The CSPA Q&A: Pittsburgh Housing Authority Executive Director Caster D. Binion

Much like the rest of the state, Pittsburgh continues to seek solutions for the area’s affordable housing crisis. As the longtime executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh, Caster D. Binion oversees a $200 million budget and the operations of roughly 2,600 units of public housing, 6,200 Housing Choice Vouchers and 700 mixed-finance units. He also heads up HACP’s efforts to provide public housing residents with programs and services that provide workforce development, crisis support and quality-of-life enhancement.

Ahead of his appearance at our Affordable Housing in Pennsylvania Summit next week, Binion talked with City & State about his agency’s work and what options are on the horizon to alleviate the housing crisis.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. 

Are there any projects around housing that you find particularly promising or exciting?

We are answering the question – how do you create affordable housing for $120,000 or less in an environment where houses cost $500,000? How do you take what it used to cost to do one piece of affordable housing and multiply that times three? Every month I want to go to a ribbon-cutting, a groundbreaking. At HACP, we are doing so many projects that federal financial agencies ask us what this magic is that we do in Pittsburgh to get affordable housing at a rate of 3 to 1. 

With the $15 million in state funding, that could assist in the Choice Neighborhoods Redevelopment initiative to close some gaps, or it could be homeownership programs – I think last year, we got about 72 housekeys to new homeowners – and so it could go to use in that way. Some money could be set aside for social services, because in some situations we need wraparound services. The funding could help some people who are participating in Housing Choice Voucher programs. But the bottom line is, every penny of it goes towards affordable housing. 

You have led several major affordable housing initiatives. What are some of the biggest obstacles that are still getting in the way of solving this crisis? 

In our agency, we have eradicated the word “No,” because everything has a plan B. When we plan, we also anticipate, because we know that something may happen. We do everything possible to make sure that you can get over that hurdle. If you hit that brick wall, we teach you how to go around it. There are a lot of people who think we can’t, we won't, we shouldn’t – and we have successfully told them how we can, we will, and we should, and we get them on board. 

It is sometimes a struggle; it is not an easy thing to change a community. It takes time. And everybody is feeling some kind of way, from politicians to people from the community to the folks who either live in public housing or are going to move. Anger is always the first phase, and “not in my backyard” is an issue. But when people from the community look at Area Median Income, they realize that people in their own families qualify as low-income. And public housing reduces crime. We’re proud to say that the stigma around people in public housing is untrue.

You have to establish street cred, too – to keep promises we made to the community. It took us years to demonstrate that when we say we're going to do it, we're going to do it. With the community part, you have to have talented staff, and it helps to have people who have come from low-income backgrounds or who have lived in public housing.

What are you hoping attendees of the summit take away from your panel? And what are you looking forward to getting out of the summit?

I’m looking for a shift around affordable housing. I call it evolution and development. The people on the panels, we have made our errors – hopefully others can capitalize on our past mistakes in public housing, in voucher programs, in affordability.

City & State’s Affordable Housing in Pennsylvania Summit takes place July 30 at the Doubletree Philadelphia Center City. For more information, including tickets, click here.