Module housing project helps redevelop 3 lots in Pittsburgh's Garfield neighborhood

A family with annual income of under $65,000 per year is going to have a tough time finding an affordable, move-in ready house in Pittsburgh.

In neighborhoods like Lawrenceville and East Liberty, some homes are selling at more than $600,000. In the Bloomfield-Garfield area. the market value for a new home is between $350,000 and $375,000, according to longtime Bloomfield Garfield Corp. Executive Director Rick Swartz.

That’s the dilemma Swartz faces as he works to redevelop those neighborhoods in the city.

On Thursday, Swartz joined Module Homes CEO Brian Gaudio and city officials including Chief Economic Development Officer Marty LaMar to cut the ribbon on three new houses on Black Street in Garfield. One is targeted for a family earning 80% of the mean income for Allegheny County — about $63,900 for a family of four.

“What this project has managed to do is take several vacant lots and found a way to develop them as housing and do a blend of market rate housing and affordable housing on the same site,” Swartz said.

The house targeted to be affordable is in the process of being sold. The others will be sold at market value, Swartz said.

This is the first project that East Liberty-based Module has developed in the city, Gaudio said.

Module fabricates the homes off-site in Clarion and then puts them together on the site. The process allows the company to complete projects faster.

It especially made a difference in this project, which was completed on schedule and not affected by coronavirus pandemic restrictions, Gaudio said.

The city celebrated the groundbreaking for the project in November and the three homes were finished in August.

Today, Marty LaMar helped cut the ribbon on@modulehousing new Garfield homes. A partnership with Bloomfield Garfield Corp and the URA to bring new affordable homes to the community. pic.twitter.com/lJ8yKt3YJ4

— Daniel Gilman (@danielgilman) August 20, 2020

It was a cooperative effort that involved Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority and Module.

Two of the lots were owned by the URA. Another was owned by Bloomfield-Garfield Corp.

The URA contributed about $130,000 of the $900,000 project from a trust fund the city set up in 2016 that uses proceeds of a 0.5% increase in the realty transfer tax to fund housing development in the city.

“It’s a way to spend taxpayer dollars not on staffing a bureaucracy … but to really try to rebuild inner city neighborhoods that have been in decline,” Swartz said.

The home that is targeted for affordability is being sold for $184,500. The others will sell at market value. One of them, at 5454 Black Street, is listed at $435,000 and the other home is a duplex that Module will be using as a show home.

“We’re excited to get a lot more houses built in the city of Pittsburgh,” Gaudio said. “We’d like to build more houses in Garfield, Lawrenceville, East Liberty. We have several projects in the hopper in those neighborhoods.”