Residents of Penn Plaza Apartments in East Liberty are receiving eviction notices 90 days before their leases expire as the owner tries to empty the complex.
It could not be determined how many of the 312 units are occupied, but 41 households will be looking for Section 8 properties, with affordable replacement housing at a premium.
Penn Plaza Apartments — two buildings on Penn between Negley and Euclid Avenues — is owned by LG Retail Advisors. Property manager Mishia Blair said she doesn’t know if the property is being sold.
“To my knowledge, it’s not being torn down. All I was told was to give people 90 days’ notice,” she said. Her letter to tenants notes it is “due to future renovations.”
When pressed, she directed questions to the corporate office, where the person who answered said “there’s nothing right now” before hanging up.
For weeks, Penn Plaza has been abuzz with speculation.
“And panic,” said Donald Thomas, a tenant since 2003. He said maintenance people have told him that “everyone has to leave. We have a lot of seniors in the building.”
Jerry Murry uses a wheelchair and has lived there for 10 years. “I would have to find an accessible Section 8 unit and I want to stay in the East Liberty area,” he said. “In the new buildings in East Liberty, there’s a waiting list.”
“It’s everyone’s concern,” said David Weber, chief operations officer of the Housing Authority of Pittsburgh, which processes Section 8 vouchers for people to move from one unit to another regardless of whether they live in public or private housing.
Some Penn Plaza residents called on Action United, an advocacy organization.
“We will help them organize and make sure their rights are protected,” said Bill Bartlett, Action United’s Western Pennsylvania director. “East Liberty is being remade into a vision that doesn’t include all the people who currently live here.
‘‘It’s a mass relocation of folks of color. There’s never enough units in the city to handle folks being displaced, so they end up out in the county.”
Skip Schwab, deputy director at East Liberty Development, said a planning process for redevelopment of nearby Mellon’s Orchard with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and a community planning team has failed to get response from the owners of Penn Plaza.
“We have reached out repeatedly to [LG Retail Advisors] to get as much information” about their plans “and to engage them. They never have responded.”
The neighborhood agency is concerned the owner has commercial plans while residential units are in such demand in East Liberty, he said, adding that the site includes much needed community green space between apartment buildings.
Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.
First Published: July 9, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
