URA to vote on loan for takeover of troubled properties

The Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority is scheduled to vote Thursday on a halfmillion-dollar loan agreement with a nonprofit to purchase 140 units in the East End to preserve affordable housing and keep tenants from being displaced.

The $500,000 loan agreement would be with East Liberty Development Inc. “or a to-becreated entity with ELDI as the general partner” as part of a financing package for the East Liberty nonprofit to acquire and improve the BethesdaHomewood Properties.

The apartments are privately owned, but rent had been subsidized for tenants until recently, when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ended a Section 8 subsidy contract over what it said were poor conditions at the properties. Tenants at the properties, most of which are located in Homewood, now have the option of staying in the units without a rent subsidy, or applying for assistance from HUD to seek new housing.

A number of residents had expressed concerns they would not be able to find affordable units in their neighborhood, even with the assistance of a housing voucher, particularly if more than 100 other families were all trying to find housing at the same time.

“One of our primary goals is to prevent displacement,” said Kendall Pelling, director of land recycling for East Liberty Development Inc.

“Several community organizations including ELDI, Bloomfield Garfield Corp., the Larimer Consensus Group, and the Homewood Community Collaborative became very concerned that the existing tenants would not be able to find quality affordable housing in Pittsburgh’s East End. They were also concerned about what may happen to the properties and how these deteriorated properties may affect real estate values in the surrounding areas,” according to URA documents.

The URA board’s approval is contingent on “the successful creation of a to-be-determined ownership entity” and that entity or ELDI securing the funds needs to acquire the properties,