URA creates program to help community land trusts rehab, build for-sale affordable housing

Pittsburgh’s Urban Redevelopment Authority has approved creating a program that would provide funding to community land trusts to rehabilitate or build for-sale affordable housing.

The program will provide grants and low-interest construction financing “for the purpose of increasing the supply of permanently affordable housing for home ownership,” according to the URA.

The city has invested $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for the initiative, said Evan Miller, the authority’s director of housing.

“It’s slated to be a grant program that allows up to $100,000 per rehabbed unit and $130,000 per newly constructed unit,” Miller said.

The program requires that the housing units remain affordable for people making up to 80% of the area median income for at least 99 years.

“These are intended to be long-term affordable, lifetime affordable,” URA board member Lindsay Powell said.

Miller said he anticipates that applications for the initiative should open up within a month or two.

“Taking a one-time federal infusion from ARPA to seed community-controlled, permanently affordable homes is a massive, massive win for our city,” said Ed Nusser, executive director for the City of Bridges Community Land Trust.

City of Bridges serves as an affordable housing developer that renovates existing homes and constructs new ones. All of the homes they create and sell will remain affordable in perpetuity.

The URA board unanimously approved creating the program last week.

This comes after the authority last month launched an affordable housing preservation program that provides financial assistance to ensure existing affordable housing remains affordable and on the market.

Officials designated $8.9 million in American Rescue Plan Act money for that initiative, which aims to dissuade owners of affordable housing units from shutting down affordable units or converting them to market-rate housing. The money allocated for that initiative will fund the acquisition, rehabilitation and operation of existing affordable housing in the city.