McKeesport talks development, tackling blight with HUD leaders

By ERIC SEIVERLING
eseiverling@yourmvi.com

The City of McKeesport was on the federal government’s radar Wednesday.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Regional Administrator Joseph DeFelice visited McKeesport to meet with city housing authority officials as well as Mayor Michael Cherepko, Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, and city Community Development Director A.J. Tedesco.
Accompanied by federal HUD Pittsburgh Office Field Director Michael Horvath and federal HUD Deputy Regional Administrator Jane Miller, the topics of conversation were attracting business investors to McKeesport, eliminating blight and opportunities for grant monies to aid in housing redevelopment.
DeFelice met with McKeesport Housing Authority’s Executive Director Stephen Bucklew and Deputy Executive Director Diane Raible as well as McKeesport Councilwoman LuEthel Nesbit.
“This is a courtesy visit,” said DeFelice, whose region includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington D.C. “One of the best ways for me to understand HUD is to get out and visit. I’ve visited 190 counties in the past three years. We’re going out to the communities, talking to the people about the issues they are hearing. I think that’s a better approach. I’m not here to talk to you; I’m here to hear from all of you.”
DeFelice said the idea to visit McKeesport was suggested to him by Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman after the two met in Braddock, where Fetterman was the former mayor.
Bucklew told DeFelice federal tax benefits for community redevelopments, known as Opportunity Zones, don’t always get distributed fairly.
“Tax credits work against the Opportunity Zones,” Bucklew said. “They’re not looking at cities like McKeesport or Braddock or Duquesne. They want to allocate those tax credits to the nice neighborhoods. It’s very competitive.”
Bucklew said McKeesport has one of the better Section 3 programs, which requires that recipients of certain HUD financial assistance provide training, employment, contracting and other economic opportunities to low- and very low-income residents.
“I see the biggest hurdle is that they don’t have cars and they don’t have driver’s licenses,” Bucklew said of the Section 3 program. “That’s a major challenge.”

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