A group of troubled East End properties have a new owner who is seeking to rehabilitate them.
Esperanza Homewood LLC, led by real estate investor Joshua Pollard, has purchased the Bethesda-Homewood Properties, a group of more than 140 apartment units in Homewood, Garfield and Larimer.
The purchase price was $1 and “other considerations regarding the mortgage in the amount of $2,040,000,” according to county real estate records that show the transaction was a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. The transaction was recorded March 9, according to property records. He had purchased the mortgage for the properties last year.
The privately owned units lost a federal subsidy last year, after failing inspections from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and what HUD called the prior owner's “continued failure to correct the physical deficiencies” in the properties.
The loss of the subsidy caused hardship for some low-income tenants, who had to decide if they should stay in the units without rental aid, or take a housing voucher and seek an apartment elsewhere. It also spotlighted the city's continued shortage of affordable rental housing units. More than 80 tenants were issued a voucher to find housing elsewhere, more than 50 have since moved, according to city housing officials.
Mr. Pollard said in a January interview he is seeking to rehabilitate the properties and aid residents, with a focus on physical and behavioral health supports, workforce development and educational opportunities.
With the loss of a $109,293 per month federal subsidy to the properties, he'll have a difficult task before him.
Mr. Pollard has faced tough challenges before. He grew up on the border of Rankin and Braddock and went on to work in housing research at financial firm Goldman Sachs before returning to Pittsburgh.
“I left a really good career in New York to do exactly this,” he said in an interview. “When I was asked the question, 'what would you do if money were no object,' the real answer is that I would look at a neighborhood like Homewood, buy a property like Bethesda-Homewood and do what is supposed to be done: improve the properties so they are a place that has a strong quality of life, provide the behavioral and physical health supports and workforce development and education opportunities and allow someone who may be dealing with generational poverty issues to be the first in their family to break free. I'm completely passionate about this.”
Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess, who represents Homewood, said his first concern is for residents, and he also wanted to see the properties fully rehabbed, and new construction to replace units that must be torn down.
“We can't just put a Band-Aid on this,” said the councilman, who sponsored legislation last year to require HUD to notify the city about other properties with failing inspections.
Nonprofit East Liberty Development Inc. had also sought to buy the units, but couldn't secure the needed financing until after the owner already had a signed sales agreement with the new buyer.
“We're hopeful,” said Jerome Jackson, executive director of Homewood-based Operation Better Block Inc. “Mr. Pollard has a plan to rehab the units and bring those back that can be [brought back]. He has said he is committed to working with the families that remain there.”
Kate Giammarise: kgiammarise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3909.
First Published: March 30, 2018, 2:00 p.m.
