URA considers program to provide up to $90K for some Pittsburgh home buyers
The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh is eyeing a partnership with the Housing Authority of the City Pittsburgh that could provide up to $90,000 to first-time low-income homebuyers in the city.
Dubbed OwnPGH, the program is an effort to help low-income residents afford to buy houses in Pittsburgh.
The money would be available to first-time home buyers only, and home buyers would need to make 80% of the area median income to qualify, according to draft guidelines presented to the URA board on Thursday.
For example, a person would need to make around $53,100 to qualify for a household of one, but could make up to $100,000 to qualify for an eight-person household. That’s because income requirements are calculated based on the number of people in a home.
“Home buyers will be eligible for $90,000 in housing grants and financing to lower the purchase price and make the dream of home ownership accessible to a lot more people within the city,” said Derek Kendall-Morris, manager of consumer lending in the URA’s residential consumer lending department.
The OwnPGH program would provide grants of up to $50,000 to eligible homeowners from the URA, using a $15 million federal American Rescue Plan Act allocation the city sent to the authority.
The city housing authority would offer a second deferred mortgage of up to $40,000.
The deferred mortgage would require no regular payment from the borrower, carry a 0% interest rate and be forgiven at a rate of 10% of the original balance per year.
Homeowners who bought a house through OwnPGH and stay in it for at least 10 years will have their second deferred mortgages fully forgiven.
Houses purchased through the program will be subjected to a 30-year affordability restriction, meaning homeowners selling properties purchased through OwnPGH would need to sell to another household that makes beneath 80% of the area median income. They could also sell the property to community land trusts.
The URA is now taking feedback about the draft guidelines for the program and plans to have a finalized version ready for board approval next month.
Julia Felton is a TribLive reporter covering Pittsburgh City Hall and other news in and around Pittsburgh. A La Roche University graduate, she joined the Trib in 2020. She can be reached at jfelton@triblive.com.
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