Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority is proposing an overhaul of its Small Landlord Fund, aiming to reach more landlords — and ultimately help house more people, officials said Thursday.
The Small Landlord Fund is a program for “mom and pop” landlords who own 10 or fewer rental units. The fund assists with repairs and renovations up to $20,000 per unit, or a maximum of $100,000 per project for each landlord.
The program is intended to help preserve existing affordable rental housing or the conversion of market or vacant housing to affordable housing in Pittsburgh, according to a URA report presented at Thursday’s meeting.
Under proposed changes, the program would offer a deferred loan that would be forgivable after a 10- or 15-year period. Landlords would not be required to make any monthly payments back to the URA as long as they're complying with the terms of the loan, which involves renting to tenants below certain income levels; landlords are also encouraged to rent to tenants with Section 8 vouchers.
The URA is accepting public comments for a month on the proposed changes, before voting on them at their April meeting.
The program has funded 14 projects since 2021 and had about 17 applications, “which obviously is not the utilization that we would like to see,” said Derek Kendall-Morris, manager of consumer lending for the URA.
“We really do hope that this will expand utilization of the program, and really help some of those small landlords out there who really are struggling to be able to continue to operate, and also to open up some additional units in the city for those lower-income tenants who are really struggling to find units that are available to them,” he added.
To give public comments about the Small Landlord Fund, email hof@ura.org.
