New development in East Liberty leaves some residents feeling left out

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood is going through a dramatic change, but some residents there say they’re feeling left out.

New development in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, including businesses and apartments, has led to higher rent, higher costs and accusations that low-income tenants have nowhere to go.

FREE APPS | NOW | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

• Toddler found alive, alone in crib days after grandmother's death
• 5-alarm blaze destroys industrial building, prompts evacuations in Leetsdale
• Hundreds of ice skates buried in South Park being dug up
• PHOTOS: People's Sexiest Men Alive

"We have a right to live in the communities that we helped build,” Randall Taylor, an East Liberty resident, said.

Channel 11’s Aaron Martin checked with the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh to see if the complaints have any truth to them.

Martin learned that over the last decade, Section 8 housing units in East Liberty dropped nearly 15 percent, from 1,030 in 2005 to 894 in 2015.

"They're profiting on us. They're profiting on that. That's not fair,” East Liberty resident Carmen Brown said.

Martin took residents’ concerns straight to Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.

"We have in the past decade not done a good enough job replacing affordable housing, not just in East Liberty, but in the city of Pittsburgh,” Peduto said.

To change the status quo, the city started a new program, putting tax dollars collected from new East Liberty development into a fund for building low-income housing.

But for the many residents living in Penn Plaza, it’s too little, too late. The owner of the apartment complex is redeveloping the property after evicting more than 300 people in February.

University of Pittsburgh professor Dr. Michael Glass said he’s currently studying the impact of East Liberty’s transformation. He said the next few months will be telling.

"We can see that something is happening to the neighborhood. The neighborhood is certainly changing. With Penn Plaza closing, it's going to be a real indicator of whether displacement is a consequence of that change that's occurring,” Glass said.

It’s change that Taylor said he’s prepared for. He lives in Penn Plaza and said he’ll likely have to move out of the neighborhood, adding that it’s no mystery as to what’s happening in East Liberty.

"I know people are angry. People are upset and everybody knows what's going on. They believe this is a mass movement to displace low-income people,” he said.

PREVIOUS STORIES:

• Mayor's office announces plan to use tax dollars to fund affordable housing
• 'Don't take my home!' -- Protesters fill downtown Pittsburgh
• Mayor, officials address eviction notice concerns at East Liberty apartment complex
• Tenants at East Liberty apartment complex say they're being evicted with no explanation

WPXI