Discussions about Pittsburgh’s housing stock last year led to public bickering by the city’s mayoral candidates.
During a debate before the May primary, Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor slammed his predecessor over the topic.
Did Ed Gainey deliver 1,600 units of affordable housing as he boasted? Or, as O’Connor put it, was Gainey “lying?”
Now a city councilman is trying to create a neutral way to answer such questions.
Councilman Bob Charland, D-South Side, drafted a bill, approved unanimously Tuesday by City Council, that will instruct various city departments to team up to create a publicly accessible dashboard tracking housing.
“Actually measuring places where a family or an individual or anyone can live is really important,” Charland said last week ahead of an initial vote on his bill. “It’s something that modern cities do and something we haven’t done here yet.”
Tracking how many units are built in Pittsburgh each year can prove important when contemplating legislation or zoning changes that could impact housing construction.
The dashboard, according to Charland, could help inform decisions on housing policy.
“What gets measured gets improved,” Charland said.
Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, said he was “surprised” the city didn’t have such a tool online already.
“I think it’s vital to have that information,” Coghill said last week.
Charland said the initial goal is to track basic information about how many new housing units have been built. The dashboard will look at market-rate and affordable units and include units that were previously empty but rehabilitated and put back on the market.
Eventually, he said, other metrics could be added to help track occupancy rates, cost breakdowns or information on how long construction takes.