Allegheny County to create housing health committee (2024)

The Allegheny County Health Department proposed the creation of a housing advisory committee on Wednesday — a move that signaled County Executive Sara Innamorato’s alignment with advocates who want more public oversight of healthy housing rules.

The Health Department introduced the proposal before the county’s Board of Health, which voted unanimously to invite the public to comment on it during an as-yet-unspecified 30-day period. The proposal will then be moved to a vote, likely during the next board meeting in July, a county official told PublicSource. If approved, the committee will become effective Jan. 1, 2025.

It’s a win for housing advocates, who pushed the department to create a housing advisory committee when it proposed changes last year to the county’s Houses and Community Environment regulation, known as Article VI. The code is expected to be updated for the first time in a quarter-century after a March vote in which health board members approved changes, but the creation of an advisory committee was off the table at the time.

“One of the things that we heard loud and clear was the request for this housing advisory committee to be created,” Ed Nusser, the new director of housing strategy in the county executive’s office, told PublicSource. It’s the first of many steps “that can position the county to better protect the health and safety of some of our most vulnerable citizens — especially seniors and households with children.”

Innamorato will appoint between nine and 15 people to the committee, who must then be confirmed by County Council. Each member will serve a term of no more than three years, according to the proposal. Those who want to apply can do so via this form.

The group will be composed of “a balance of representation” among housing stakeholders, including tenant advocates, academic experts, housing providers, landlord organizations and residents who have experienced housing challenges, Nusser said. Its structure and activities will closely mirror those of the department’s food safety and air quality advisory committees.

Two housing advocates worked with Nusser and the county executive’s office to craft the proposal: Kevin Quisenberry, litigation director of Community Justice Project, which provides legal aid to tenants, and County Councilor Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, the executive director of Women for a Healthy Environment.

The collaboration marks a swift reversal of the county’s previous hesitancy to adopt their suggestions. Under the leadership of former County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Health Department staffers told Quisenberry and other advocates last summer that they would not be recommending the creation of a housing advisory committee.

“We’re lucky now to have leadership in place that looks at this seriously and critically … and is moving forward with incorporating some of these ideas,” said Quisenberry, who described the committee as “a structured, permanent way for the community to directly engage with the housing and community environment program at the Health Department.”

‘Big shifts’ away from complaint-focused enforcement?

The committee could help steer the county toward “big shifts” in housing policy, such as a more proactive approach to enforcing healthy housing rules, said Quisenberry. He was among a group of advocates who criticized the process for updating Article VI, in part because he said it didn’t go far enough to protect low-income tenants from retaliation by landlords for filing complaints with the Health Department.

In 2021, PublicSource and WESA found that some of the worst violators of healthy housing rules pay nothing: Even when the Health Department does try to enforce the code, it collects just one in five fines.

But at the March Board of Health meeting, Housing Program Manager Timothy Murphy doubled down on the complaint-driven nature of the department’s program. “We’re not looking to go out and pick on [home] owners,” he told the board.

“First of all, I’m happy to see this” proposal for a committee, Joylette Portlock, a board member and executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, told a Health Department staffer. “I’m happy it’s happening so close to the conversation we had last time.”

Naccarati-Chapkis described the “antiquated nature” of Article VI, which didn’t allow her organization’s community health workers to address problems they saw in rental units.

The regulation doesn’t adequately “address things such as mold, such as radon, that we know impact public health,” she told PublicSource. “Those are some of the things that we look forward to seeing addressed in the years to come” through the work of the housing advisory committee, she added.

Tacia Brentley was a tenant who wasn’t protected by the housing code in the early 2000s, under the previous iteration of Article VI. Her Swissvale home — which she rented through a Section 8 housing voucher — was inspected by a public housing agency that didn’t catch the lead in the paint, pipes and soil around the house. Her two oldest daughters developed disabilities due to lead poisoning, which she said caused her family an immense amount of suffering.

“I would hope that [the committee] would benefit the vulnerable tenants of Allegheny County,” said the 47-year-old mother of six. “They need to revamp the entire lead abatement system” to compel more landlords to decontaminate their properties, which she said her landlords didn’t do after her family moved out.

The Health Department said the changes to Article VI will improve safety, clarify the roles of tenants and landlords, and align the regulation with international standards. The update was introduced to County Council for ratification on Tuesday and, if approved, would take effect Oct. 1.

Wary landlord advocates will join the process

Landlord groups are taking a wait-and-see approach to the committee proposal.

“The devil is strongly in the details,” said Matt Vermeire, the government affairs director for the Realtors Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh.

In a statement released after the meeting, RAMP wrote that it believes County Council should deliberate any “broader policy changes,” but “a housing advisory committee could improve the health and safety mission of the Board of Health.” The group emphasized that the committee should include real estate professionals and housing providers.

One landlord asked why housing advocates were brought in to help shape the proposal for a committee, but not his group, which represents nearly 600 small real estate investors in the region.

“I find it interesting that they have not reached out to one of the largest small housing provider organizations for any type of input on that,” said Ed Benz, president of the Active Community of Real Estate Entrepreneurs.

“I can’t comment on whether it will be a good thing or a bad thing until I see what the end result is,” he added, but “my general feeling is that any time the government adds another layer of bureaucracy onto what is already an adverse system for property owners, they’re just going to basically raise the costs of doing business.”

Quisenberry said landlords should keep an open mind and join a process he hopes will help make the county’s housing stock healthier and more affordable.

“Maybe there’s some housing providers who are thinking, ‘I don’t think we need this,’” he said. “I would say, ‘Think again, show up, participate. There’s going to be an open door, an opportunity for your voice to be heard and for your expertise to be shared.’”

When asked if his group will apply to join the committee, Benz said, “Oh, guaranteed. We’d be more than happy to come there.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include comment received after initial publication.

Venuri Siriwardane is PublicSource’s health and mental health reporter. She can be reached at venuri@publicsource.org or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @venuris.

This reporting has been made possible through the Staunton Farm Mental Health Reporting Fellowship and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.