PROJECT LOVE COALITION

Project Love Coalition (PLC), founded in 2015, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which advocates on behalf of veterans and their families in the areas of Housing, Workforce Development, and Community Building. PLC is based in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County actively bringing veterans and non-veteran Hill District neighbors together to build up a community through the creation and maintaining of green spaces, community gardens, festive artistic events and fun health and wellness activities according to Love, Truth, Peace, Freedom, and Justice. ----------

“Project Love Coalition encourages all people of all faiths and cultures to become part of our unique collaborative initiatives to serve those veterans who are now in need” ----------

Project Love Coalition develops, owns, and operates all of its projects, including the:
1. Peace and Friendship Farm (urban farm) led by veterans on Somers St (Hill District) for use by all neighborhood residents.
2. Green Space/Hill District Pop-Up Farmers Market on Centre Ave (Hill District).
3. Native Pollinator Micro Meadow (Gardening) on South Ave (Wilkinsburg). ----------

PLC is committed to providing opportunities to homeless veterans, MWDBE and/or HUD Section 3 companies, and low income African Americans living in the Hill District neighborhood designated as a distressed area. ----------

Project Love Coalition's Vision:

1. Project Love Coalition hopes that people will come together and join hands and hearts to improve the quality of life for veterans who have served our country with honor but are now in need. --

2. Solutions to these problems are achievable but will take the collective effort of all people or groups committed to bringing about better conditions for people facing crisis. --

3. Project Love Coalition aims to bring veterans and other community residents together to identify and implement sustainable solutions to build a more inclusive and diverse community that affords more social and economic opportunities in the areas of arts, housing options, workforce, and business development. ----------

Currently, Project Love Coalition is raising funds to complete a new mixed-use building development project called the "Agri Trade Institute" which has been presented to the local officials. This proposed design aligns 100% with the local government and community vision to revitalize the area and serve the needs of the distressed neighborhood. This client-directed facility will provide a range of services in the following areas:

Basic Needs: Services that stabilize communities and remove socioeconomic barriers, with efforts focused on safety, food, and housing homeless. --

Economic Growth: Services that accelerate and create socioeconomic growth opportunities in communities, with efforts focused on education as well as, workforce and entrepreneurship training. --

Quality of Life: Services that contribute to the greater good of humankind in communities, with a focus on agriculture, arts, culture, health and wellness. ----------

The Agri Trade Institute Mixed-Use Critical Development Project includes ground floor commercial space along the Centre Ave economic corridor encouraging small business and entrepreneurs and supporting economic development and opportunities along the Centre Ave corridor. Naming Rights will be offered for this new building space. ----------

This critical development is intended to reinforce the "Hill" as a strong healthy residential neighborhood and a place where veterans are appreciated and where homeless veterans and their families can get resources in their time of need. ----------

Accomplishments & Impact:

Journey so far ...

1. Project Love Coalition (PLC) has been meeting at the public library in the Hill District since 2015.

2. When PLC began investigating the new development, Congressional Rep. Mike Doyle, State Representative Wheatley, Councilman Lavelle, Mayor Peduto, Hill District CDC, URA, Housing Authority, Neighborhood Allies expressed concern that PLC's desired office space was not fully realized with the current vision for Centre Ave.

3. Project Love Coalition listened to those concerns and presented a new satisfactory proposed Centre Avenue Mixed Use Development Plan. ----------

History of the Hill District:

The historic Hill District or the “Hill,” as it is collectively known, was originally populated by new immigrants to the City of Pittsburgh after the Revolutionary War. The Great Depression and post-World War II Federal housing policies devastated the Hill on both an economic and physical level. The Lower Hill District was razed under the Urban Renewal Program and Federal Aid Highway Act to make way for the I-579 Crosstown Expressway and to erect the Civic Arena, originally to house the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and later as the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins and other professional sports teams. More than 8,000 residents, business and institutions were displaced during the resultant demolition of the Lower Hill District in the late 1950s. The Hill District lost its commercial core, much of its population, and its connection to downtown, was left isolated, disconnected from job opportunities, and was starved for capital investment, and is only now poised to rebound.