Pittsburgh planning to turn vacant properties into businesses

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh is working on a plan to turn vacant properties, which have been attracting crime, into businesses.

Most of the vacant properties are owned by the city and a real eyesore for others living in the neighborhoods.

“I would appreciate if someone addresses the problems for real,” said Donald Parran, who’s lived in Hazelwood for six years.

Many of these vacant properties have broken windows, boarded-up doors and are missing bricks.

Councilman Corey O’Connor said these properties attract crime.

“There’s more than you think. Not just windows, but people breaking in and living there,” said O’Connor.

Earlier in May, police found a man shot to death inside a vacant home in Perry South, and a woman killed in a car across the street.

The violence and the push to bring businesses into Pittsburgh are why city leaders are compiling a list of vacant properties owned by the city, according to O’Connor.

O’Connor is proposing a program be started to renovate some of these properties, so businesses can afford to move into them.

Within this plan, O’Connor hopes to have enough money to renovate five properties and more in the future.

A full list of city owned vacant properties can be found HERE.

Cox Media Group