Wilkinsburg’s housing challenges are solvable when we remove the legal barriers that keep vacant houses off the market. The facts below explain the problem and how our approach restores homes to new owners
Fast Facts
30%
Homeownership rate in Wilkinsburg today 
20%+
Single-family homes now owned by LLCs
92%
Properties at sheriff’s sale that end up with LLCs
849
Net housing units lost, 2010→2020
2,320
Tax-delinquent properties in 2019; 1,683 were 3+ years delinquent ($1,030,185 lost that year)
Deceased owners
A significant share of vacant homes are still titled to deceased individuals, blocking normal sale until courts act
Why so many houses stay empty
Many abandoned homes can’t be bought through the normal market because the deed is still in a deceased owner’s name and liens have piled up. Clearing title requires court action and coordination most buyers cannot do alone
How the Land Bank fixes it
We acquire vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties, create clean, marketable title, stabilize them, and transfer them to pre-qualified community-based developers for rehab and sale to first-time homebuyers
The cost of doing nothing
When investors capture distressed properties at scale—92% through sheriff’s sale go to LLCs—owner-occupancy falls and neighborhoods hollow out. Wilkinsburg is now 4th in Allegheny County for LLC-owned homes.