Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, who took office in January, made expanding the region’s supply of affordable housing a major theme in her campaign.
In March, she announced Ed Nusser, then the executive director of City of Bridges Community Land Trust, would serve as her director of housing strategy, a newly created position, where he would “lead a comprehensive vision for the county around the critical topic of housing.”
Nusser sat down with WESA last week to discuss what he views as some of Allegheny County’s housing challenges and opportunities, starting with the major housing-related initiative county officials announced earlier this month: “500 in 500,” which aims to create or identify an additional 500 units of affordable housing in the next 500 days to help people exit homelessness.
“One of the things that folks most perceive about housing challenges is the increase of unhoused neighbors that are on the street right now,” Nusser said. “And just from a pure human dignity perspective, that's unacceptable.”
The underlying idea of 500 in 500 is that, amid escalating rents and home prices, the county lacks enough affordable housing and needs to grow the number of units available for people to leave shelters.
“We see that in the data, [we] see that in the people that come to our shelter system now — [these] are individuals who are largely economically homeless. There is a lack of affordable housing for folks to rely on,” he said.
The initiative has won support from other public officials, local philanthropies the Buhl Foundation, Eden Hall Foundation, Heinz Endowments and the Richard King Mellon Foundation, as well as housing providers Action Housing, Brandywine Communities, and nonprofit Rising Tide Partners.
The program is “both bold and ambitious, but also achievable,” Nusser said, adding that he hopes progress will take off in the coming months.
Among the first properties to be part of the initiative will likely be a former Vincentian nursing home on Stanton Avenue in Stanton Heights, which is slated to become up to 50 units of bridge and transitional housing for individuals to leave shelters, get back on their feet, and be set up for permanent stable housing after some time there. The city’s Zoning Board last month granted a change in use for the building to allow it to be used by Community Human Services Corporation for its Bridge Employment and Training Program, which would provide transitional housing for up to 56 people experiencing housing instability.
“Beginning to look more at places like that — that we can bring 30, 40, 50, new homes online through vacant buildings, through things that are underutilized or just not being used at all right now is going to be a key strategy,” Nusser said.
Other potential housing initiatives in the works, Nusser said, include working on a Housing Advisory Committee under the Allegheny County Health Department which would include tenants and landlords; supporting first-time homebuyers; supporting municipalities that want to update zoning codes to allow for more housing density; and expanding the existing “Lawyer of the Day” program, which aids tenants facing eviction, to two municipalities outside of Pittsburgh.
He’s ultimately hopeful and optimistic, Nusser said, because city, county, state, and federal officials see housing as an urgent issue and are fighting to bring resources to address it.
“The challenges are many, and their scale can seem and feel insurmountable at times,” he said. “But I am really hopeful about the ability we have to chip away at these issues at the local level.”
