households, or one-third of all city households, had very low incomes. Just over 20,000 of these households were experiencing a severe cost burden by paying 50% or more of their income for shelter. Note that this excludes households in pubic or subsidized housing, as their shelter costs are limited to 30% of their income. Most of these very low income households were renters: 36,630 or 70 percent. Housing cost burden among very low income renters and owners was high but relatively constant across all household and tenure types. In all categories, roughly 60 to 75 percent of all very low income households were paying 30% or more of their income for shelter.

Homeless Needs

Although it is difficult to accurately quantify homelessness, an estimate has been made of between 1,200 and 1,400 homeless on any given night in Allegheny County. The most frequent reason given for homelessness found by surveys is eviction from housing. Individuals who are homeless may also be victims of drug and alcohol abuse, physical abuse, suffer from AIDS or mental impairments or are single parent families without means of support. Whether homelessness is the cause or result of these situations is often difficult to determine. Many families often double up with friends or relatives for as long as possible, and are not counted as homeless even though they do not have their own residences. Increasingly, as the AIDS epidemic continues and the broader definition of AIDS is incorporated to include those who test HIV positive, this population with increase substantially. Since those with AIDS face limited housing opportunities, it is expected that their numbers among the homeless with grow.

Currently, there are 1,634 Emergency Shelter beds, 21 facilities with daytime programs, 7 Drop-in Centers, 4 Soup Kitchens, 484 Bridge Housing Units, 597 Drug and Alcohol Units and 433 Single Occupancy Units.

Public and Assisted Housing Needs

The Housing Authority owns and manages 9,265 units of public housing, and provides support in the form of Section 8 Vouchers and Certificates to an additional 3,339 households in privately-owned housing. The 9,265 public housing units alone represent the largest per capita inventory of public housing of any city or county in the country, and stands as the nation's thirteenth largest overall inventory. For perspective, Pittsburgh, the 40th largest city in the nation, has approximately 600 more public housing units than Los Angeles, California, the nation's 2nd largest city.

Of the 9,265 units of public housing, 1,191 or 12.9%, are vacant. The city assumption is that 80% of the total inventory is substandard, 75% of those being suitable for rehabilitation. Total funds needed for physical improvements to the public housing inventory is estimated at about $118 million.

Barriers to Affordable Housing

Real wages of most Pittsburgh workers have failed to keep pace with inflation over the previous decade. The cost of building, re-habbing, and maintaining the housing stock has increased at a rate greater than inflation. As a consequence, housing in Pittsburgh has become affordable to fewer and fewer households, so that in 1990, almost 30 percent of all Pittsburgh households, or 44,981 households, spent 30% or more of their income for shelter.

The expiration of contracts that permitted the construction and operation of below market rental properties under the HUD 221 (d)(3) and 236 programs represents a threat to the continuance of these units.

Fair Housing

Discrimination in housing choice continues as a major obstacle in the city and the region. Clear, "smoking gun" evidence of discrimination is difficult to establish, but the highly segregated residential patterns make it plain that African Americans do not enjoy the same range of housing choices that the rest of the community does. The Impediments to Fair Housing study completed for the City and several regional jurisdictions in 1992 states unequivocally that discrimination on the basis of race, disability, and family size remains widespread, resulting in unequal access to education and employment and consequently deepening the cycle of poverty.

The notion of housing choice assumes a broad range of opportunities whereby households can live in quality affordable housing located in safe and supportive neighborhoods. Real housing choice in Pittsburgh will require serious attention to the systemic barriers in renting, purchasing, and insuring a home faced by African Americans, persons with disabilities, and families with children. Real housing choice in Pittsburgh will also entail significant investment to strengthen existing African American communities, including specifically public housing communities, so that they become the safe and supportive neighborhoods that people will freely choose to live in.

Lead-Based Paint

The presence of Lead Based Paint (LBP) in a structure must be determined by specific tests. Housing units containing LBP are distributed fairly evenly across the city. Although somewhat counter-intuitive, the significant attention to publicly supported housing development in low and moderate income neighborhoods in recent years has lessened, very slightly, the proportion of units containing LBP in these neighborhoods. Nonetheless, the number and concentration of at risk families with young children remains significantly higher in low income and African American neighborhoods because the condition of the overall housing stock is poorer. The two most useful predictors of LBP risk for families with young children are poverty and tenure. In general, residential properties occupied by low income persons and by renters are more poorly maintained than those occupied by middle and upper income persons and owners, so the risk of LBP exposure - from peeling paint, airborne dust, etc. - is much higher.

Community Development Needs

Expand the pool of qualified workers to include heads of families in poverty in public housing;

Establish clear pathways to move from school to work which begin in elementary school;

Provide community-based lifetime learning for adults to qualify for jobs in a knowledge based workplace;

Create a Metropolitan Resource Center to respond to specific labor shortages in the region.

Coordination

Entities key to the development and functioning of the production of affordable housing are the Housing and Redevelopment Authorities, local banks, private developers, neighborhood organizations, foundations and other private non-profit groups concerned with affordable housing development and neighborhood revitalization. To bring many of these projects to fruition will require public-private partnerships among many different combinations of these groups and organizations. We expect, for example that, for any given project, the city housing corporation would be working with a local neighborhood organization and/or other local non-profit groups, government redevelopment and housing agencies, and other local funders, all working as part of a partnership team to implement the project.

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

Vision for Change

The Concept: A Regional Non-profit Housing and Neighborhood Development Corporation.

The City has large amounts of older housing stock in these neighborhoods suitable for rehabilitation into family housing. And while we have a number of very sophisticated non-profit groups involved in affordable housing development, they are neighborhood based, leaving us with uneven capacity in the non-profit housing development sector throughout the city. To deal with these opportunities and concerns, the City proposes to establish a region-wide non-profit housing and neighborhood development corporation whose mission will be to increase affordable housing investment and production in Pittsburgh.

As a first step, the Urban Redevelopment Authority will form the city housing corporation as a complement to other private non-profit and for-profit entities involved in affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization.

Housing Priorities

Increase the supply of affordable housing units for low income households;

Increase home ownership for low and moderate income households through maintenance of the existing housing stock and rehab of vacant and distressed properties;

Increase resident management capacity in public and subsidized housing;

Expand housing choices for racial and economic minorities and people with disabilities or special needs;

Prevent homelessness as a first resort and increase the supply of transitional housing with support services;

Preserve the supply of federally subsidized rental housing while raising the quality of life through capital investment and resident management;

Eliminate lead based paint hazards in housing units of all income groups;

Non-Housing Community Development Priorities

Create employment and investment opportunities in the urban core;
Create a shared responsibility for safe streets;
Improve human resource service delivery systems.

Housing and Community Development Resources

CDBG, HOME, State HOME, State Department of Community Affairs, Public Housing Comprehensive Grant, Urban Revitalization, MROP, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) bonds, Lender Credit, Homeowner Equity, HOPE 3, URA Qualified Rehab Bonds, URA Mortgage Revenue Bonds, Lender assistance programs, local foundations, City operating funds, court awards from fair housing judgments, private real estate, credit and insurance industry funds, HUD Lead Based Paint Reduction Program, US DOJ Weed and Seed Program and Comprehensive Crime Bill COPS program.

Coordination of Strategic Plan

The City Planning Department is charged with overall coordination of this Consolidated Plan and its implementation.

ONE-YEAR ACTION PLAN

Description of Key Projects

Housing (owner-occupied) assistance $ 5,375,000

Housing (rehabilitation) 2,975,000

Relocation assistance 480,000

Economic Development 4,715,000

Planning 2,196,000

Street Improvements 1,900,000

Employment Training 1,028,000

Crime Awareness 1,169,000

Youth Services 1,034,000

Locations

City-wide

Lead Agencies

Implementation of this affordable housing strategy will be carried out through private developers and homeowners and private non-profit community based organizations (CBO's) in the City, and through the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) in the case of public housing.

Capital for the development of affordable housing will be provided through the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); through the state Department of Community Affairs and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA); through the Urban Redevelopment (URA) in its issuance of a variety of tax exempt bonds; through the City of Pittsburgh general fund in its provision and maintenance of infrastructure in support of housing; through private investors and homeowners in their equity; through banks and financial institutions through the provision of debt financing; through private corporations in their participation in the Low Income Housing Tax Credits and the Pittsburgh Equity Fund; and through private foundations in their support of community development organizations and in gap financing for specific projects.

Supportive services for homeless and other special needs populations are provided by Allegheny County and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, through private foundations, the United Way, and other charitable organizations; and through the thousands of volunteers in Allegheny County.

The City will continue to work with Allegheny County, through the City-County Homeless Steering Committee, to coordinate jointly the development and ongoing funding of homeless and other special needs population facilities and support services. All future funding requests will continue to be submitted jointly by the City and the County.

Maps

MAP 1 depicts points of interest in the jurisdiction.

MAP 2 depicts points of interest and low-moderate income areas.

MAP 3 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and minority concentration levels.

MAP 4 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and unemployment levels.

MAP 5 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects.

MAP 6 depicts Northwest Pittsburgh points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and proposed HUD funded projects.

MAP 7 depicts Southwest Pittsburgh points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects.

MAP 8 depicts Southeast Pittsburgh points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and proposed HUD funded projects.

MAP 9 depicts Northeast Pittsburgh points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded project(s) from a street level vantage point; in addition, a table provides information about the project(s).

To comment on Pittsburgh's Consolidated Plan, please contact:
Chris Shae
Principal Economic Planner
Department of Development

Phone: (412) 255-2230
Fax: (412) 255-2838

Return to Pennsylvania's Consolidated Plans.