Description of the Best Practice
The Pittsburgh Mercy Health System is collaborating with
the Uptown Community Action Group to construct 4-5 single
family homes targeted to low and middle income residents.
Uptown is the doorstep community of Mercy Hospital of
Pittsburgh.Implementation
*No Submission
Time Frame
In 1996, the community group identified housing
development of one of its priorities. There had been no
new housing development in the community since the 1950s.
Many of the current properties are owned by absentee
landlords who rent their homes to university students.
Mercy Hospital owned several parcels of land and vacant
homes in the community and had promised that it would not
invade the residential portion of the community with
institutional facilities. This combination of transient
residents and vacant properties created an instability in
the neighborhood. In 1997, the PMHS Board agreed to
donate several parcels of land to the community for
housing development.
Financial Profile
*No Submission
Outcome
The community group, with the assistance of PMHS,
evaluated several housing developers and selected Oakland
Planning and Development to assist in the development. It
is the hope of the Uptown Community Group that this
project will be the catalyst for developer interest in
the community to rehabilitate other vacant homes.
Groundbreaking is targeted for late summer, 1999.
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