Ross Kronenbitter, the construction manager for Rising Tide Partners, holds open the door for people to enter a recently renovated home in East Hills on Friday, June 13, 2025. (Photo by Caleb Kaufman/PublicSource)

By Ember Duke, PublicSource

The basement at 2413 Park Hill Drive features smooth light wood floors and opens through a sliding glass door to a white, fenced-in backyard. The home — with granite countertops and a whiff of fresh paint — has come a long way since a damaging sewage backup a few years ago, said Rising Tide Partners Executive Director Kendall Pelling. 

The nonprofit development group, along with community stakeholders, recently celebrated the house as the first completed rehab in an effort to revitalize the block and create 22 units of affordable housing. That could extend to 33 more units if  $12 million in PA Housing Finance Agency funding comes through. 

Those additional units would be rented on a 15-year lease with mortgages as low as $650 to $700 a month available to tenants at the end of the term, Pelling said. 

Strengthening homeownership

The project aims to revitalize the neighborhood as a homeownership community — the same goal that spurred its original construction in the 1960s, Pelling said. That means, for one, supporting The East Hills Homeowners Association by offsetting maintenance costs and including them as a partner on Rising Tide’s neighborhood development board.  

Patricia Madison of the Homeowners Association lived on Park Hill for three decades. In the changing neighborhood, where some lots house abandoned cars and others are littered with old toys, Madison said absentee landlords are a major agent of decline. 

“The main problem is people having properties and not taking care of it,” said Madison, who hopes to see more resident appreciation and “people come in who take pride in their homes, who take pride in their communities.”

(Click here to see the rest of the story.)

Ember Duke is a recent graduate of Duquesne University and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns.