418 Rochelle Street looks like an ordinary row house at first glance. Backed against a hillside in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Knoxville, its porch is messy, but that\u2019s hardly unusual.<\/p>\n
A reporter walked up the front steps one windy day this November to take a closer look, peered through the front window and saw something that doesn\u2019t belong inside a house: the sky.<\/p>\n
Both stories are caved into the basement. The exterior walls, though, are intact, giving the illusion that nothing is amiss on the end-unit row home.<\/p>\n
The story of how it went from being the structurally sound, owner-occupied home of a middle-class Pittsburgher in 2005 to a heap of rubble threatening adjacent structures is also the story of how a city that has shrunk in population by more than 50% since 1950 finds itself so short on affordable housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have a system that for too long has allowed houses that aren\u2019t paying taxes to languish, and people aren\u2019t living in them or taking care of them,\u201d said Bill Shimko, executive director of the Hilltop Alliance<\/a>. <\/p>\n Pittsburgh has more than 20,000 vacant housing units, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, about 15% of its total stock. Thousands are unlivable or so-called \u201cdead-end\u201d properties, for which the owner died or departed without making arrangements to transfer ownership and left a \u201ctangled title.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause (the city is) not foreclosing, we\u2019re not intervening, these properties are simply inaccessible to the average person,\u201d said Sally Stadelman, acting executive director of the Pittsburgh Land Bank, an agency tasked with acquiring tax-delinquent properties and getting them back on the market.<\/p>\n The foreclosure that wasn\u2019t<\/p>\n Nicole Green was living in 418 Rochelle in 2005, when a series of injuries at her job as a correctional officer at the Allegheny County Jail caused her to fall behind on her mortgage. She received a letter like many Americans did in the mid-2000s, in which her mortgage servicer told her they were foreclosing.<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t meet the payment plan the bank laid out to avoid foreclosure. So she left, and moved in with her mother elsewhere in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be put out by the sheriff,\u201d Green said this fall. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to embarrass my brother, he\u2019s a deputy sheriff. I vacated the property myself.\u201d<\/p>\n So it came as a surprise to Green this spring when the city took her to court over code violations at her long-ago home. The city wanted the owner of the collapsed home to clean up the mess.<\/p>\n While court records show the bank filed to foreclose in 2005, it turns out they never followed through. The house stayed in Green\u2019s name without her knowledge, as utility and tax debt piled up and the floors went down.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I knew that I owned it, I would have done more, and it would still be in good condition,\u201d Green said. \u201cI\u2019m in a different position now than I was then. Everything would have been OK.\u201d<\/p>\n Aimee Mangham, manager of outreach and services at the Hilltop Alliance, said she sits weekly in the magistrate\u2019s court in Carrick, where cases like Green\u2019s are adjudicated. She said Green\u2019s situation is not uncommon.<\/p>\n \u201cAt least once a week you hear the story that \u2018I didn\u2019t even know I owned the property,\u2019\u201d Mangham said, because they left when threatened with foreclosure.<\/p>\n The judge at a Dec. 11 hearing delayed ruling on Green\u2019s case, allowing a few months to try to engineer a solution. The city may front the cost of demolition and place a lien against the property to reclaim the tens of thousands of dollars, though that would make it virtually impossible for Green to sell the property.<\/p>\n Dave Green, the director of the city\u2019s Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections, said city code requires them to order property owners to demolish unsafe structures before the city intervenes. If the owner doesn\u2019t act, the structure can go on a list of properties for city-funded demolition, ranked in order of the danger they pose to the community. He said there are about 200 structures on that list currently, though there are far more that are condemned.<\/p>\n Shimko said what happened to Green is a flaw in the mortgage system.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless (homeowners) are able to track the foreclosure litigation and have an understanding of it \u2014 and without the help of an attorney that isn\u2019t easy \u2014 it puts them in a situation where they believe they lost their house and they take action to keep a roof over their heads,\u201d Shimko said.<\/p>\n Green said if the bank notified her they would put a lien on her house instead of foreclosing, she could have stayed and chipped away at the lien over time.<\/p>\n \u201cMy kids and my grandkids could be there,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Row of troubles<\/p>\n The collapsed home on Rochelle is causing problems beyond its own footprint.<\/p>\n Michelle Hoyle lives two doors down and fears her home is developing structural problems as a result.<\/p>\n \u201cThe foundation has been messed up,\u201d Hoyle said. \u201cI can tell there\u2019s some cracking, different things that I didn\u2019t notice before,\u201d and the issues seem to be \u201ctraveling\u201d toward her house.<\/p>\n Hoyle, 48, said she grew up in the home, stayed in Knoxville almost all her life and moved back in when her mother became ill. <\/p>\n Her mother died two years ago, and she worries she may soon have to leave the home they shared.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s happening more rapidly. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to stay here long,\u201d she said. \u201cI believe this home is going to leave me before I leave it.\u201d <\/p>\n She said she can no longer exit through the rear of her house since 418\u2019s porch collapsed, leaving debris all over. <\/p>\n Further down the row, there\u2019s a gap between two homes where one was demolished about five years ago (satellite images show it was cleared between late 2019 and late 2020). Shimko said that demolition turned out to be a \u201chack job\u201d and left an abutting neighbor with thousands of dollars in repair needs.<\/p>\n That neighbor, 93-year-old Elaine Stevenson, said she pursued help from city officials for years before a contractor came by and patched it up in recent weeks.<\/p>\n In the past, when the city had a row house demolished and a neighbor\u2019s wall was damaged, it was up to the neighbor to get it repaired. Rob Columbus, manager of the city\u2019s demolition program, said that in recent years the city shifted that burden to the city\u2019s demolition contractors \u2014 good for the neighbor, but more expensive for his department. <\/p>\n He said demolishing a row home typically comes with problems.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost like pulling a tooth,\u201d Columbus said. \u201cThey borrow stability from one another. Once you pull one they tend to shift. Those interior walls are not meant to be exterior walls.\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond structural concerns, Mangham said the proliferation of decaying structures throughout Knoxville is bad for the neighborhood\u2019s spirit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt brings the community down,\u201d Mangham said. \u201cYou walk outside and it\u2019s a part of the unspoken culture that you have to look at something so horrible every single day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s disheartening to see. It\u2019s a wonderful community, I believe. There\u2019s just some pockets that \u2026 you\u2019ll see porches have fallen on the street and they\u2019re just sitting there.\u201d <\/p>\n Hoyle said the rapidly decaying state of her building has her considering whether it makes sense to have the deed transferred from her late parents\u2019 name to her own. <\/p>\n \u201cNow I have to think about if I should just walk away,\u201d Hoyle said, noting that the abutting units\u2019 condition would make it impossible for her to sell. \u201cIf I should become one of those people.\u201d<\/p>\n Could the Land Bank help?<\/p>\n The city\u2019s demolition request in court presents Green with the prospect of another lien on an uninhabitable house she didn\u2019t know she owned until recently. <\/p>\n The Land Bank could help, Stadelman said. If Green transfers ownership of the property to the bank, it can use its agreements with the city, school and county to wipe away existing liens and offer the newly empty lot for sale to a neighbor with clean title.<\/p>\n That maneuver is complicated by the long list of city buildings awaiting demolition and the lack of funding to raze them. Even if the lot was cleared, the neighbors who could take responsibility for it are dwindling. Units on the block are emptying out, and some are rentals.<\/p>\n A Land Bank can be a powerful tool to address tax-delinquent and blighted properties, if Cleveland is any example. The Cuyahoga Land Bank there has facilitated more than 10,000 demolitions<\/a> and 2,600 renovations since 2009, figures that would make major progress toward Pittsburgh\u2019s needs. <\/p>\n The key to Cuyahoga\u2019s success is a reliable annual infusion of millions of dollars. The Pittsburgh Land Bank, in contrast, has received no city funds since an initial $3.5 million investment in 2021. And the forecast isn\u2019t pretty: The City Council is pinching pennies to simply maintain basic services.<\/p>\n Unlike the Cuyahoga Land Bank, which can fund demolitions, renovations and even new construction in quantity, the Pittsburgh Land Bank relies in part on the city\u2019s cash-strapped demolition program and on local nonprofits to handle renovations and construction. <\/p>\n Once an abandoned home becomes structurally unsound, neighbors\u2019 options are limited, Stadelman said. They can file for conservatorship to have the building demolished, but that would come at a major expense. She encouraged residents to call 3-1-1 to report issues before they become more serious.<\/p>\n Stadelman and Shimko said the city could better maintain its housing stock by foreclosing on tax-delinquent, vacant homes long before they collapse, allowing them to be turned over to new residents who will keep them in good condition and on the tax rolls.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we have a system that for too long has allowed houses that aren\u2019t paying taxes to languish and people aren\u2019t living in them or taking care of them, whether it\u2019s because someone died or a situation like (Green\u2019s),\u201d Shimko said. \u201cThere is definitely an opportunity here for the city to get involved and to acquire properties and move them in the direction of reuse.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier intervention may have saved Green\u2019s former home. Neighbors said the bulk of the collapse occurred within the last two years; satellite images show major issues with the roof appearing between 2018 and 2019 \u2014 more than a decade after she thought she\u2019d lost it.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n This story was originally published by Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source<\/a> as part of its series The Homeownership Wall<\/a> and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"418 Rochelle Street looks like an ordinary row house at first glance. 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