$31.6M bond will support Pittsburgh affordable housing initiatives

Pittsburgh and the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority said Thursday that the URA closed on a $31.6 million bond to support affordable housing initiatives in the city.

Officials have not yet released a plan detailing how the money will be spent.

City Council voted this summer to provide the URA with $2.5 million a year for 25 years — a total of $62.5 million — to cover the cost of the bond.

“Affordable housing is not just something to banter about during election time,” Mayor Ed Gainey said in a statement. “It’s absolutely critical for our communities to continue to thrive and allow our residents to remain in the place they call home.”

The URA is required to provide City Council with a more detailed report of how it intends to spend the money within 90 days. Officials said the URA will primarily invest the money into its existing affordable housing programs that aim to create and preserve affordable housing citywide.

“We will actively engage with our community, housing partners and City Council to ensure that our programming prioritizes the unique needs of the communities we serve,” URA Executive Director Susheela Nemani-Stanger said.

Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, was the only council member to vote against the measure on Thursday. He said he didn’t think the URA got a good deal, pointing out that the city will pay nearly $31 million in interest on the bond, a rate that he said is “just unacceptable to me.”

Coghill said he understood the desire to fund affordable housing projects that could hit the market fast amid what many have called an affordable housing crisis, but he didn’t think the move was financially prudent.

Coghill also said he was concerned that allocating $62.5 million over 25 years to pay off the bond could hurt the city’s ability to take on additional debt to meet other needs, such as purchasing the city’s police headquarters.