Public Solutions to the Housing Crisis
A Talk by Carl Redwood , Jala Rucker , Zachary Marks and Dave Breingan
About this Talk
In Pittsburgh, more than 6,000 public housing units have disappeared since 1999 — pushing residents further from their communities and deepening the city’s affordable housing crisis. While current debates often focus on private market interventions, this session centers public housing as a critical and viable solution.
Leaders from the Pittsburgh Housing Justice Table will facilitate a discussion with local and national experts working to grow the supply of publicly owned affordable housing — with a focus on tools that prioritize the needs of those most harmed by segregation, displacement, and disinvestment.
Featured speakers include Zachary Marks, EVP of Real Estate Development at Enterprise Community Development, who will share financing strategies for public development, including Montgomery County’s nationally recognized Housing Production Fund — a model now replicated in Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago. Sireen Tucker, associate at Ballard Spahr, will present on the Restore-Rebuild initiative (formerly Faircloth-to-RAD), a policy that enables public housing authorities to build new homes backed by guaranteed rental assistance.
The session will be introduced and facilitated by longtime housing advocate Carl Redwood and Jala Rucker, co-chair of the Pittsburgh Housing Justice Table and a public housing tenant leader. The session will conclude with a community discussion on how Pittsburgh can adopt and implement these approaches locally.