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This section provides an overview of public housing and the HCV program in Pittsburgh.

This section shows that public housing and HCV households at HACP face many of the same challenges faces by public housing and HCV residents in the rest of the country.

The history of public housing in Pittsburgh mirrors the nation’s history with public housing. The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, established in 1937, was the first public

introduction of public housing, Pittsburgh, like many cities, had many poor communities with unsafe and overcrowded housing, and developed public housing as a way to improve the quality of housing for low-income residents and to reduce overcrowding.

In Pittsburgh, the flatland along the rivers was primarily used for industry and worker housing was moved to hilltop communities (Kleinberg, 1989). Pittsburgh’s early public housing developments constructed in the 1930s and 1940s aimed to improve housing conditions for the working poor and were located in the hilltop communities or away from downtown. In Pittsburgh, planning decisions were affected by political, economic, social, and geographic fragmentation.

The development of downtown Pittsburgh and the was prioritized over housing and social considerations (Bauman & Muller, 2006). By the end of the 1940s, eight public housing developments were constructed: Addison Terrace, Aliquippa Terrace, Arlington Heights, Allegheny Dwellings, Glen Hazel Heights, Broadhead Manor, St. Clair Village, and Bedford Hills Apartments (HACP, 2019). Redlining maps from the 1940s shows that these public housing developments, which were clustered in the Hill District, Northside, Glen Hazel, and Garfield, all coincided perfectly with the redlining maps, which indicated areas that were deemed poor investments (Rutan and Glass, 2018). These areas were identified as undesirable and residents would have trouble getting a mortgage to purchase property in these neighborhoods.

Like many cities in the United States, Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods were deeply affected by urban renewal which included the construction of highways and the Civic Arena (Fullilove, 2004).

The Civic Arena was built in 1958 and surrounding roadways led to the demolition of housing in the lower Hill District, creating a barrier between the Hill District and downtown Pittsburgh (Fullilove, 2004). The Hill District had been a strong and cohesive African American neighborhood known for its jazz clubs and the home of playwright August Wilson and

photographer Teenie Harris. In her book, Fullilove defined root shock as “the traumatic stress reaction to the destruction of all or part of one’s emotional ecosystem” (Fullilove, 2004). The physical changes in the neighborhood contributed to significant changes in the social and economic aspects of the neighborhood. Many of those who were displaced moved to other parts of the Hill District or to East Liberty or Homewood. Further isolating the Hill District was the removal of the funicular (Penn Incline) that connected the Hill District to Penn Avenue in the Strip District in 1953 (Fullilove, 2004). Residents of the Hill District relied upon the Penn Incline to commute to work and to shop in the market in the Strip District. Without the incline connecting the community to the Strip District and the street access to downtown through the Lower Hill, the residents were increasingly isolated. This includes the public housing residents who lived in Bedford Hill Apartments and Addison Terrace, two large public housing developments located in the Hill District.

In the 1960s HACP continued to expand its public housing inventory with 12 additional high-rise buildings throughout the city, and began to purchase scattered-site rental units throughout Pittsburgh. In 1976, HACP expanded housing options by implementing a housing choice voucher program which allowed residents to use a voucher to subsidize their rent in a privately-owned rental unit (HACP, 2019). During this time period, community organizing gained momentum and neighborhoods became more vocal about the changes occurring. Organizations such as ACTION housing developed as an advocate for these communities and to engage residents in the planning process (Lubove, 1996).

In the 1970s and 1980s, many of the area steel mills closed, Westinghouse cut jobs, and manufacturing and blue-collar jobs were lost. Between 1979 and 1987, the Pittsburgh metro area lost 127,500 manufacturing jobs (Trotter & Day, 2010). The transition from manufacturing jobs

to service and high-tech jobs was particularly difficult for African Americans in Pittsburgh and the number of black workers decreased from 9,400 in 1970 to 6,000 in 1980 (Trotter & Day, 2010).

During this time period there was a conscious shift from manufacturing jobs toward health care and education sector employment (Lubove, 1996). While Pittsburgh was initially seen as a model for post-industrial redevelopment, the engagement of the nongovernmental sector was uneven across the city and wages for nonmanufacturing jobs stagnated (Deitrick, 1999). By 1990, 41%

of Pittsburgh’s black families were living in poverty and the unemployment rate for black men was 37%, compared to 13% unemployment rate among white men (Trotter & Day, 2010).

In the 1990s and 2000s, HACP aimed to deconcentrate subsidized housing and better integrate subsidized housing into communities (HACP, 2019), initially with HOPE VI projects.

By 1990, 70% of the black residents in HACP public housing wanted to move out of public housing (Trotter & Day, 2010). Bedford Hills Apartments, the first public housing in Pennsylvania, was redeveloped through the HOPE VI program. The redevelopment was done in four phases and was finally completed in 2009. Aliquippa Terrace and Manchester public housing were also demolished and redeveloped through the HOPE VI program, which created new mixed-income communities (Deitrick & Ellis, 2004). Despite the housing being in desperate need for redevelopment, there were mixed feelings among the residents about the demolition. Some families welcomed the change, while others felt a strong sense of home in those buildings and were concerned about having to move out of their communities (Trotter & Day, 2010).

Development in Pittsburgh continued and in 2009 the first phase of redevelopment at Garfield Heights was also completed.

In 2001 HACP was designated a moving to work (MTW) agency and was granted greater leverage to develop innovative policies to increase residents’ self-sufficiency and improve

cost-efficiency (HACP, 2009). The redevelopment of the older properties has helped HACP to achieve all three goals of the MTW demonstration by reducing the cost of property maintenance and management, improve the provision of resident services, and to facilitate public-private partnerships allowing HACP to leverage public funds to attract private investment. In 2003, HACP began to shift to a site-based management approach which was modeled after the private sectors approach to property management. HACP found that the site-based management approach both improved rent collection rates and services to residents (HACP, 2009).

At the beginning of the study period, January 1, 2010, HACP was in the middle of its plan to redevelopment of the older public housing developments. Construction on the second phase of redevelopment at Aliquippa Terrace was underway. Rebranded as Oak Hill, the second phase of development included 670 units of mixed-income units including public housing, low income housing tax credit (LIHTC), and market-rate housing units. During the second phase of redevelopment, the Wadsworth Community Center was also updated. In the same year, the redevelopment of 88 public housing units at Bedford Hill was also completed, as well as the redevelopment of the first phase of mixed-finance redevelopment in Garfield using a combination of public funds, tax incentives, and private investment (HACP, 2009).

By the end of the study period, 2017, HACP had made significant changes to its housing inventory. In 2017, the redevelopment of Addison Terrace in the Hill District was nearing completion as 267 project-based vouchers and 13-market rate units were completed, and the first phase of the Choice Neighborhood Initiative in the Larimer neighborhood was completed, which included 28 project-based voucher units and the second phase of development, which would have 150 mixed-income units and 75 subsidized units in privately-owned housing, was under construction (HACP, 2009).

Figure 2 below shows a timeline of major national policy changes and HACP development, demolition, and programs. This shows that HACP’s public housing inventory expanded rapidly in the 1940s – 1970s when those properties had fallen into disrepair and were no longer meeting the maintenance standards, HACP demolished many of its high-rise and large housing developments and replaced them with smaller mixed-income developments through the HOPE VI program and Choice Neighborhood Initiative.

Figure 2-1. Timeline of major national housing policies and HACP initiatives