Lack of Affordable Housing in PGH
Mapping Wicked Problems
Summary
The topic of our wicked map is Affordable Housing. We chose this topic after careful consideration because we believe this issue is closely tied with other concerns we have about the city of Pittsburgh, namely gentrification, increasing strength of the local tech industry, and the recent conflict over the Penn Plaza redevelopment. As we sketched out the map, we realized that our issue is strongly tied to Gentrification, but also to Transportation, Food systems and Clean Air and Water.
Environmental
In our initial explorations of this area, the key environmental consequences of affordable housing (or the lack of it) were increased heavy industry, destruction of natural habitats and increased construction. Each of these areas in turn affect air and water quality, as well as natural habitats for wildlife. Since Pittsburgh is situated on a junction of three rivers, the impact on these waterways cannot be overlooked. Additionally, due to the age of Pittsburgh’s buildings, tearing down or remodeling old homes often involves disposing of toxic waste like Asbestos. When remodeling or tearing down these old homes, construction waste is often not handled properly. However, places like Construction Junction exists with the sole purpose of reusing construction waste from Pittsburgh homes.
Economic
There are many economic issues that affect affordable housing. For the scope of this first project map we looked at national trends, but in subsequent research an in-depth look at state- and county-level history and trends will be necessary. Some of the root causes are: a widening wage gap, inflation and emerging industries. The increasing wage gap is driven by tax policies that favor the rich, and slow GDP growth which makes wages stagnant for the majority of the workforce. Inflation has put enormous pressure on the housing market since building materials and labor have risen far faster than average incomes. This causes new apartment units to cost well above the recommended amount of 30% of the renter’s annual salary. Although Pittsburgh has a lower cost of living compared to the national average, this rate is going up due to several pressures. First, emerging tech companies (as well as established ones like Google) are setting up offices in the city, and are paying their employees high salaries. This increases demand for luxury housing, which is tied to both gentrification and inflation.
Social
None of the problems, causes or effects can be categorized under only one category and this is especially true for social. While some like policies overlap with the political category, others like gentrification and crime are whole new wicked problems in themselves.
An easy to spot problem was that lack of affordable housing drove those who cannot afford them away from prime locations which meant they had to travel more. This meant more pollution, less time with family, less time for everything which means eating unhealthy food which could lead to obesity, etc., etc.
One particularly interesting problem was of communities of certain neighborhoods being selective of the people that can live there, based on religion, race, etc. This reminded us of territory marking by animals/herds of animals.
Infrastructure
For Infrastructure, the root causes were lack of transportation, increase in luxury condo development, tech companies moving in and vacant properties, of which there are around 7,200. We were interested in exploring the vacant properties in Pittsburgh more because it seemed like a feasible solution to the lack of affordable housing. However, we learned that sometimes the owners of these lots have passed away and the city can’t take ownership of any property until it has accrued $3000 in delinquent (tax that is unpaid after the payment due date) taxes. Also, the demolition lean is so high that usually only be tech companies can afford instead of the locals. However, the city does have responsibility to deal with hazardous properties, but the locals need to push for this and this process usually takes a couple of years.
Political
Taking a look into the politics surrounding the housing market here in Pittsburgh, we saw policy and access to information as some of the root causes. While we just scratched the surface of the policies surrounding housing, we were interested in investigating what sort of policies pertain to outside developers and what programs exist for low-income household to receive assistance. One of our biggest consequences, particularly for the low-income families, was the ability to advocate and educate. While time prevented us from diving deeper into many of the policies, moving forward we plan to investigate city policies and neighborhood advocacy groups.
Challenges:
We found that determining environmental consequences was challenging, especially without doing a great deal more research. How many scholars are connecting affordable housing to larger environmental issues (beyond those of the residents themselves)? Wicked problem mapping, as a new endeavor, may create an additional challenge of a lack of connected research done by others.
We also found it frustrating to not have enough time to sift through everything in detail (e.g. the policies) surrounding affordable housing. We found it challenging to create the wicked map when we weren’t experts and had to rely on a lot of assumptions. We were itching to do research.
Insights
- Pittsburgh is becoming a tech & innovation hub, bringing in new residents and with that…new housing developments.
- Outside developers are shaking up the housing market in Pittsburgh.
- Vacant housing and vacant lots are some of the messiest areas in terms of policy, yet one of the largest areas of opportunity as far as infrastructure.
What we didn’t have time to look into?
- Are certain sections of condos for low-income families?
- What percentage of housing stock is currently dedicated to Airbnb rentals? Does this affect overall affordability of the city?
- Environmental consequences at a more holistic level; i.e., old buildings that haven’t been renovated will be poorly insulated, thus use more energy, generate more greenhouse gasses, and cost more money per capita for the residents.
