Joseph Sabino Mistick: Think bigger than 'tiny homes' to aid our homeless

As most American cities grapple with record numbers of homeless citizens, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials continue to struggle to provide temporary and permanent housing for our region’s homeless population. Now, there is a city zoning amendment being proposed to allow a scattering of “tiny home” communities throughout Downtown and along the riverfronts.

This is a sincere attempt to address the needs of the homeless for safe temporary housing. And it has put the issue at the top of the news where it belongs. But it is the wrong proposal for the wrong place at the wrong time.

Let us start with this: The homeless are not rootless. They are our fellow citizens, our friends and family members. They have fallen on hard times, often not of their making. They deserve a comprehensive and permanent solution that gives them a helping hand in the American tradition.

That has been done in Milwaukee County, Wis. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, there were 17 unsheltered individuals in the county in 2021, the lowest per capita count of unsheltered homeless in the nation. That was down from 87 in 2020 and 114 the year before.

Milwaukee County accomplished that reduction with a “Housing First” strategy that focused on securing permanent housing to be followed by mental health, substance abuse and job training programs.

Milwaukee committed $110 million in federal emergency rental assistance funds and a state grant of $7 million to develop 100 homes near the county’s human services center. Milwaukee United Way has spent over $14 million on its “Safe & Stable Homes” program that helps families obtain financial and legal assistance before they lose their housing either through foreclosure or eviction.

Homelessness here is emphatically not just a Downtown Pittsburgh problem. It is an Allegheny County problem and a regional problem. The all-in approach that Milwaukee has used is exactly the strategy we need to use here.

In May 2023, Allegheny County Department of Human Services Director Erin Dalton told Pittsburgh City Council there are 900 homeless people in the county, including 150 who are unsheltered. Dalton’s department has the federal and state funds and the expertise to eliminate homelessness. The community should follow its lead.

The city of Pittsburgh is the city’s largest slumlord, sitting on thousands of vacant properties begging to be rehabilitated. Between the revitalized Pittsburgh Land Bank and blight-fighting laws like the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act, government and nonprofit developers can readily deliver permanent housing for the homeless.

It is hard to criticize any proposal to help the homeless without sounding insensitive or lacking in compassion. But some proposals are just not right or may do more harm than good by losing sight of the need to balance all the interests in our community.

With Downtown property values already in a steep spiral — cutting into the tax revenue that will be needed to address homelessness and the region’s other problems in the future — this is the wrong time to propose “tiny home” communities throughout Downtown.

Plus, there is no guarantee that these communities will be “temporary” as promised, and there is no opportunity for meaningful input from neighbors before approval.

But all the talk about “tiny homes” should lead to big ideas and big solutions. And the “tiny home” proposal does give us an opportunity to answer this question: Are we still our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers?