Affordable housing survey response
County: Allegheny County
Area type: City
Age group: 50+
Education: Grad/Prof degree
2024 presidential vote: Kamala Harris
Proposed building floors: 8
Position: Strongly oppose
Best aspects (respondent's words): We have a need for affordable, well-maintained housing to care for our diverse population: our unhoused, young students, working-class individuals, middle-class families, retirees, and others living on fixed incomes. We're an affluent neighborhood as a whole, and part of the richness of our lives comes from maintaining this diversity. Our older housing stock largely focuses on large single-family homes that are increasingly divided into sub-units, in part due to rising housing costs and the profit to be found in market-rate rentals. A multi-family building focused on affordable housing will be the start -- if only the start -- to address the issues of affordability, density, and the continued economic viability of our neighborhood for EVERYONE.
Worst aspects (respondent's words): This kind of proposal, where only a small percentage of units are actually allotted to those who need affordable housing most, is nothing more than posturing by developers. It's a back-door method to sneak in yet more market-rate housing and exploitative practices.