So

good afternoon and welcome to the pre-agenda interview for Wednesday, September 30th, 2026 for the Housing Opportunity Fund Advisory Board.

Would a clerk please read the title of the bills?

Bill 852.

Resolution appointing Deanna Davis to the Housing Opportunity Fund Advisory Board with the term to expire September 6th, 2030.

Bill 854 resolution appointing Oliver Beasley to the Housing Opportunity Fund Advisory Board with the term to expire September 6th, 2030.

Bill 855, resolution appointing Walter Lewis to the Housing Opportunity Fund Advisory Board with a term to expire September 6, 2030.

And Bill 856.

Resolution appointing John Katz to the Housing Opportunity Fund Advisory Board with the term to expire September 6th, 2030.

Thank you.

For the record, we're currently joined by Councilwoman Strasberger and Councilwoman Warwick and Councilwoman Gross.

What I would like we can start with, Ms.

Davis, if each one of you would simply introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself, tell us why you're interested in serving on this board.

After we've let all four of you had a chance to speak, we'll turn it over to members for question.

Um my name is Deanna Davis.

Um my profession is a real estate agent.

But over the last 15 years, uh we invested volunteered for my community, which is the Lambert area.

Through that process, we were able to secure a grant, Detroit neighborhood grant.

Um through that relationship, we were able to have a partnership with Walnut Capital.

Um I've always been interested in housing and community development.

I'm John Katz.

My company is the Brandywine Agency.

I'm a licensed real estate broker and insurance producer.

Brandywine is uh one of the larger for-profit managers of affordable housing.

We take care of approximately 3,000 deeply affordable units within the county and uh about a thousand to

maybe 1,300

units within the city of Pittsburgh.

I'm uh

I've

been involved with the affordable housing and uh housing stabilization for 25 years.

Um

hello everyone, my name is Walter Lewis.

Uh currently serve as the president and CEO of the Homewood Children's Village.

I'm also serve as the chair of the Homework Community Development Collaborative.

Um and you know, my interest in this work is um as we think about sort of the work of the village and and in just trying to uh sort of really risk create restoration within Homewood, a big piece of that is uh housing, um, homeownership and and helping you know people to get connected to those opportunities.

Um and so I've had the great fortune of working with a number of people and partners and helping people get connected um to these kinds of resources and supports um and through the work of the collaborative really beginning to think about it on a larger community sort of wide level and not just individual people, and so um you know it's my hope uh to continue um you know to serve in that in that way and make sure folks get connected to the resources that they

need.

Good afternoon.

My name is Oliver Beasley.

I serve as the chief strategy officer for the housing authority city of Pittsburgh.

Um for that reason it's clear why I'm interested in HOF.

I'm interested in housing people um safely, securely and building uh wealth and equity across the region.

Thank you very much.

I'll simply go down the line.

Uh Councilman Schraussberger.

Thank you.

I I think I'll only have one question, and um I'll introduce that by first saying thank you for your willingness to serve.

And um, we know that this is an incredibly important issue, an incredibly important board for you to be serving on, and I think um it's the elephant in the room is that this is a day when we're talking about um perhaps doing more with less or doing what we can with less, right?

If when it comes to housing, when it comes to making difficult decisions around, you know, where limited funds can go to make the most impact to both provide critical housing for those who need it the most and you know, doing everything we can to encourage people to live and to stay in the city and to provide you know funding to programs that are that are tried and true.

What's your if you have one, what's your theory for?

What's your kind of strategy when faced with those decisions generally, like if you have examples from outside of housing or

if

you have a theory for how that works within you know housing in particular, that's also helpful.

You know, you can answer in any way you want, but I'm just curious because it's it's just to be honest, that's what we're dealing with as a city right now, and what's it's what the URA is dealing with, it's what the housing um opportunity fund is dealing with as well, currently and you know, into the foreseeable future.

Um so I can start.

Um I think for me, um I generally try to take a systems approach to these kinds of things.

Um, you know, everything's interconnected.

Um of the things that I I don't believe in is uh sometimes when faced with fewer resources, the maybe gut response is well, let's just kind of divide it evenly and spread it out.

And and sometimes that approach doesn't allow anything to be effective.

Um and so, you know, just making sure that we're for me being strategic about what resources that we do have and trying to ensure