All of us, regardless of where we live or what we look like, deserve homes that are safe, affordable and accessible. Yet across Pittsburgh, housing has become increasingly unaffordable. Against this trend, a grassroots movement for housing justice has been gathering momentum. Among its successes is inclusionary zoning (IZ), which requires new housing developments over 20 units to price 10% of units affordably for low-income residents.
The policy first began in Lawrenceville in 2019 and has grown to include Bloomfield, Polish Hill and Oakland. In its short lifespan and small footprint, the ordinance is already on its way to producing over 150 units of affordable housing in neighborhoods experiencing gentrification.
Whether you’re living through it or watching it play out in our rapidly changing neighborhoods, the housing crisis in Pittsburgh is real and top of mind for many people in the city. Nearly 8,000 affordable housing units are needed for the lowest-income residents, according to the city’s latest Housing Needs Assessment. This crisis disproportionately impacts Black residents, exacerbating segregation and contributing to the loss of 10,000 Black residents between 2010 and 2020.
While developers meet behind closed doors with members of our City Council, our neighbors understand that IZ is common sense and that everyone should benefit from new housing opportunities as a neighborhood grows. If we’re serious about addressing our city’s woeful housing crisis and deeply ingrained segregation, then we need to ensure all of our neighbors are safely and affordably housed in Pittsburgh.
IZ’s detractors want our communities to believe that it undermines development and risks killing new housing deals, but a new independent report by Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG) clearly demonstrates that there’s lots of national and local evidence that IZ is producing affordable housing and promoting mixed-income neighborhoods, without reducing new housing. Locally, the empirical evidence shows that even under the most challenging circumstances, IZ isn’t slowing development. In the six-year period since IZ’s passage in Lawrenceville, 96% more housing units were entitled per year on average in projects that fall under IZ’s mandate, despite this period’s well-known challenges from pandemic disruptions, soaring construction costs and ballooning interest rates.
Detractors — including some on City Council — have spread misleading data, creating narratives around IZ that are sometimes disingenuous and do nothing more than serve as another barrier to the affordable housing that city residents deserve a fair chance to enjoy.
The most egregious example of this is the so-called “enhanced inclusionary zoning” legislation introduced by Councilperson Bob Charland, which reconfigures a policy intended to deliver units for Pittsburgh’s most vulnerable renters into a line of public subsidy for corporate developers to build housing that is out of reach for the average working family. This misses the point of IZ, and introduces unfairness, confusion and uncertainty to a market that needs just the opposite.
There is no single magical solution to Pittsburgh’s housing crisis: IZ is only one part of a strategy that includes other recent efforts like the Fair Housing amendments introduced by Mayor Ed Gainey, funding towards Right to Counsel that was passed at City Council last September, subsidy through the affordable housing bond and the Housing Opportunity Fund, permitting reform and a more comprehensive overhaul of the zoning code — not to mention efforts to grow our capacity for social housing and strengthening tenant rights.
By any fair reckoning, Pittsburgh’s IZ policy has proven to be a success in bridging these gaps, and it’s time to expand it citywide. You don’t need to be a policy expert to recognize the need for sustainable housing solutions for all Pittsburghers amid deepening segregation and inequity and rocketing housing costs across the city.
To truly keep Pittsburgh home for all of us, building homes that are affordable to middle and low-income families, Black and brown working people in all our neighborhoods must be the Planning Commission and City Council’s top priority. Making sure new residential development includes room for all our neighbors should be the key indicator of success for our housing policy in Pittsburgh.
Andrea Boykowycz is executive director of the Oakland Planning & Development Corporation. Jala Rucker is co-chair of Pittsburgh Housing Justice Table. Jon Hanrahan is co-chair of Fineview & Perry Hilltop Housing Working Group.