In 2017, the Hill CDC was invited and participated on the Steering Committee along with the Race and Ethnicity Committee of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Task Force. The goal of the AFFH Task Force is to help assess current impediments to fair housing choice and develop policy recommendations that affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH) for the upcoming Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) for the City of Pittsburgh, and other jurisdictions.
The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Task Force was initiated by the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations in 2013 as a result of the FY 2012 Update to the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI) study for the City of Pittsburgh. The AI recommended a “…Countywide Approach to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,” and suggested strategies toward the goal of “providing housing and economic opportunities for low and moderate-income persons and protected classes to live and work outside impacted areas.”
The mission of the AFFH Task Force is to assist in jurisdictions’ efforts to affirmatively further fair housing through identifying barriers and disparities to fair housing and recommending policies to alleviate these barriers and disparities.
The Strategies Include the Following:
- The City and County’s Human Relations Commissions should establish an Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Task Force for the Pittsburgh Region with representatives from the City of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the City Housing Authority (HACP), the Allegheny County Housing Authority (ACHA), the other two federal CDBG Entitlement Communities in Allegheny County (McKeesport and Penn Hills), and other groups and organizations which promote fair housing.
- The four Federal Entitlement jurisdictions should promote and encourage the development of affordable housing and encourage the development of affordable housing throughout the Pittsburgh Region in areas that are not economically or racially impacted.”
- Improve intergovernmental and interagency cooperation in sharing all information pertaining to discrimination cases filed within the jurisdiction of the City of Pittsburgh (Pg. 11).”