Housing+Justice

//Achieving Housing Justice for our Human Rights City// //**"Don't evict Pittsburgh!"** The essence of ours and other cities are people and communities--not buildings, businesses, and tourist attractions. Too often the policies designed to bring "growth" to our cities displaces residents, devastates communities, and undermines basic human rights. **We say enough!** We demand respect for the rights and dignity of **all** residents, and we want policies that preserve those rights and protect the people, families, and communities who made Pittsburgh great.// **Housing Summit Website (November 2016)** The Housing Summit brought together diverse groups working to advance affordable housing in our region. This website contains resources and organizing tools, along with links to local and national groups advancing the human rights to housing. Pittsburgh Housing Justice Coalition homesforallpgh.org Pittsburgh’s economic re-development has earned it the reputation as a “most livable city.” But growing numbers of residents are raising the question, “livable for whom?” Despite our status as the fifth Human Rights City in the United States, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the reality of a growing divide between two Pittsburghs—one affluent, professional, and largely white, and the other low-income people with long-term roots in the region, largely people of color (see Black Homes Matter, by Pittsburgh's Homes for All Campaign). Our aim is to draw attention to the pervasive and persistent racial inequalities in our city, which have made our region's African American population among the most impoverished in the nation.

Despite the links between economic growth and urban diversity, Pittsburgh continues to have the whitest metro area among large U.S. cities, and this is worrying to local officials.It also has higher than national average rates of racial disparities in poverty, unemployment, and educational outcomes. African Americans in Pittsburgh fare far worse than those elsewhere in the country. And the future trends do not look promising, as Black residents are increasingly displaced from established neighborhoods to the suburbs. The University of Pittsburgh’s Center on Race and Social Problems reported that “Blacks often reside in areas where there are fewer resources for a good quality of life compared to more advantaged residential areas where Whites live" (see [|Pittsburgh’s Racial Demographics 2015: Differences and Disparities).]


 * Take Action**
 * **Demand Transparency, Action, and Accountability on Affordable Housing Task Force**
 * **Sign the petition** to call on public authorities to adopt the //**Hill District Community Plan**// for affordable housing in Lower Hill District.

Pittsburgh activists are working with national groups that are part of the Right to the City Alliance and the Homes for All Campaign.
 * National Organizations and Campaigns **

National Economic and Social Rights Initiative


 * Local**
 * Pitt Student advocates "Include Neighbors in Neighborhood Redevelopment" (Pitt News April 25, 2016)
 * Transit costs make "affordable housing" far from affordable for low-income working people of Pittsburgh (Post-Gazette April 3, 2016)
 * //**Housing rights advocates sue city over misspent development funds:**//
 * Pittsburgh Accused of Misusing Federal Housing Funds
 * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Feb. 19, 2014
 * City authorizes $250,000 to fight residents' lawsuit on housing justice

More at: Occupy Pittsburgh News- Local, independent reporting with attention to issues of development's impacts on housing and other human rights


 * Resources **
 * **//What is the Human Right to Housing?//**
 * //Black Homes Matter, a report on East Liberty and Northside housing realities and movement responses, issued// by Pittsburgh's Homes for All Campaign.
 * "Out of Reach" National Low Income Housing Coalition report on the gap between minimum wage and a "housing wage." Nowhere in the United States does a minimum wage worker earn enough to afford decent housing.
 * Managing Neighborhood Change Toolkit: Anti-Displacement Literature Review
 * Development without Displacement: Boston's Experience with Community Land Trusts
 * How Rising Commercial Rents Are Threatening Independent Businesses and What Cities Are Doing About It
 * ====[|Building a Just Baltimore for All: A Plan for a Fair Development Future]====
 * The Rise of the Corporate Landlord: The Institutionalization of the Single Family Rental Market and Potential Impacts on Renters
 * National #JustCause4Eviction Tookit

Northside Coalition for Fair Housing Hill District Consensus Group
 * Links**

homesforallpgh@gmail.com