Next year will be the first time Pittsburgh’s Housing Opportunity Fund won’t have a backlog of cash to dispense. That puts more pressure on the fund’s advisory board to be selective about what it supports. At a meeting on Thursday, some members worried that even as the stakes are increasing, there’s still a lack of awareness about what the fund does.
Advisory board member Mark Masterson raised the concern after learning that the developers of a project in Brighton Heights have yet to reach out to the local neighborhood group. He commended the project, which will rehabilitate the Sheptytsky Arms Apartments and keep the building affordable for the next 40 years. But he lamented that too few people had been told about it.
“We’re doing a terrible job at outreach to let taxpayers know that this is their money at work,” he said. “This is a good thing, let’s shout it from the rooftops and make everybody aware of it.”
Advisory board member Adrienne Walnoha agreed, and said the board has to make sure people are familiar with the projects in their neighborhoods “and [have] a real and robust opportunity to intersect in that process.”
Walnoha noted there’s been a significant decline in public comment since the board began meeting digitally due to the pandemic. She worried technology barriers may be preventing participation.
While other advisory board members said developers should work with community groups more closely, Jamil Bey noted “we can’t hold them to a standard that we don’t have in writing.” Right now, developers are only required to have a nonprofit partner, not necessarily a local partner.
Advisory board members hope to at least partially address the issue in the coming months: At Thursday’s meeting they voted to form a working group to overhaul how funding requests are evaluated. The five-member group will be led by Masterson and Walnoha.
Advisory board chairperson Kellie Ware Seabron said that because funds are limited, it’s important to “use what we have to get folks to maximize all the things we care about.”
The HOF will also soon create its funding plan for 2022, and is asking members of the public to weigh in on what the priorities should be. The survey will run through July 30, and can be completed online or by phone at 412-447-7513. The Hilltop Alliance and Pittsburgh United will also hold a series of public meetings this month.
