MONICA RUIZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CASA SAN JOSE | PHOTO BY TRACY CERTO

Affordable housing is an issue plaguing all of Pittsburgh, and it’s affecting different communities in different ways.

The city’s burgeoning Latino community is one of them.

The Latino population is one of the fastest-growing in the state. However, with language barriers and documentation issues, achieving housing can be a challenge. Not even 15 minutes from each other in the city neighborhood of Beechview, Casa San José and the Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation are two entities advocating for rights in their community.

Founded in 2013 by Sister Janice Vanderneck, Casa San José supports local Latinos with such resources as wellness support, advocacy and youth programs. The nonprofit also helps hundreds of Latinos every year with emergency housing.

“The folks that we proudly service are undocumented,” says Executive Director Monica Ruiz. “They don’t have Social Security numbers, so it’s hard to find places that will rent to them.”

Four years ago, Casa was servicing around 400 individuals per year. Ruiz says they are on track to service 6,000 this year. Many Latinos immigrating to Pittsburgh are promised jobs that include housing, and Casa San José provides temporary housing for those immigrants before their jobs begin.

“We help secure them somewhere until the housing starts,” Ruiz says. “If someone loses their job, it is tied to housing. Then they’re out of a job and housing.

“We have the ability to house someone for two weeks, and usually within a week, they are working again and their housing has become more stable.”

Monique Herrera, who serves as an emergency housing navigator, says in many cases, families do have the necessary income.

“It’s just they don’t know how to navigate the housing process,” she says. “We’re really fortunate enough to find them shelter.”

Pilar Caballero, a registered nurse, says in a video showcasing Casa San Jose’s contributions to the Pittsburgh Latino community that she encounters many children who cross the border alone, trying to find a new place and a new life but at the same time trying to help their families.

“There was a case where this child came by himself,” she says. “We had tried to find a family to stay with this child. What was more touching to me was that he asked me, ‘Do you think this family is going to want me or is going to like me?’”

Casa San José will soon be moving into a new building, allowing the organization to offer more in-house services and programming. Its mission is to assist more members of the Latino community while trying to engage all of Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation is another organization that has been crucial for many Latino families and individuals looking for a home in Pittsburgh, especially during a time when affordable housing is hard to come by.

The PHDC, founded in 2012, is open 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. It obtained its tax-exempt status in 2015, and the housing program, which includes rental and homeownership services, began in 2016.

The PHDC offers renting, homeownership, financial assistance and legal assistance for the Latino community. 

First, the PHDC receives housing inquiries. This is often through nonprofits such as Casa San Jose and the Latino Community Center, or from walk-ins and direct calls and emails to the organization from interested members of the community.

LORENA FICARRA, HOUSING NAVIGATOR FOR THE PITTSBURGH HISPANIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION IN BEECHVIEW, TALKS WITH CLIENTS. | PHOTO COURTESY OF PITTSBURGH HISPANIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

Howard Alvarez, programs director of the PHDC, manages the Housing, Employment, Community, and the Business Incubator programs. He says that, on average, the PHDC receives around 20 to 30 housing inquiries a day. A designated assistant tracks the calls, and weekly staff and team meetings are held to figure out the plan for working on each incoming case.

The PHDC then reaches out to the client within 72 hours. The client completes an inquiry form, and the PHDC’s team of housing advisors works to share available houses, schedule showings, and assist the client with the application. If the application is accepted, the PHDC mediates the signing of the lease, in addition to the move-in and transfer of utilities. It is also involved throughout the terms of the lease to ensure a positive understanding between tenant and landlord.

To first bridge the gap between tenants and landlords, Alvarez says the PHDC works with “flexible” landlords all over the city of Pittsburgh — meaning they don’t require a credit score. They might, for example, take a paycheck instead, as proof of income. It’s what Alvarez calls a “collaborative effort.”

“The PHDC, we’re the ones collecting that information from the client, and showing the property owner or landlords, like, ‘Hey, this client has the capacity to afford this,’” he says.

Some of the most crucial aspects of the PHDC’s housing resources are its continuous involvement and its translation services, Alvarez says. All too often, what happens in situations where language gap exists between landlord and tenant is that a landlord may find it easiest to simply evict their tenants. If a landlord chooses to not rent to an individual or family due to a language or cultural barrier, it’s considered discrimination. So, Alvarez and the rest of the housing team work hard to ensure there is complete understanding, on both sides of the lease, throughout the entire process.

“Sometimes you will find landlords that take advantage of the limitations of language and the knowledge of the Latino community, in terms of renting,” Alvarez says. “We have to do a lot of translation, because 90%-95% of evictions are the result of problems where the conversation is gone.”

Marcela Guerrero, a housing coordinator for PHDC, was a Spanish interpreter in Pittsburgh before joining the PHDC several months ago.

Guerrero’s typical responsibilities include explaining to the client what’s required of them and assisting them with their finances — creating credit, for example — and then engaging with organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania to get mortgages and other financial resources.

“There’s a lot of barriers that people have, such as language, budgeting, understanding the logistics of the applications, and how all that works,” Guerrero says. “So, we’re really trying to help them to proceed with applying for a house that’s going to be accommodating for them and going to meet the needs of their families to be comfortable in Pittsburgh and be able to start life here.”

The PHDC’s financial support, the extent of which depends on how much funding they receive from foundations and the government, also complements its housing, as the PHDC offers paid rent for one month. This is key in situations where the renters may be struggling with paying rent, such as if they lost their job or are a single mother.

“We assist them in order for them to have a kind of breathing time to focus on getting another job or try to get to the level they were at before,” Alvarez says. “Because this is not continuous support — we will not pay rent for a year, it’s just to assist them through a certain period of time.”

The PHDC has resolved around 135 housing cases as of July 2024 and is typically working on about seven or eight cases per week. If the housing team — which includes Alvarez and Guerrero in addition to a housing navigator and a legal assistant program navigator — is unable to take on another case, be it a walk-in or referral, they may connect the individual with another resource at the PHDC, such as the employment program, to help that individual apply for housing. 

The time frame on obtaining housing depends on factors such as the client’s employment status when they start the homeownership process. It also depends on where they request a house. Renting in an area such as Beechview, for example, which Alvarez says is “turning into a hub for Latinos,” is easier than other locations, but sometimes clients need a specific neighborhood where there are fewer flexible landlords available, as their kids are already in the school district or they need a shorter commute to work.

Final decisions on housing applications, which are made by the landlords themselves and not the PHDC, can take anywhere from a couple weeks to over a month. The entire process may take up to a year or more, Alvarez says.

The PHDC works hard in housing, employing, defending, encouraging and uplifting hundreds of Pittsburgh Latinos because they care about their community — and the feeling is mutual.

As Alvarez says, “the Latino community knows and trusts the PHDC.”

Reporting by Jilian Musser and Juliana Morello is supported by the Pittsburgh Media Partnership.