About Us

Steel City Collaborative Housing (SCCH) works to support the development of social housing, specifically limited equity housing cooperatives, in order to remedy the harms caused to Black Pittsburghers and other vulnerable groups by development-driven displacement from city neighborhoods.

We are working hard to educate the community and impacted residents on understanding the policies and systems that have caused the harm, and help mobilize and organize with them to help resolve the challenge by establishing more cooperative housing in the city of Pittsburgh.

Cooperative housing allows groups of residents to pool resources in order to collectively own and govern the buildings and homes where they live. And when built on community land trusts, limited equity cooperatives help ensure that housing costs remain permanently affordable for future generations.

The work of SCCH is guided by:

• principles of environmental sustainability

• mindful attention to the needs of future generations

• and community vibrancy and diversity.

We seek to provide educational, technical and organizing support for lower income residents to benefit from alternative pathways to homeownership and rental models of housing that provide ownership, longer-term residential security and an investment in place.

Our work is centered on expanding local knowledge and skills relevant to cooperative housing development, management, and self-governance. In conjunction with providing guidance to households of people learning to navigate and invest in their own community housing co-op, sharing in managing and maintaining the property, SCCH also provides advocacy on these issues publicly, building networks of partners prepared to support the development of new housing cooperatives in the city.