On Monday afternoon Shauntae Stevenson cried and held a white envelope that she said contained a key and $25.
On day two of her stay at an emergency Red Cross shelter after losing her apartment to a five-alarm fire Saturday, her landlord offered an alternate place in West Mifflin.
“They want me to go all the way to Mon View Heights,” the 32-year-old mother of two said. “All my family’s over here. I can’t afford to be out there.”
Ms. Stevenson and 20 others spent Sunday night at the shelter set up in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Downtown. Shortly before bedtime, Red Cross staff bused them to a nearby church to shower. Other displaced residents found refuge with family and friends.
The residents say the fire on De Ruad Street is just the latest blow — a devastating one — at the row of Oakland apartment buildings where they’ve already had to trap mice and cockroaches and repeatedly contact the property manager about health and safety issues. The complex also had previous fire code violations.
By late Monday afternoon, confusion swirled at the shelter, with some residents scared that they might have to return to the apartment buildings adjacent to where the fire occurred.
“Nobody’s told us if it’s safe,” said Shamar Bowe, 26, who linked hands with her three kids under age 4 and walked around the shelter.
“They found me somewhere but can’t tell me where it’s at until tomorrow,” Delores Thomas, 58, said Monday. She’s lived in the De Ruad Street building, which borders the Hill District, for 14 years. “I can’t move from the Hill. All my business is around here. I go to my doctor at Magee [hospital].”
Hill Com II Associates, which is listed as the owner on Allegheny County property records, is an affiliate of Allegheny Housing Rehabilitation Corporation (AHRCO). Lara Washington, a spokeswoman for AHRCO, said in a statement: “To help displaced residents, we have identified various properties we manage where apartments are currently available to help with housing. We are working closely with HUD and have also reached out to other property owners to identify available housing. We’re hoping that each resident’s temporary housing problem is resolved in the next day or so while AHRCO assists each resident with a permanent housing solution.”
Pittsburgh Public Safety spokeswoman Cara Cruz said that “affected families are urged to call 412-392-4445 to set up an appointment, if they haven’t already done so.”
The AHRCO statement also said that any organization wishing to assist the Hill Com II residents with new clothing items, new or gently used household goods, or gift cards should contact I Dream a World at 412-894-8988.
The Red Cross had opened cases for 24 residents as of Monday afternoon.
The apartments had been the subject of numerous tenant complaints in recent years, according to Allegheny County Health Department records obtained by the Post-Gazette last year through a Right-to-Know request.
Among the issues raised by residents: plumbing concerns such as a corroded pipe bursting and flooding, water damage, a “foul odor” in the building, and “concerns re: electrical wiring — have had two recent fires,” according to a complaint to the Health Department from a resident last July.
Several residents interviewed last year about conditions there said they stayed despite their worries because the apartments were affordable in a city that faces a shortage of affordable units, because they didn’t think they could find other housing due to old criminal convictions, or because the location is convenient to Downtown and has available public transit.
Tenants also complained to health officials about various rodent, cockroach, and bedbug infestations; a floor not disinfected after a sewage cleanup; water leaking through a living room, kitchen, bedroom and hallway ceilings; a furnace that stopped working periodically; multiple complaints about a raw sewage smell emanating throughout the building; sewage seeping into the basement, and in one instance, mushrooms growing out of a hole in a bathroom wall, according to complaints dating back to 2013.
A 2014 Health Department inspection noted one instance of openable windows that were sealed shut.
“One night I was watching T.V., and I thought there was a bug on my foot, and I bent down to look closer, it was a mouse,” Mary Ann Williams, 56, a partially blind tenant who’s lived there for six years, said Sunday at the shelter.
The building’s condition has violated multiple city codes, according to city records, including those meant to protect residents against insect and mice infestations and electrical wiring issues.
One October 2017 violation cited holes in the floors of a shared stairwell and cracked and loose plaster.
That same month, the Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations alleged in a complaint that AHRCO had “subjected tenants to poor housing conditions and a difference in treatment” disproportionately affecting African American tenants and those with disabilities, according to records the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obtained under the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know law.
Under a three-year agreement signed by both parties in October 2017, AHRCO must “affirm they will not and do not discriminate based on race or disability”; provide fair housing training to employees; establish standard documentation practices for tenant communication, including providing a work order number; and submit quarterly reports of the status of all maintenance requests to the commission.
Those reports remain confidential as investigation records under a right-to-know law exception.
The commission has continued meeting with the De Ruad Street residents about their concerns regarding housing conditions and potential remedies.
“We’ve been working with other city departments, council members and community leaders on this effort,” said Megan Stanley, the commission’s executive director.
City Councilman Daniel Lavelle, who represents the neighborhood, could not be reached Monday.
Just months after the commission agreement was signed, the city’s Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections found three fire code violations at the property, including improper fire extinguishers and a lack of required documentation for the buildings’ fire escape and fire alarm system.
Those violations had been resolved before this weekend’s fire, said Maura Kennedy, the department’s director.
Her department posted signs on the De Ruad Street building Sunday that warned residents of “imminent danger.”
This situation demonstrates why the city needs “a clear minimum standard that all rentals must meet,” Ms. Kennedy said, referring to the city’s 2014 rental registry ordinance that is tied up in court.
The properties are privately owned, but federally subsidized.
“They [AHRCO] are working to secure interim housing for the remaining families,” according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“At this point, they do not know the extent of damage to the building, but will have inspectors at the site tomorrow,” she said Monday. “HUD is also working with AHRCO to arrange for temporary financial assistance for housing the residents in the interim.”
Ashley Murray: 412-263-1750 or amurray@post-gazette.com. Kate Giammarise: kgiammarise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3909.
First Published: August 20, 2019, 9:56 a.m.
Updated: August 20, 2019, 9:58 a.m.
