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A Growing Need for Affordable Housing & Sustainable Communities

ACTION-Housing Inc.

Many Pittsburgh neighborhoods are experiencing a resurgence in new development. As new homes and businesses take shape, affordability is crucial in some low-income areas, such as Uptown and Hazelwood.

Linda Metropulos is Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development at Action Housing, a non-profit that uses sustainable design to build affordable communities.

According to Metropulos the average person does not understand that we’re experiencing a housing crisis because the issue hasn’t been in the dialogue.

"We’re moving forward with many new housing developments in neighborhoods like East Liberty...but not scaled at a rent level that is affordable to people from moderate to low-income.”  The work of Action Housing is predominantly focused on households with incomes at 60% area median incomes. So for a 1-person household, the median income in Pittsburgh is about $45,000 to $46,000 this year. And so we're building properties that are affordable and set aside for people making 60 percent of that, so about 27 or 28 thousand a year or less."

But many Pittsburgh residents don’t fit this socioeconomic level and find it hard to keep affordable housing, "There are opportunities if you have very low income and opportunities if you have higher income, but it is that median income and above, that middle income household that is really starting to see the squeeze in Pittsburgh."

 

Also in this segment: Diana Nelson Jones, writer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette City Walkabout

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