Include neighbors in neighborhood redevelopment

A company moves into a community, thousands of residents are forced out of it. Wash and repeat.

Our city is currently facing a wave of gentrification, an urban trend in which middle-class or wealthy people move into previously low-income neighborhoods. Rent prices and cost of living skyrocket and as big business and middle- and upper-class families move in, long-time minority residents are pushed out.

Public housing and low-rent homes vanish to make room for expensive buildings, leaving few options for low-income residents. Though developers include some “affordable” housing options, their level of affordability is based on the median income of the area, including that of their wealthy new neighbors.

Between 2007 and 2012, Pittsburgh’s average monthly rent rose $120 — a 23 percent jump that even outsized New York City’s notorious increases.

Those who deny the danger of gentrification claim that new developments are simply economic investments in low-income communities. This is not the case.

While the gentrification industry does involve economic profit, that profit goes to corporate developers —  not the low-income residents. Gentrification comes on the back of years of divestment, or the removal of investments in the community, and exacerbates the problem as it contributes little to the well-being of the community.

The only ones who benefit from gentrification are the private developers flipping homes for profit and constructing buildings, as developers typically hire from outside of the community.

Residents lose their homes and the community does not even gain jobs. Local small businesses, such as barbershops and other mom-and-pop shops, often suffer as new chains come in to meet the expectations of wealthier residents.

But this is more than an economic issue — it is a racial issue. It is not just a class difference between new and old residents — it is typically white upper-class people pushing black and brown families and individuals out of their homes.

Resisting gentrification means saying that Black Homes Matter, something that Pittsburgh doesn’t quite seem to acknowledge. For decades, Pittsburgh has pushed an urban policy that promotes the redevelopment of black and brown communities for profit.

East Liberty still faces the threat of increased gentrification at every corner, with new “luxury apartments” cropping up at every turn as more and more residents are priced out of their neighborhoods and pushed away from their jobs and support networks.

The community is at risk of becoming another Shadyside: a post-gentrified area that has seen low-income homes replaced by high-end boutiques while ugly racial undertones remain.

Since the 1990s urban renewal plan for East Liberty, 1,400 public housing units have been replaced with 450 mixed-income units. As a result, only 150 of the 546 original households in East Liberty could remain in the neighborhood and at least 14 locally owned businesses were forced to close their doors while national retail giants, such as Home Depot, opened up.

This is an old story with many chapters.

In the 1960s, the construction of the Civic Arena isolated the Hill District from the rest of downtown and infamously displaced 8,000 residents and 412 businesses. An entire section of the community moved to make room for development, missing out on the economic benefits that revitalizing neighborhoods supposedly brings.

When people become displaced from their houses, they do not just lose their properties — they lose their communities and the culture there. Gentrification pushes people further away from their jobs and their support networks, and the distance complicates commuting when bus fare and childcare can be expensive and unreliable.

Black residents lose access to Pittsburgh’s historic black neighborhoods and move further out of the city, to neighborhoods like Lincoln-Lemington and Northview Heights, where they can afford rent, find jobs and not face profiling for being the only people of color.

Even if they do find such a place, there’s no guarantee that the institutional help they need will actually come.

When longtime community members cannot afford to stay, they can apply for a voucher through the city’s Housing Choice Voucher Program. But this program leaves many on the waiting list for a voucher instead of helping them find their footing.

This waiting list was only open for two weeks in 2015, but in 2014, a similarly small window still yielded 5,000 applicants. When someone finally receives a voucher, they often find themselves right back on the list after it expires before they find a landlord willing to accept it.

Communities are already mobilizing against these injustices. Organizations like the Hill District Consensus Group fight to protect their communities and ensure that outsider developments come with community benefits agreements.

These agreements hold developers accountable to agreed-upon community demands, such as the Hill District’s grocery store or First Source Center, which ensures that local residents are hired first.

To deter gentrification, we need to ensure community members, not outsiders, dictate what development happens within their community. This can be done through community benefits agreements and other acts of resistance.

In the North Side, the tenant council in Northside Properties fought against the eviction of 300 low-income families and won. Since then, they received funding in 2008 which allowed them to buy out a majority of the companies and investors that previously owned their homes. As they now own their building, they are able to reinvest income into the properties to improve quality and safety.

It is essential that we support low-income communities to truly make Pittsburgh a city that is livable for all, where people can feel financially secure in their neighborhoods.

We must remember to put people over profit when it comes to redevelopment and keep in mind that no corporate financial gain is worth more than security and a home.

The value of a city should come from the families living there — not the companies passing through.

Alyssa primarily writes on social justice and political issues for The Pitt News.

Write to her at aal43@pitt.edu