A $74,000 grant from Neighborhood Allies supported the expansion of the Hilltop Alliance’s Property Stabilization Program (PSP) and positioned them to launch a PSP Fellowship for a Hilltop resident who was hired, compensated and trained to monitor, communicate and work with partners to resolve property maintenance and/or quality of life code violations in Allentown, Beltzhoover and Knoxville.
Roy Blankenship of Knoxville, who has long been working as a volunteer in his community, has taken over much of the day-to-day on-the-ground operations of the PSP, reaching out directly to homeowners to help them identify resources to make repairs to their homes.
With limited staff capacity preventing them from scaling this program to the level that was needed to address the magnitude of code issues in the Hilltop neighborhoods, Neighborhood Allies was able to step in and provide a $74,000 Catalytic Grant to support a one-year PSP Fellow and the production of a Guide on how to start a PSP in other neighborhoods (stay tuned for the release of this document!). In just the first year of implementation, the Program now boasts an overall success rate of 57.5% and Roy’s added capacity position has allowed them to address and resolve 67 quality of life and code enforcement cases. Additionally, our initial investment has leveraged nearly $70,000 to continue this important work serving Hilltop residents and Roy has been hired as a full-time Outreach Coordinator at the Hilltop Alliance!
“Our Property Stabilization Program success rate rose from 53% to 57.5% by the end of December 2017. This is of no doubt due to the more extensive, on-the-ground, and personal outreach Roy has been able to do on our behalf. In addition, the Emergency Stabilization Grant, also from Neighborhood Allies, has given us an additional tool for our toolbox that has been used not only to help those who had been denied assistance from others, but has also helped us to match funds with partners, such as Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh, to complete repairs at no cost to elderly, disabled, and low-income Hilltop homeowners.”
Tim Dolan, Program Director, Property Stabilization & Land Use
For more information on the Hilltop Alliance’s Property Stabilization Program contact Tim Dolan at tim@pghhilltopalliance.org or 412 586 5807.