Graphic of housing advocates at a rally
Sign-on to Keep PGH Home and Pass the Fair Housing Package!
Add your name and/or organization to join in support!
Organizational Sign-on

412 Justice
Access Mob Pittsburgh
    Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS)
Casa San Jose
Community Charge LLC
Hazelwood Initiative, Inc.
Human Rights City Alliance
Lawrenceville United
Macedonia FACE
Mobilify Southwestern Pennsylvania
Neighborhood Community Development Fund
Our Streets Collective
Pennsylvania United
Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group
Pittsburgh Food Policy Council
Pittsburgh Union of Regional Renters
Pittsburgh United
Pittsburghers for Public Transit
Project Love Coalition
Regency Crest Realty Inc.
Sunrise Movement Pittsburgh
and dozens more community members say:

Whether you are Black or white, wealthy or working class, Pittsburgh should be a place that everyone can afford to call home.

However, just like many cities across the country, Pittsburgh is in the midst of a severe affordable housing crisis. Over the past four decades, while the city's housing stock crumbled and neighborhoods endured major disinvestment, new housing was only built for the wealthiest and the prospect of homeownership was pushed further out of reach for working families. After years of community organizing, Mayor Gainey is proposing a robust legislative package that begins to address our housing crisis. This package takes important first steps towards building homes for all - but development interests are trying to derail this momentum. The time is now for Pittsburghers to take collective action so that people of all ages, races, abilities, and incomes can call our city home.

Maintaining the status quo is harmful and cannot be an option. Pittsburgh's housing crisis crosses communities: it affects older adults who cannot afford to age in place, and young families who want to stay in a city with quality transit infrastructure, access to childcare, healthcare and employment opportunities. It affects small Pittsburgh businesses that cannot recruit staff to fill their workforce needs because their labor pool has been displaced far away into outlying municipalities. Our City needs to take bold and immediate action to reverse this affordable housing crisis, and to ensure that all residents can continue to call Pittsburgh home. Investing in local solutions needs to happen now! We need to brace ourselves against the federal government's shift towards austerity and corporate profiteering in 2025.

That is why we support Mayor Gainey's proposal to Implement the Housing Needs Assessment and will continue to advocate for policies that make Pittsburgh a place that all can call home. This package of zoning and policy changes was developed out of years of research and recommendations from the 2022 Pittsburgh Housing Needs Assessment, as well as assessments of successful policies in peer cities. 

The key elements of this housing and zoning package include: 

  • Citywide inclusionary zoning to require new developments to make 10% of their housing units affordable to low-income Pittsburghers;
  • Zoning for more multifamily housing near our best transit assets to support transit riders and our transit system; 
  • Eliminating costly parking minimums and instituting parking maximums to ensure that non-drivers are not subsidizing car owners with their rental costs; and 
  • Making it easier for homeowners to create accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on their property to allow older adults to age in place with their children and grandchildren.
  • Allow for homes to be built on smaller lots, which will allow more people to live within walking distance to our most thriving neighborhoods.

These proposals are the product of years of community organizing and advocacy, which will need to continue so we can build on our successes. Many of these proposals are fulfillments of the Pittsburgh 100 Day Transit Platform drafted in 2021 by Pittsburghers for Public Transit, Pittsburgh United's Housing Justice Table, and dozens of other organizations and residents with lived experiences. We ask you to join us in supporting these policies that will ensure the production of more affordable rental units for everyday Pittsburghers, and also make development more streamlined and cost-effective. We know that none of these policies are a silver bullet; solving the housing crisis has no easy answer. But this package acts collectively to begin to reverse the decades of displacement and disinvestment at the expense of ordinary Pittsburgh residents. 

Mayor Gainey's housing and zoning policies are a first step and an important one. We need to get these housing and zoning changes across the finish line in order to begin to stem the bleeding, but there is more work to be done to ensure that all Pittsburgh residents, including low-income residents, can afford to call Pittsburgh home. 

We are committed to continuing the fight for housing as a human right, by organizing for: 

  • Standardized and expanded equitable transit-oriented development around ALL of our best transit assets and service. 
  • Bringing more housing and businesses that meet the needs of all people within walking distance of all the Busway and T stations, the forthcoming University Line, and our high-frequency transit corridors including Butler St and Carson St.
  • A higher percentage of affordable housing units in these transit corridors. More transit riders deserve to live close to the public transit that they rely on. Our transit assets, like the Busway and the T, are public investments that substantially increase the value of adjacent development, and developers should provide some return for the public's investment by ensuring that folks of all incomes can access our public transit system. 
  • Finally, we will continue to organize for requirements around affordable AND accessible units, to ensure that Pittsburgh residents with disabilities will also be able continue to call Pittsburgh home.

Add your name to this sign-on today to keep Pittsburgh home and support more affordable housing in our city.