Authority will move units out of public housing program
More than 800 public housing units in Pittsburgh will be converted to privately owned Section 8 housing under a city Housing Authority plan.
The conversion will involve 225 units at the Glen Hazel Family and Bernice Crawley Glen Hazel High Rise in Hazelwood; 67 units at Murray Towers in Squirrel Hill; 475 units at Oak Hill in Oakland and 38 units at New Pennley Place in East Liberty.
The plan took another step forward Thursday, when Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh board members unanimously approved resolutions authorizing the agency to move forward in executing agreements with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding converting the units under a program known as RAD — for Rental Assistance Demonstration.
The RAD program aims to infuse a new source of money for needed upgrades and repairs that wouldn't otherwise be available to traditional public housing — much of which is older and faces
HOUSING, FROM A-1 declining federal funding from Congress. By converting it to Section 8 housing that is owned by a new entity — no longer the housing authority — that allows more debt to be leveraged which can be used for repairs and improvements, said David Weber, chief operations officer for HACP.
“It's a more reliable funding stream over many years,” Mr. Weber said.
He said the impact on tenants should be minimal.
Miles Byrne, development director for Oak Hill, said the RAD program will allow improvement such as replacing carpet, cabinets and air conditioning units.
HUD says the program is critical “in order to reinvest in ... public housing stock” and given the $25.6 billion dollar backlog of needed public housing capital improvements nationally. Residents will continue to pay 30 percent of their income towards their rent as they do now, according to HUD.
While the program can be a way to infuse needed cash into aging public housing stock, it does require careful monitoring to make sure tenant rights are protected, said Jessica Cassella, a staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project.
“There is some level of oversight by HUD. We think it should be stronger,” she said.
Kevin Quisenberry, staff attorney in Pittsburgh at the Community Justice Project, a nonprofit law firm within the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, said a RAD conversion “creates risks that will require special effort by HACP to avoid.”
Tenants must still be able to participate in “important decisions affecting the property and the right to due process, through the statutory grievance procedure, when faced with termination or other adverse actions” he said.
Mr. Quisenberry said he was surprised by the scope of Thursday’s board resolutions and “how far along HACP appearsto be in this process.”
A housing authority spokesman said the agency has been working to let residents know about what's happening.
“HACP has communicated regularly with the residents of Glen Hazel and Murray Towers and has hosted community meetings to present information and take questions regarding RAD,” said Chuck Rohrer, an agency spokesman. Oak Hill and New Pennley Place both are privately managed already.
“This is a way to get new money in. It's private money, but you're getting long-term affordability, good management and improved properties coming out of it,” said Andrew Jakabovics, vice president, policy development, at Enterprise Community Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit low-income housing development specialistand advocate.
“There is also some concern that some of the advocates that don't necessarily like RAD, that once you bring the private sector in and dip their toe in the water, it's a slippery slope,” he added.
At the Glen Hazel complex on Friday, one resident who declined to give her name said she had heard rumors that the site would be converted to Section 8 but was unaware of any community meetings or formal notifications about the process.