More than a year after the concept was first introduced, zoning changes that would pave the way for Pittsburgh to build tiny houses and other temporary managed communities for the homeless is advancing.
Pittsburgh’s Planning Commission on Tuesday unanimously supported a zoning bill that would allow for interim housing. That could include building tiny house communities or renovating existing buildings into temporary shelters where people could have their own rooms.
City Council members Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, and Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, in November 2023 first pitched the idea, suggesting it would be a safer, more dignified alternative to the tent encampments that crop up throughout the city.
The model would allow people more privacy and security than group shelters, the pair said, and give people an opportunity to get back on their feet.
But Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration initially questioned whether the legislation would force the city to clear out other homeless camps, a concern other officials dismissed. The administration also voiced concerns about how the bill would mesh with the city’s existing zoning code.
The first proposal was scrapped, but the mayor included the same concept in a broader zoning package he introduced in September.
Gross and Coghill have since pulled the section dealing with these transitional housing options out from Gainey’s bigger bill, which has yet to be introduced to council amid heated debates over its approaches to bolstering affordable housing and other legislation that competes with some aspects of the package.
Council members believed the bill was “too important to be tied up” within a broader zoning package that will likely be debated for months, said Shawn Carter, council’s legislative projects manager.
Under the proposal, no interim housing community could remain in place for longer than four years. The temporary communities would have electricity, running water, trash removal and an array of supportive services, like job training, mental health care and resources to connect people to more permanent housing options.
The model has been heralded as a success in other cities throughout the nation. Officials in places that have rolled out the concept already have said these types of housing options reduce the number of unsheltered homeless people living on the streets, are more readily accepted than traditional group shelters and offer a more successful path for people to move into permanent housing.
The Planning Commission on Tuesday voted in support of amending the city’s zoning code to allow for tiny houses and other interim housing options.
The measure now returns to City Council for a final vote.