Philanthropic Money Tested Against Displacement In A Pittsburgh Neighborhood
The Heinz Endowments began offering grants in 2012 that grew to more than 120 awards totaling 24 million US dollars for housing production and preservation in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood, next to the 178-acre Hazelwood Green development. Research found no gentrification pattern: population fell to 4,474 in 2022 from 5,395 in 2010, and the nonwhite share rose from about 48 percent to 55 percent.
The money was committed before the redevelopment momentum arrived, aimed at a stated outcome: that the residents already present would still be there afterward. Share of households in the same home as the previous year held at 90 percent in 2016 and 91 percent in 2022. The researchers cannot isolate which grants mattered, and nearly a third of Hazelwood households remain below the poverty line.
Source: The Conversation · October 1, 2026