PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – In a block on Dearborn Street in Garfield, a new project is breaking ground for affordable housing.

The project is called Garfield Glen and consists of a total of 45 rental properties scattered around the neighborhood. Its goal is to help people stay in their neighborhood.

“We are engaged in health and we’re engaged in education, we’re engaged in after-school programs, we’re engaged in workforce,” Aggie Brose, a spokesperson for the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, said. “Now, if all of those things happen, the folks living here then can be our homeowners or our good tenants.”

Some of the properties include two, three and four bedroom townhouses, duplexes and some single family units.

“They’ll be rental for 15 years and then in the 15th year the tenants have an opportunity to buy the unit,” Andy Haines with S&A Homes said.

Right now, it’s nothing more than a vacant lot, but before too much longer it will be a house that people can rent and ultimately buy. The reason Congressman Mike Doyle thinks it works is because the people in this neighborhood want to make it work.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl wants to make sure “affordable” applies to utilities too.

“These homes will be energy efficient homes and in some cases that may require those homeowners or even renters to pay a little bit more up front, but they’re going to see those savings in their lower bills, lower gas bills and electric bills,” Ravenstahl said.

The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation said it could start screening tenants for the first homes in the project by June.

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