Casa San José opens a $6.6 million home for Pittsburgh's Latino community in Beechview

For more than a decade Casa San José served Pittsburgh's Latino families out of church basements and rented offices. This week the nonprofit cut the ribbon on a building of its own, a three-story center on Broadway Avenue in the Beechview neighborhood that leaders say will let them do far more.

A long-empty building comes back to life

The 11,000-square-foot center at 1600 Broadway had sat vacant for close to 30 years. It is now the first building in the city owned by a Latino organization. The project cost $6.6 million and took about seven years of fundraising, with money from the city and state as well as foundations and community donors. The city put in $1 million in federal pandemic relief funds. The city's redevelopment agency sold the site for $1 plus costs.

Casa San José also bought the lot next door to make room for classrooms, meeting rooms, offices, an elevator and new energy-saving heating and cooling.

Services under one roof

The center brings together programs that used to be scattered across Pittsburgh. The lower level now holds doctor offices, dental exam rooms and private therapy rooms. The center also offers English and computer classes, workforce and caregiver training, after-school programs for kids and help with housing, utilities and food.

Families can also get immigration legal help, tenant rights support and know-your-rights workshops along with a rapid response line for immigration enforcement activity.

Growing with the community

Founded in 2013 by Sister Janice Vanderneck, Casa San José began with a single bilingual volunteer. Today it has about 35 staff members and more than 100 volunteers and helps several thousand people a year. Beechview has the largest Hispanic share of any major neighborhood in the region.

Executive director Monica Ruiz called the building a dream about six years in the making and a tribute to the founder. After moving services online last year over safety concerns tied to immigration raids, she said the group will not hide again.

Board chair Sharon Ross said the building is more than bricks and mortar. She said it gives the group room for more legal help, more health care and more classes. It also tells everyone who walks in that they belong.

U.S. Rep. Summer Lee said the celebration comes as immigrant families face heavy pressure from federal enforcement, which makes a permanent home in the neighborhood matter even more.