Housing Department


This department provides comprehensive housing counseling, addresses homelessness, prevents eviction, offers mediation services between tenants and their landlords and other creditors, assist families to find affordable, quality housing, and helps first time home buyers through the mortgage and purchasing process to enable them to own their own homes. More than 11,641 families and individuals were assisted in 2002-2003. Significantly, more than 560 children avoided placement in shelters because of the intervention of the housing program staff.

The Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, Inc. has been in the business of helping low-income and minority families find decent, safe, and affordable housing for more than eight decades. When Southern migrants arrived at Union Station in 1918 to seek jobs in the local steel mills, an Urban League worker was there to help them find a place to live. [Edmonds, A.J. Daybreakers: The Story of the Urban League of Pittsburgh (1984)]. In subsequent years, the League took the lead in implementing the national Operation Equality program, constructed and managed low-income housing units, pioneered the craft of 'housing counseling', initiated fair housing audits, constructed demonstration programs to identify and enforce fair housing laws, and produced and distributed housing related publications.

Currently the leading advocate for and provider of services to low-income, minority housing clients, the League takes a multi-faceted approach consisting of service, research, and advocacy to improve housing opportunities for the disadvantaged.


You may also read more about the programs available within the
Housing Department here.