Housing Justice Coalition Table

Pittsburgh and Southwest PA Housing Justice Coalition Table

This coalition space brings together organizations and advocates working to promote the human right to housing in our region. Much of our work supports advocacy for more and better quality affordable housing and for protections of renters. Our history [Coming soon!]

Mission Statement--The Housing Justice Table is a network of allied local organizations and independent advocates who believe that housing is a human right and that everyone should have access to the housing they need. Ensuring homes for all requires democratic community control of our city’s economic development and policy. We therefore support joint advocacy and action for safe, healthy, and affordable housing through policy-making and cross-sectoral cooperation to protect rights of tenants and homeowners, empower and support stable and sustainable communities, and create equitable and non-market housing opportunities in our neighborhoods.

What we believe

• Housing is a human right, and a social good that cannot be left solely to markets.
• Redlining and other discriminatory housing policies have generated lasting racial disparities and harms that require intentional efforts to reverse and remedy.
• Prevailing, market-driven housing policies have exacerbated social exclusion, with the most harmful impacts felt by the most vulnerable groups, and require new, people-centered approaches.
• Ensuring safe and secure housing is a key to addressing multiple social issues that impact the quality of life in our city and county.
• Comprehensive housing policy is critical to protecting our city and county's future and ensuring community resilience in the face of climate change.
• Cooperation across diverse groups and multi-faceted efforts to transform existing housing policy processes enable more equitable and inclusive democratic governance where residents have a meaningful role in shaping their city and county’s future.
• Housing is fundamentally and inextricably connected to other issues, including: resident and community health, education, food access, transportation, family-sustaining jobs & livelihoods, among others.

Goals and Priorities

• Protect the right of all residents to remain in their homes, support for those displaced to return, and reparations for the region’s Black communities;
• Protect and expand renters’ rights, empowering renters through tenant union organizing and representation, and supporting renters through establishing a right to counsel, robust rental assistance, and other related programs;
• Expand non-market housing options in the city and county—including cooperatives, social and non-profit housing, public housing agencies, and community land trusts (CLT);
• Investment & expansion of public resources in permanently affordable, publicly-controlled housing—including single family and multi-family housing, single-room occupancy (SROs), etc.;
• Eventually ending tax breaks and subsidies for profit-oriented developers;
• Regulation of local housing and housing markets to protect all who live in the community and ensure stable and safe communities with homes for all;
• Prioritize housing solutions for those most impacted by the housing crisis and racial and class oppression, especially extremely low-income households;
• Support meaningful community participation in housing and development planning and policy.

Working Groups & Campaigns

• Current campaign focus: Promoting Tenants' Right to Legal Counsel
• Education/Community Learning Forum Series
• Land Bank
• Tenant Organizing & Tenant Rights

Contacts