Protester questions board member’s link to land

Pastor’s church owns site of center

A new affordable-housing development being planned for Homewood will include a community center on land owned by a church where a housing authority board member is the pastor.

The 58 new units are being developed by the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh and its nonprofit development arm, Allies and Ross Management and Development Corp., and developer KBK Enterprises.

The plan calls for 16 marketrate units, 42 affordable units and a 2,530-square-foot community center.

“The current version of the plan, as well as all previously released versions of the plan, call for the center to be built on land owned by Nazarene Baptist Church,” said a statement from housing authority officials.

The Rev. Ricky Burgess, a city council member and member of the Housing Authority’s board of commissioners, is also pastor of the Nazarene Baptist Church, 7053 Hamilton Ave., in Homewood.

Housing authority officials said using the church’s land was necessary to develop the area by utilizing vacant land only, “with as little displacement as possible of existing residents. The church’s land provided the best opportunity to achieve this goal.”

The housing authority will purchase the land from the church “at an amount that will

be determined by a thirdparty appraisal service,” according to a housing authority statement.

No one from the church could be reached Friday.

The issue was of concern to at least one demonstrator at a groundbreaking for the housing on Thursday.

“Nobody else gets a sweet deal like that,” said Judith Ginyard, one of about 20 demonstrators who was unhappy with what she and others said was a lack of community input about the new housing. Ms. Ginyard previously ran against Rev. Burgess for the District 9 council seat.

Rev. Burgess was not present at the housing authority board meeting in September when the plan was unanimously approved by board members, as part of a larger resolution to authorize funds for the fourth phase of the redevelopment of the former Addision Terrace site in the Hill District.

Rev. Burgess could not be reached for comment Friday.

Construction on the housing units should begin later this year and be completed next year, housing authority officials said Thursday.

Developers KBK and Allies and Ross plan to submit a Volume Cap Tax Exempt Bond Financing application to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for the development.

Development costs are estimated at $21.8 million — about $12.4 million in housing authority investment, $5.4 million in tax credits, and $4 million in private construction loan financing, according to officials.