Pittsburgh looks to convert unused office space into residential units

Pittsburgh City Council is considering using $2.1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to convert unused Downtown office space into residential units.

This money had been earmarked for a guaranteed basic income pilot program proposed by former Mayor Bill Peduto. That initiative was to run through OnePGH, a nonprofit created under the Peduto administration.

Mayor Ed Gainey in April announced that he was scrapping the guaranteed basic income program and, on Wednesday, he announced that he also was cutting ties with OnePGH.

The Gainey administration has said it believes that the pilot program — which would have offered $500 monthly payments to 200 low-income Pittsburgh residents and tracked how they used the money for two years — was not eligible for ARPA funds.

“It was determined on the basis of U.S. Treasury Department guidance that that was not an eligible use of funds,” Office of Management and Budget Director Jake Pawlak said Wednesday.

The concept was tested in other cities across the country where people have been given monthly cash payments ranging from $500 a month in Stockton, Calif., to $1,000 a month for Black mothers in Jackson, Miss.

Instead, Gainey’s administration wants to use the money for a project that officials said would help provide much-needed housing and repurpose office space that has been sitting empty since many workers shifted to remote work during the covid-19 pandemic.

If City Council approves the measure, Pittsburgh will be joining Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and state Sens. Jay Costa and Wayne Fontana to create a $9 million pilot program that would revitalize historic office buildings in Downtown Pittsburgh as residential spaces.

The state has already committed $3 million to the initiative.

Legislation in front of City Council also would put $2 million in ARPA funding towards the final purchase of Hays Woods and $8.9 million into housing preservation.

The measure was unanimously advanced Wednesday, meaning council will likely take a final vote next week.

This comes as officials are also considering putting $2.5 million in ARPA funding into a trust fund that would support Gainey’s Comprehensive Bridge Asset Management Program, meant to ensure the city’s bridges are safe and funded.

Pittsburgh had about $260 million in unallocated ARPA funding when City Controller Michael Lamb released his popular annual financial report late last month. The city received about $335 million in ARPA money in total. The cash must be used by the end of 2024.

In explaining the decision to cut ties with OnePGH fund, Gainey spokesperson Maria Montaño had said the future of the program was unclear after the administration pulled out of the guaranteed basic income pilot initiative.

“It has become clear that our priorities were headed in a different direction,” said Deputy Chief of Staff Felicity Williams.

Williams on Wednesday resigned her seat on the OnePGH Fund board of directors.

Gainey said his administration would still honor the contracts and programs already approved through OnePGH, including a $9,000 commitment to Allegheny Goatscape to provide vegetation management in the Hazelwood Greenway and $60,000 to Landforce to provide trail maintenance and other landscape and forestry work in the Hazelwood Greenway.

Senior Grants Officer Melanie Ondeck is also stepping down from her role as secretary and board administrator.