The aid is intended to provide the writers time and means to seek resettlement and adjust to life in the United States.

[1][2][3][4][5] Founded in 2004 by Henry Reese and Diane Samuels,[6] the organization runs the Alphabet City venue, Sampsonia Way magazine, and Pittsburgh's Jazz Poetry Month.

[12] They joined the nearby Mattress Factory and Randyland to fight post-industrial blight in the Mexican War Streets area.

[14] The organization’s first author resident was Huang Xiang, a Chinese poet who had been sentenced to death in China for his participation in the Democracy Wall Movement.

In 2015, City of Asylum acquired a former Masonic Hall from the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh and launched a $12.2 million renovation.

[21] The first restaurant to open in the renovated Alphabet City was Casellula, a cheese and wine cafe with a strict no-tipping policy.

[28] The installation involved a choice of 100 words, all relevant to Pittsburgh, of which Mexican War Street neighbors were invited to display on the wall, door, or window of their houses.