A first step

Find quick help for families victimized by landlord

As Pittsburgh’s housing market and federal policies on housing both undergo major change, low-income tenants are sometimes caught in a vise. Trapped by landlords who don’t properly maintain their properties, government agencies that react slowly and their own inability to make their voices heard, these residents end up in substandard dwellings. They may even face eviction through no fault of their own.

The latest flashpoint in the fight for affordable housing is a group of units called the Bethesda-Homewood Properties, most of which are in Homewood. More than 100 families face relocation because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development removed a Section 8 or subsidized housing designation for their homes. The government took that action due to the poor condition of the homes and theowner’s failure to upgrade them.

This would not be a crisis if there were many affordable housing units in the city and, in particular, in the same neighborhoods where the residents live. But this is not the case. The city’s Affordable Housing Task Force estimates that the city needs an additional 17,000 rental units for people on low or fixed incomes.

Pittsburgh City Council and the mayor’s office have been working on this problem for some time, but progress has been slow. In 2015 they created the task force, and the following year it published its recommendations. The task force proposed the creation of a housing trust fund with an initial goal of $10 million annually to assist low-income residents. Yet no one has decided how to fund this initiative. Mayor Bill Peduto has not included it in his draft budget, saying that council must decide how to fund it.

This week Bethesda-Homewood residents asked the mayor to intervene with federal officials so that they may stay in their homes. They are making their voices heard, and they deserve prompt action to resolve their grievances.