Housing experts told Pittsburgh City Council members Wednesday that legislation is needed to protect vulnerable homeowners from predatory residential property wholesalers. Legislation introduced in August would require residential property wholesalers — corporations that buy up houses and sell, lease or use them for Airbnbs — to get an annual license.
Pittsburgh City Council will consider a measure to offer additional protection for renters who face domestic violence in the city. This bill would require landlords to permit domestic abuse victims to exit their leases early without penalty and would require them to change victims’ locks within five days upon request.
A multi-state settlement over Fair Housing Act violations will require a developer to improve access for people with disabilities at 50 senior apartment buildings, including several in Allegheny County and southwestern Pennsylvania.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
After a years-long court battle, a case before Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court this week could have a big impact on affordable housing in Pittsburgh for tenants who rely on subsidized housing vouchers and landlords.
At issue is an ordinance passed by Pittsburgh City Council in 2015 forbidding landlords in the city from discriminating against tenants based on “source of income,” such as a Housing Choice Voucher, commonly referred to as a Section 8 voucher. Shortly after the ordinance passed, the Apartment Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh filed suit and the law has never been enforced.
Vouchers allow low-income tenants to rent a house or apartment on the private rental market. Generally, a tenant pays roughly one-third of their income toward the rent, and a government subsidy makes up the rest. However, many landlords won’t accept the vouchers and say they don’t want to deal with the bureaucracy and home inspections that come with accepting the
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By most counts Pittsburgh is short some 20,000 units of affordable housing … but there’s not a lot of money to go around. 90.5 WESA’s Margaret J. Krauss reports even standout projects can run the risk of failure.
By most counts Pittsburgh is short some 20,000 units of affordable housing, and the number continues to grow. Meeting the need, while always a challenge, seems even more daunting against the backdrop of vast housing insecurity revealed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The city’s Housing Opportunity Fund, or HOF, is often a final stop for affordable housing projects; through its Rental Gap Program it can make the kind of last-piece-of-the-puzzle loans nonprofit developers need to make their numbers work. Earlier this month, the fund’s advisory board debated such a situation at Flats on Forward, at the corner of Forward and Murray Avenues.