Affordable housing

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Actually, does anybody know if Love2Golf09 is a male or female? I believe I know everyone else's gender. I would think male, but this member's sassiness reminds me of a female.

She has mentioned a husband in previous posts.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by alastad

because SSI money does not come from tax payers money, it's the governments money, or at least that's what my bf told me,

[I_Like_Spam]

Why haven't you signed up for Section 8 housing?

Not every location that accepts Section 8 certification is in a stone cold ghetto (although many are).

Since you're bf is a disabled individual, no children, you might be able to get into a senior citizen building, you'd certainly be a possibility for other community based houses as well.

Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and the City of McKeesport all have separate housing authorities as well as outlying counties, and you have to apply to the ones where you'd be willing to move to.

[Uptown kid]

[quote]Tell me, how often are these constant murders perpetrated against someone who wasn't pretty much asking for it by being involved in drugs and/or gangs?[quote]

To tell the truth if it's not gang/drug related than it's a disagreement that ended pretty sour... Random ppl don't seem get shot in Homewood, but anyone, especially a young black person can get robbed or jumped... That's why I & alot of people consider it a rough neighborhood!

[SuburbanPioneer]

Originally Posted by alastad

SSI money does not come from tax payers money, it's the governments money

If we had a quote of the day thread, I'd vote for this one with both hands. You've made my day, thank you!

[Clint.]

I think this is a really interesting thread and wish I had hopped in sooner!

I'm a social worker and spend a lot of time out in Pittsburgh and surrounding areas working with people who have low incomes and looking for housing that is affordable for them. One theme I see in my work is: people who receive SSI and want to live in in certain areas of the city that were historically considered to be rather affordable for working people, but are now becoming relatively more expensive. Of course, those areas are still generally affordable for people who work full time or part-timers who pair up, but I don't want to muddy the thread by getting into a lecture.

Does the electric bill the OP mentioned include heat, or is that separate, i.e., gas heat?

Urban renewal projects begun decades ago and ensuing gentrification (or whatever was responsible for the increase in property values), along with the destruction of some large housing projects, has priced a lot of the underclass out of the city. They don't like it, because the city has the highest concentration of free/subsidized/social services that poor people tend to depend on - like public transit, methadone clinics, mental health clinics, etc. Also, they likely grew up in those neighborhoods and feel "entitled" to live there, despite not working to earn a living.

My thought process when trying to educate them is usually: "East Liberty in 1990 was a ghetto and a cheap place to live. It is being cleaned up, and landlords who own housing there want benefit from that, so an apartment that may have once rented for the equivalent of $250 a month plus utilities now goes for $500 plus utilities. This is considered to be a reasonable price for someone who works (even a low wage job) and wants to benefit from living 'city life'. You have to move to the outskirts - McKeesport, Braddock, Clairton, Turtle Creek, Pitcairn - if you want to find anything close to what you're willing/able to pay. Or, stay where you're at and look hard every day for a rare deal". Most of them choose to look for that rare deal.

Urban renewal seems to finally be working in Pittsburgh.