PITTSBURGH — From reviving old properties to building a community of tiny homes, leaders have plans to get Pittsburgh’s growing homeless population off the streets.
The numbers are already rising. Encampments are popping up along the North Shore.
While the help won’t be immediate, the City of Pittsburgh believes it has the solution to help give homes to the homeless. One of those designs includes building tiny houses across the city.
The sketches and designs are full of hope.
“There are more and more people that are homeless every day,” said Lucille Parter-Holliday, a Roots Outreach worker.
Parter-Holliday helps the homeless of Pittsburgh find housing. She says it can take months to get people in and believes transitional housing would only help.
“Housing where you have supportive services 24 hours a day every day, that you can stay for up to two years,” said city council member Deb Gross. “You’re not forced out into the street every day and day.”
The city revealed three different concepts and designs. One is a new building that would have more than 100 individual rooms where people can call a space their own. Second, a group of tiny homes in a village setting on land the city already owns.
It’s the fastest option complete with a building to house social and mental health services.
The city owns 17,000 parcels of land, and now the mayor’s office is working to identify several that may work for the tiny homes.
The last design is re-purposing an existing building.
“There are buildings out there, they can be adapted and the city and county can work together to purchase those buildings and adapt them. This would be faster than a new build but it really takes going out there, figuring out what is the best location and getting the money to do it,” said Gross.
Council hopes to build them all and to get even more ideas.
“We are counting on a partnership with everybody, whether its these concepts or others. Nothing is off the table we have the will to try to make a difference,” said Anthony Coghill, a city council member.
This is just the beginning. The next step is to try to get the funding together by working with different partners. The 100-room facility is price tagged at about 20 million dollars. As for the other two designs, it will depend on what locations will work.
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