History
RentHelpPGH was founded in July 2020 to help Allegheny County residents navigate the rapidly changing rental assistance programs and eviction protections created during the COVID-19 pandemic. What began as a small resource navigation effort quickly demonstrated a much broader need for clear information, coordinated services, and support navigating complicated housing systems.
Between July 2020 and December 2025, RentHelpPGH assisted more than 12,000 Allegheny County households, representing more than 32,400 of our neighbors, with accessing legal, financial, and other resources to prevent eviction and stabilize their housing.
As our work grew, so did our understanding of the barriers our neighbors face. We learned where people struggled to find information, where programs were difficult to access, where services were disconnected, and where relatively small interventions could make an enormous difference. Those lessons have shaped the programs we have helped build and the role RentHelpPGH plays in Allegheny County's housing safety net.
Today, RentHelpPGH Resource Navigators work in select Magisterial District Courts through the Lawyer of the Day program, support landlord-tenant mediation, assist hundreds of visitors to the Housing Stabilization Center each month, and conduct outreach to nearly every household in Allegheny County with an eviction filing. Across our programs, we help our neighbors understand the eviction process, connect with available resources, and navigate the systems intended to help them preserve their housing.
After three years of fiscal sponsorship by ACTION-Housing, Inc., RentHelpPGH incorporated as an independent nonprofit and received federal 501(c)(3) status in July 2023.
Our Philosophy
Access to services should be universal.
Finding help should not require knowing the right organization, the right phone number, or the right words to describe what you need. We work to make housing stabilization resources easier to find, understand, and access and advocate for systems that do the same.
People experiencing housing instability are experts in the systems they navigate.
Our neighbors understand barriers that cannot be captured through program guidelines or outcome data alone. Their experiences help us understand where systems are working, where they are failing, and what people actually need to find and preserve safe, affordable housing. We use what we learn through thousands of individual interactions to improve our own work and inform the programs and systems around us.
Direct service should inform systems change.
Our work does not end when we help one household access rental assistance, prepare for court, negotiate an agreement, or preserve their housing. Every interaction also helps us better understand why people experience housing instability and where opportunities exist to prevent it.
We collect data, identify patterns, and bring what we learn from our neighbors and frontline staff into conversations with funders, government partners, service providers, and other decision makers. Our goal is not only to create better outcomes for the people who find RentHelpPGH, but to help build better systems for the thousands of people who never do.
Housing instability is complicated. Addressing it requires collaboration.
No single organization, program, or intervention can address all of the circumstances that contribute to housing instability. We work closely with legal aid organizations, housing providers, social service agencies, government partners, courts, tenants, landlords, and others to build programs that are coordinated, responsive, and grounded in the realities of the people using them.
We believe collaboration is not only more effective, but a better use of limited community resources. Strong partnerships allow organizations to build on one another's expertise rather than duplicate services and make it easier for our neighbors to move between programs without having to start over at every door.
Data without context is just numbers.
Eviction data can tell us how many cases are filed, where they occur, and what happens in court. It cannot tell us everything about the people behind those numbers: what brought them to court, what they tried before they got there, what barriers they encountered, or what might have prevented the filing altogether.
We believe good programs and good policy require both. We pair quantitative data with the experiences of our neighbors and frontline staff to better understand housing instability and identify opportunities to strengthen Allegheny County's response.
The people doing housing stabilization work should experience stability, too.
Many members of the RentHelpPGH team have experienced housing instability, including eviction and homelessness. That lived experience shapes how our colleagues and our organization show up for our community.
We believe caring for our neighbors also means caring for the people doing this work. RentHelpPGH prioritizes living wages, generous paid time off, health and retirement benefits, flexible and responsive scheduling, and opportunities for professional development. The people working every day to promote housing stability should also have the opportunity to experience it in their own lives.