Affordable Housing

On today’s episode of The Confluence: Deaths due to a drug overdose have hit a new record nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and we learn where Pennsylvania data fits into the trends; the Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank is trying to help facilities struggling with the infant formula shortages; and we examine a plan to create affordable housing through collective home ownership.Today’s guests include: Jennifer Smith, the state Secretary of Drug and Alcohol Programs; Denise O’Connor, founder and executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank; and Margaret J. Krauss, senior reporter at WESA.

Limited-equity cooperatives offer a way to ensure low housing costs in the long-term.

The report was released this week from the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group

The expansion includes Bloomfield and Polish Hill neighborhoods.

On today’s episode of The Confluence: WESA senior reporter Margaret J. Krauss explains why an affordable apartment complex previously held by East Liberty Development, Inc. is being sold, leaving many low-income residents scrambling for housing; and we hear from two parents who, after losing their daughter to a drug overdose, worked with the County Medical Examiner’s Office to bring other grieving families resources and information in the aftermath of a death.

On today’s episode of The Confluence: Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey campaigned on improving the city’s affordable housing market, but recent developments may make reaching those goals more difficult; how employers can look to neurodiverse adults to help fill vacancies; and the state’s looking to regulate PFAS, known as forever chemicals, in drinking water.

A new committee will lead the charge to find new and different resources.

Legislation is before City Council that would expand the city's existing inclusionary zoning to two additional neighborhoods.

Western Manor is one of three buildings for low-income seniors on the campus of a former tuberculosis hospital on Bedford Avenue. The rehab of the site was celebrated in the 1990s as a victory for elders and the neighborhood.

On today’s program: Attorney David Shrager explains why some case proceedings were postponed during the pandemic, and how courts are now getting around to the backlog. COVID-19 cases are going up in the county, with unvaccinated people at risk; Dr. Maya Ragavan with the Pittsburgh Community Vaccine Collaborative explains efforts to understand why people are vaccine-hesitant. And an investigation into McKeesport apartments where residents say conditions are unlivable.