On Thursday the board of Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority will vote on a key step to begin overhauling the oldest public housing development in the city, Bedford Dwellings.
The vote is poised to be “really the first concrete step towards fulfilling a much broader vision,” said Bill Gatti of Trek Development, which is spearheading the redevelopment.
That vision involves the replacement of 411 housing units at Bedford Dwellings, which opened in 1940, and the construction of an additional 422 homes. The project got a jump-start this summer, when it was awarded a highly competitive $50 million Choice Neighborhoods grant by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The program replaces public housing, but also asks its partners to plan for the broader neighborhood, and to support the people within it. Community groups have met with Trek and agencies including the URA and the city’s Housing Authority to plan for Choice for more than five years, Gatti said. Gatti said that “everything that we do — selecting these sites, the design, the management, the services that we provide — are all viewed through three lenses” focused on housing, the neighborhood, and the residents.
In order to begin the first phase of construction, the URA board must approve the sale of 28 parcels of land on Reed, Roberts, Miller, and Colwell streets.
That vote is expected Thursday, and Gatti expects to break ground on the first phase in November. It will involve the construction of 123 new homes spread across two multi-unit buildings with elevators and 19 townhomes. Ninety-nine units will be affordable to people who earn less than 60 percent of the area median income — in 2023 that’s less than $42,180 for an individual, and less than $60,240 for a family of four. Of the new homes, 90 will be replacements for the people who now live in the Somers Drive section of Bedford Dwellings.
Also on Thursday, the URA board will hear a proposal to expand the URA’s OwnPGH program, which helps people buy their first home. Currently the URA, in conjunction with the Housing Authority, offers applicants up to $90,000 in deferred mortgages to help purchase a home. The proposed changes would maintain that amount even if support from HACP ended. The changes would also extend help to all homebuyers with low incomes, and not just first-timers — though URA regulations would not allow beneficiaries to own more than one home.
In addition, the expanded OwnPGH program would allow developers building affordable for-sale homes to apply for funding to lower the cost of their units.
