Strip developer proposes turning North Side Comfort Inn into affordable housing

PITTSBURGH — Breanna Tyson and Brett Walsh and their Hullett Properties have joined the 500in500 quest to quickly add more housing to meet the urgent need for more places to live in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.

Their new proposal do so: convert the Comfort Inn & Suites on East Ohio Street on the North Side into 96 affordable, voucher-accepting apartments.

The couple presented their plan to a neighborhood meeting of the Community Alliance of Spring Garden-East Deutschtown on Tuesday evening. But they faced considerable pushback from a mix of community members wary of exacerbating already nagging neighborhood challenges of homelessness, drug dealing and other crime.