Pittsburgh City Council held a public hearing on the forced mass displacement of Black residents on May 5, 2021. The Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition petitioned the council for this hearing and asked City Council to acknowledge that 7,000- African-Americans (about 9% of the city’s African-American population) left Pittsburgh in a four-year period between 2014-2018.
Over the course of the three-hour meeting, nearly 40 residents utilized their three minutes of speaking time. Oakland Planning and Development Property Manager Jodi Lincoln spoke on OPDC’s behalf. Her testimony is below.
Oakland Planning and Development Corporation joins the Penn Plaza Support and Action Coalition in calling on the city to prioritize the development of affordable housing, especially in communities that have lost BIPOC residents and homeowners over the past decades. Rental pressure in South Oakland and West Oakland has displaced hundreds of families with multigenerational roots in our neighborhood, and we can speak firsthand about the many ways this has weakened community ties and exacerbated economic inequality and racial injustice in our community.
OPDC is an experienced affordable housing developer, both for sale and for rent, with a demonstrated track record of success. We work to build a healthier, more vibrant, more welcoming, attractive, and sustainable Oakland. Our ability to support our community absolutely depends on increased funding for affordable rental housing and creating new opportunities for affordable homeownership – and healing the wounds that displacement has inflicted on Oakland families and on our community as a whole.
PPSAC’s recommendation that the city survey residents lost to the suburbs is excellent. Like PPSAC, we expect affordability will be a common theme in survey responses – but we also expect respondents to talk about public safety, employment opportunities, schools, and the erosion of that sense of community that glues everything together. There is a well-documented need for thousands of more units of affordable housing to meet the need, and the City of Pittsburgh has a fantastic opportunity with the COVID Relief Dollars to invest in historically neglected communities and repair the damage that displacement has caused these neighborhoods and families.
These are not simple problems with simple solutions, and organizations like OPDC are committed to addressing all the layered needs of our community members – past and present. We invite the city to do the same. Thank you.