Pittsburgh's URA to invest more than $2M in affordable housing preservation

Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority plans to spend more than $2 million to preserve over 420 apartments as affordable housing.

The money comes from the URA’s Housing Preservation Program, which the authority created in April with $8.9 million in pandemic relief money.

Wood Street Commons in Downtown is set to receive more than $1 million from the URA, the largest single investment being made. The 18-story building, built about 100 years ago, was designed as an affordable short-term rental site.

The Residences at Wood Street was founded 15 years ago to save the site from closure, the URA said. The organization preserved 259 single-occupancy rooms, which provide housing for vulnerable people, after acquiring the site in 2009.

Kevin Hanley, executive director of the Residences at Wood Street, said the organization has been making investments in the building since it bought it and will continue to do so to ensure they can maintain the affordable housing there.

According to the URA, 93 units are affordable for people making no more than 80% of the area median income, 90 are affordable for people making no more than 60% of the area median income and 76 are affordable for people making no more than half of the area median income.

The area median income ranges from $70,300 for an individual to $132,600 for a household of eight, according to the authority.

Wood Street Commons does not require down payments, security deposits or credit checks, according to the URA. It offers homeless programs, bridge housing, medical respite units and subsidized housing, the authority said. There’s also an on-site food pantry and a free store.

Another $500,000 is going toward a project at East Liberty’s New Pennley Place. The project, expected to cost $30 million, will combine two developments in that area into one.

The URA money will go toward rehabbing a multi-story apartment building and townhomes. There are 136 housing units there total, including 53 that are affordable for people making no more than half of the area median income and 54 that are affordable for people making no more than 60% of the median income.

The URA board also approved nearly $270,000 so that a nonprofit partner can take over the Marian Plaza Apartments in the city’s East Hills neighborhood. The transaction would return control of the property to the community-based nonprofit Marian Plaza Inc. The URA said its money will cover all but $10,000 of that project’s cost.

All 50 of the Marian Plaza apartments are affordable for people making no more than half of the area median income.

“We very much appreciate the URA’s willingness to get involved in this and to help us keep affordable housing in the East Hills area,” said Tom Lowery, president of the Marian Plaza board.

An additional $200,000 is slated to go to the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation to renovate the Pacelli House, a six-unit Victorian house the organization owns in South Oakland.

The funding will help cover costs of renovations to the building, which is more than 100 years old, according to information presented to the URA board. The site includes five one-bedroom apartments that are affordable to people making no more than 80% of the area median income and a two-bedroom, market-rate unit.

“We’d love to be able to preserve the building, which has a great deal of meaning in the context of the neighborhood, and we would like to be able to improve the living conditions for the people who live in this building,” said Andrea Boykowycz, the interim director at the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation.

All of the housing preserved through the program will be required to remain affordable for at least 40 years.

The URA board last month approved $3.6 million in loans to support affordable housing preservation of 170 units.