Some Low Income Elderly Getting Free Home Fix-ups

1,000 volunteers from more than 30 Pittsburgh area companies and organizations will come together Saturday, April 30 for the 19th annual Rebuilding Day to provide low-income senior citizens with much-needed home repairs.
The event is sponsored by Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh, a non-profit whose goal is to preserve affordable homeownership by providing rehabilitation services to those in need at no cost.
Alan Sisco, program director for the Pittsburgh chapter of the organization, says nationwide they operate in about 200 cities and towns to help low-income people "stay safe in their homes. So, we bring resources and skills to bear, to provide in Pittsburgh's case, primarily seniors with free home repairs."

Sisco says the work and all materials and supplies are free to the homeowner, and that Rebuilding Day highlights the extensive work they do throughout the year. He says there is an application process and low-income seniors are often referred to Rebuilding Together by social service agencies. According to Sisco, professional home inspectors volunteer to look at the homes and determine what needs to be done then "we take a look at what resources we have ...and match the home up with a qualified volunteer group."

This Saturday the volunteers will be working on 31 homes in the Pittsburgh area. "We'll be doing everything from cleaning up yards, clearing out gutters, painting, landscaping, building wheelchair ramps, installing wheelchair accessible bathtubs. We've got people receiving new roofs, where their roofs were leaking. We're installing new electrical service where outlets were no longer safe. There is nothing in the scope of home modification that is beyond our volunteers."

Sisco says it's truly a community effort with volunteers from companies, churches, schools and building trades unions.

Sprinkler Requirement Eliminated

Governor Tom Corbett has signed his first bill into law. The measure, which passed the House and Senate by wide margins, lifts a mandate requiring sprinkler systems in newly-constructed homes in Pennsylvania.

At the Monday afternoon bill signing, Corbett said the old legislation didn’t make sense. “Whether or not new homes are equipped with sprinklers, I believe should be a decision left up to the individual consumers, not to the government,” he said. “While there are arguments on both sides of this issue, as I said before, I believe it’s the decision of the individual consumer.” The governor pointed out smoke detectors are still required in every home, and that “builders still must offer buyers the option to install an automatic fire sprinkler system, provide buyers with information explaining the initial and ongoing cost of such a system, and furnish buyers with information on the possible benefits of information of an automatic sprinkler system.”

Firefighters unions supported the mandate, arguing requiring sprinklers in houses would help keep more blazes under control.

The new law also makes broader changes to Pennsylvania’s construction codes. Going forward, the commonwealth will no longer automatically adopt recommendations put forward by the International Code Council, which authored the sprinkler mandate in 2009. Additionally, Pennsylvania’s 19-member Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council will need a two-thirds vote to approve new building requirements. Some environmental advocates are worried the supermajority threshold will make it more difficult to write energy efficiency mandates and other “green” requirements into codes.

Anti-Blight Bill Advances

The House Urban Affairs Committee has approved a bill which would cut the amount of time that ownership of an abandoned property can be turned over from 21 to 10 years. State Representative Jake Wheatley (D-Allegheny) says situations like this are created when a land lord disappears, dies, or a will does not disclose the property owner. The occupants pay property taxes, but they are not allowed to own the house because they do not have clear title on the property. Eventually, the property is abandoned. Wheatley explains the introduced legislation.

"It would allow the resident who has been there for a consistent basis for 10 years to file for title for that property and it would create processes by which that person can gain clear title of that property."

Wheatley says it has taken legislators nine years to get the bill to this point, and they see this bill as an initial step because even Wheatley admits that 10 years is a long time.

There is still a one year notification period which will be used to vigorously find the recorded owner. If the proper owner does come forward within that year, they will have to reimburse the occupants who had been living there for investments made in the property. If not, the process can move forward and the occupants would become the proper owner.

Wheatley says that although he has had a tough time getting his bill passed in the House, he thinks he will have better luck in the Senate.

Changes in East Liberty

On Monday, ground was broken for a new housing development in East Liberty by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Rob Stephany of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, City Councilman Ricky Burgess and several community activists.

To be completed in 14 months, the development will be a new 71-unit rental housing structure on Collins Avenue, in close proximity to the East Busway and new commercial developments in East Liberty.

Called Liberty Park II, it will give residents who were relocated when the Liberty Park high rises came down an opportunity to move back to their neighborhood. Also on the location of the High Rises is a Target store scheduled to open soon.

The first phase was the Fairfield Apartments, completed in 2007. It consists of 124 mixed-income apartments. It is fully occupied.

The total cost of the project $15.7 million, of which 6.4 million comes from public sources.

Community activists have been involved in ensuring the original residents of the neighborhood did not get priced or moved out with all of the changes occurring in East Liberty. Aletha Sims. President of the Coalition of Organized Residents of East Liberty has been part of the process. "Everyone remembers the high rises that were in East Liberty. When the plans were for them to be demolished and rebuilt, you heard from the developers, you heard from the politicians, you heard from business owners - who you didn't hear from were the people who actually lived there. There were plans made for our homes and we didn't have a say," she said.

PA House Votes Against Mandatory Sprinklers

The State House passed a bill that removes a mandate requiring automatic sprinkler systems in new one- or two-family homes.

The mandate, which took effect in January, forces construction companies to install sprinklers, similar to the ones in hotels, for the safety of residents. Once the temperature rises to a certain degree, the sprinklers shower water, allowing people to escape a fire.

Firefighters and other supporters of the sprinklers measure say the safety measure can save lives, but several state legislators argue that the bill could hold back new home sales.

Pennsylvania's construction code is updated automatically every three years when the International Code Conference approves construction standards. With amendments by the Senate, the state Construction Code Advisory Council would now need to opt into any changes before they can take effect.

Senator John Wozniak (D-Cambria County) voted to repeal the mandate and says requiring sprinklers in a house is unnecessary. "We're sitting here saying 'here's another hoop you have to jump through, here's another ordinance you have to take care of, here's another responsibility you have to pay for before we give you a permit to build a house.'"

Wozniak says requiring sprinklers in homes can add thousands to building prices, possibly leading to a decrease in new home sales.

The legislation now goes to Governor Tom Corbett; it's unclear whether he will sign it.

Regional Home Sales Down in March

After January and February showed positive numbers in home sales in a 5-county Pittsburgh region, the numbers slipped by 3.3 percent last month. Daniel Murrer, Vice President of RealSTATs says the drop was anticipated.

"Last year there was a tax credit in effect and this year there wasn't, so we were hoping or thinking that there may be a positive trend forming after the first two months of the year, but as it turns out that's not going to be the case for March."

Allegheny County home sales increased by only 12 units compared to March 2010 while Butler and Washington Counties climbed slightly as well. Westmoreland County and Beaver County saw significant decreases in home sales in March.

The number of existing homes sold decreased 2.7 percent from March 2010, and new home sales saw a 9 percent dip compared to last year in the Pittsburgh area.

March isn't the end of the decline according to Murrer. Sales are expected to drop even more through June compared to last year's sales because of the lack of tax credit, but he gives some encouragement for the rest of the year.

"After June, we would think that things would normalize and we would have a positive year over year comparison," says Murrer.

All in all Murrer says, "we're better off" this year compared to two years ago.

Federal Housing Cuts Decried

Several housing assistance nonprofits criticized a proposal to make deep cuts into federal housing programs outside Pittsburgh Council Chambers today.

The groups say the most pressing issue in the budget passed by the House is a 62% decrease in Community Development Block Grants. Pennsylvania Community Reinvestment Group Chair Aggie Brose says that would translate to a drop of at least $1.2 million in Pittsburgh alone, where CDBG funding helps rebuild neighborhoods.

“The Federal Hill project in the Central North Side took a blighted commercial strip and major transit corridor, and through investment in strategic demolition and infrastructure is attracting more than $10 million in private market investment,” says Brose.

Larry Swanson of ACTION-Housing says while CDBG funding is the core concern, two other housing programs are facing even greater cuts of 70% -- the 811 program for seniors and the 202 program for the disabled. Swanson says cuts that deep would effectively kill the national programs.

The nonprofits say the drop in federal support will compound with state-level cuts, and will ultimately deny essential services to those in need.

The budget bill is now in the mainly Democratic Senate, which may temper several of the housing cuts.

The activists toted signs reading “Housing = Jobs” and “Homes Are Not Discretionary,” standing outside Council Chambers in support of a bill to reform CDBG distribution in Pittsburgh.

Legislation to Nullify Sprinkler Mandate

Less than 6 weeks after a state mandated residential sprinkler requirement took effect, some Pennsylvania lawmakers along with builders and realtors are trying to get it repealed.
The mandate that all new housing in Pennsylvania, effective January 1, must have sprinklers was not included in legislation, but is part of the Uniform Construction Code which has an automatic adoption process built into it. Fred Cabell of the Pennsylvania Builders Association says any provision proposed by the International Code Council (ICC) is adopted in Pennsylvania automatically.

The Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute (PFESI) sent a letter to Pennsylvania General Assembly urging lawmakers not to repeal the sprinkler requirement because the sprinklers save lives and prevent serious injuries.
However, Cabell says the mandate does not address threat of fires in older, existing housing stock.

The PFESI letter to lawmakers says new homes need the sprinklers because they burn and collapse faster than older homes.
Cabell admits that new lightweight flooring systems do burn at a faster rate than conventional framing lumber..."As a result, the ICC has proposed, and this would not take effect until 2013 in Pennsylvania, that there be additional fire floor protection. We've encouraged representatives and senators to have in their legislation language that would provide that protection effective immediately."

The firefighters and builders also dispute the cost of installing sprinkler systems. The Institute says a recent study shows the cost at $1.61 per square foot and systems are being installed in Pennsylvania at a lower rate. But Cabell says even at that rate, the cost for 2,000 square feet of living space plus the basement would be $6,440. Cabell says a 2006 survey of Pennsylvanians showed that 89% said that smoke alarms do an adequate job of protecting them in their homes.

State Representative Garth Everett of Lycoming County and Senator Jake Corman of Center County have proposed legislation to repeal the sprinkler mandate.

Crackdown on Mortgage Fraud

The Mortgage Fraud Task Force of the U.S. Attorney's Office is marking its 3rd anniversary today with the filing of charges against another 14 individuals connected to 7 different fraudulent schemes.
U.S. Attorney David Hickton says in those 3 years, 105 defendants have been charged with 75 of them convicted or pleading guilty, and the remaining cases are pending..."this is a very important priority for this office."
Hickton says he believes that the mortgage fraud problem has peaked and that the task force has been a factor....
"We also have to acknowledge that the environment which created this with less restrictions has been remedied by the banking community and others. So, we think the problem is on the wane, but it's still there."
Hickton says over the last 3 years the indictments have involved 2,500 properties and $500 million in fraudulent loans, and that anyone who participates in the fraudulent transactions should be aware....
"If it's the seller, the borrower, the closing agent, the mortgage broker or the appraiser, they're all potential targets of these prosecutions."
According to Hickton, mortgage fraud is a double whammy for owners trying to pay for their homes...
"It hits many of our communities where people are struggling. It leaves people in a position where the community has been affected, homes are abandoned, families are victimized and then it can lead to a secondary level of crime where the abandoned home becomes a site of secondary criminal activity."
Hickton says there are no plans to end the work of this task force.

PA Looks For Federal Housing Dollars

Affordable housing advocates are praising a new state law establishing a fund to help low-income renters and home buyers, but the account won’t have much money, unless federal lawmakers act. The fund relies on a law pending in Congress that would provide $1 Billion nation wide. Between $40 and $50 million is expected to be allocated to Pennsylvania. The fund would go toward Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency efforts. Executive director Brian Hudson says the money would be especially helpful in rural areas whose economies are changing due to natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. “Rentals literally have gone through the roof. Where properties were renting for $500, they’re getting 15-hundred dollars. And they’re displacing the tenants, the renters, who were from that community, “ says Hudson. Hudson says even if Congress doesn’t approve funding, he’ll work to solicit private contributions from individuals and companies, including natural gas drillers. However, he says they need the money now, “So we can go in and build where the community needs rental housing. Be that soft money to get it started. If it needs a Laundromat, a grocery store, a bakery – those are the pieces we found that turn communities around.”

Housing Tenants Could Lose Individual Mail Delivery

Residents of 2 housing developments in Beaver County are fighting a plan by the local postmaster to halt door-to-door delivery. Carl DeChellis, the director of the Beaver County Housing Authority, says he received a letter from the postmaster in late September saying there were concerns about mail carrier safety, so the postmaster wanted to mandate all mailboxes be placed in a central location at the Crestview Village and Economy Village by November 13...

"We took objection to that. This development covers a 4 block area and there would be a lot of elderly, disabled and a lot of young people families who would have to bundle up their kids and walk to get their mail everyday. So we ask the post office to reconsider that."

DeChellis said he received a follow up letter from the postmaster indicating he still intends to go through with the central mail delivery. DeChellis says there are about 300 residents in the 181 apartments in the housing developments.

He says he knows of no incidents in which carriers have been harmed......"For the last 15 years, the authority has paid various municipalities to patrol the housing developments. In the past 2 years, the Borough of Ambridge and the authority have been unable to negotiate a contract acceptable to the borough. Residents have requested police protection. The postmaster may have taken that to think we have an unsafe situation."

DeChellis says the housing developments have had door to door mail delivery for 60 years.

Foreclosure Rates High in Some Areas of Pgh

While Pittsburgh’s rate of foreclosure remains below the national average, several neighborhoods in the city weren’t so lucky.

University of Pittsburgh researchers compiled foreclosure data for city neighborhoods and found several communities, especially in the south and west of the city, had high rates. For example, Sheraden’s 2008-2009 foreclosure rate of 22% was the city’s highest, at about 30 times the Pennsylvania rate of 0.7%.

Pitt assistant professor Sabina Deitrick says the data she compiled should be useful for those trying to fight foreclosures.

“There’s lots of groups across the country who are working in similar kinds of neighborhoods and finding homeowners before foreclosures finish,” says Deitrick. “There’s groups here in Pittsburgh, like the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group, that are doing those kinds of things. This is information to help them in identifying some areas when working with others, particularly with funders or foundations or financial institutions.”

Deitrick says often these foreclosed houses become property of financial institutions. She says since these companies want to get rid of these properties as quickly as possible, they’re often undersold or they stand vacant. Deitrick says this has happened most often in Beechview, where financial groups owned 29 properties.

Survey of Pennsylvanians Dealing With Foreclosure

Job loss and unexpected medical problems are the key factors cited by Pennsylvanians faced with foreclosure over the last 12 months. The survey, conducted for the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, questioned 500 Pennsylvanians who have had their homes foreclosed or narrowly avoided foreclosure in the past year or are currently going through the foreclosure process.
Pollster Joel Searby of Strategic Guidance Systems says 57% of those surveyed said their household experienced a job loss in the last 12 months..."but there is a 'Plus 1' factor...many people lost their jobs but it wasn't just job loss that forced them into foreclosure. It was job loss and something else that was unexpected and caused them financial strain."
That something else could be unexpected medical bills....47% said that was a factor; or other "unexpected bills"...36% cited that as a reason for being foreclosed upon.
Searby says 91% of those surveyed said they attempted to contact their lender about a solution to their pending foreclosure but 48% said their lenders were "not at all" willing to work with them. 30% of those who worked with their lender said it made no difference, 19% said it made things worse.
But Searby says the majority were unaware of the federal and Pennsylvania programs available to assist them. He said that's "more than surprising, that's alarming."
According to Searby, those surveyed in the Pittsburgh area were in many ways similar to those across the state but many had good loans......."Nearly 50% had prime loans while only 14% had subprime loans....which tells us one very important thing. This is not all about people having bad loans and people being in over their heads with the mortgage they took out."

According to the survey, at the time of foreclosure, 71% had lived in their home for more than 5 years.

Former State Office Building to be Apartment Building

Millcraft Industries has announced their hopes of beginning the reconstruction of the former State Office Building, downtown Pittsburgh, into an apartment building this fall. Millcraft bought the building from Pennsylvania for $4.6 million in March. The project is named Rivervue.
Chief Operating Officer Lucas Piatt says Millcraft believes in adaptive reuse—they take old structures and make them new and useful again. He says the downtown area seems to be having a “residential renaissance” right now, and there’s a great market in housing. He says the former state office building has the ideal location as its views are “arguably the best in the city,” and the layout of the units will most likely go “unmatched” in the city.
The 218-unit project should take about 16 months according to Piatt, however they’ll probably start leasing about 6 months before it is finished.
Piatt says 75% of units will be one-bedroom, and the rest will be two. There are plans to have two-story town homes on the top floors of the building, as well. He says unit prices will range from $800 to $3,000 per month.

Housing Alliance of PA Calls Attention to Housing Crisis

Nearly eighty people gathered today at a regional forum held by the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania (HAP) to discuss issues involving the severe housing crisis in the state. Consumers, developers, real estate professionals, community activists and politicians spoke about the state’s problematic housing market and shared ideas and initiatives that might help fix the situation.
Executive Director of HAP, Liz Hersh, shared statistics about Pennsylvania’s housing market. She says in Allegheny County, hard working families, seniors, and people with disabilities are struggling to find and maintain affordable homes.
• 42% of families who rent are living on $23,850 or less.
• 71% - 80% of families living at or below 30% of Area Median Income (AMI) face severe cost burdens.
• There are only 31-40 units of affordable housing for every 100 of these working families.
• The housing wage is $14.04 per hour—the wage needed to afford the rent of a 2-bedroom apartment. The minimum wage is $7.25.
• 13% of all renters are 75 or older, while 26% are 25-34 years old.
• 32% of homes were built prior to 1940, and most owners struggle to keep them in good conditions.
Hersh says Allegheny County needs 21,545 more rental units that are both affordable and available to the lowest income renters. That number is approximately ten times larger than any other county’s in southwest Pennsylvania. She says the state needs 220,000 more rental units.
The housing crisis is affecting homeowners, low income people, children, senior citizens, the economy and the government. According to Hersh, more than 43,000 children are homeless in Pennsylvania, and 1/3 of these children have psychiatric disorders by the age of 8.
HAP board member Ellen Kight says for these reasons Pennsylvanians must join initiatives to reduce the housing shortage. She says ultimately, HAP seeks to “influence public policy in ways that improve the health and balance of our housing market so that it really meets the needs of local residents.”

HUD Money Comes to The Commonwealth

More than 21 million federal dollars will be helping Pennsylvania’s low-income seniors and people with mental and developmental disabilities get housing.

The money will come from The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD. It’ll help non-profit developers produce accessible housing to the low-income elderly and people with disabilities, groups who typically have difficulty securing affordable housing.

The money will be split up among facilities in Philadelphia, Verona, Erie, New Kensington and Beaver Falls.

Jeffrey Huber is the CEO of Supportive Services in Beaver Falls. His organization is getting over a million dollars to rehabilitate an existing building into permanent housing for nine low-income people with chronic mental illness.
"A lot of the people that we serve if it weren’t for the HUD programs that we’re involved with they wouldn’t have a place to call home."

Maria Bynum, who works for HUD says more than providing a place to live, this money will also help provide a sense of self.

"For someone whose on a limited income its important to be able to afford a place where you can age with grace and dignity and be proud of where you live," she said.

HUD is also funding projects in 45 other states.

HACP To Open Fitness Center

The Housing Authority of Pittsburgh is teaming up with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Western Pennsylvania Police Athletic League to open a new fitness center in Fineview. The authority will cut the ribbon on the facility in the basement of one of its the Allegheny Dwellings buildings July 1st. Authority spokesperson Michelle Jackson says the center will provide the usual workout equipment but it will also house a boxing ring and all the equipment needed to train boxers. One retired and one current Pittsburgh Police officer will run that aspect of the program. Jackson says residents will also be able to tap into a raft of special programs aimed at helping head-of-household mothers and young mothers. Housing Authority, Iron Cross Ministries and One Vision, One Life staff, will lead the programs and mentoring sessions. Jackson says the programs include self-esteem, self-awareness and health and wellness classes. She says the center will serve residents “mentally, physically and spiritually.” The housing authority will go door-to-door in effort to inform residents about the new programs. Jackson says the center will be open to all Housing Authority residents but it is particularly focused on serving the Allegheny Dwellings residents, which she says includes a higher percentage of young, single mothers.

Transportation Costs Drive Up Cost of Living

The Center for Neighborhood Technology, a national urban sustainability non-profit based in Chicago, released a study on Tuesday that shows that only 2 in 5 American communities are affordable for a typical household when transportation costs are factored in. They looked at 161,000 suburban neighborhoods in 337 metropolitan regions accounting for 80 percent of the county's population.

Scott Bernstein, the organization's president said many of the people living in the newer master-planned communities that are zoned for housing and nothing else must drive to get anywhere. In Pittsburgh, he said, only 1 out of five trips from a house are to commute for work. People in those communities must drive to get to schools, to religious institutions, to buy food and do other shopping. With the rising costs of gas, this is not a sustainable way to live.

Bernstein says one solution is to install more public transportation and to allow mixed-use development. According to their research, based on the housing costs alone, in the Pittsburgh area, 74 percent of neighborhoods are affordable. If you look at the sum of housing and transportation, the number falls to 33 percent. The most affordable places to live in the region are in the city of Pittsburgh and in the commuter suburbs immediately surrounding the city.

New Mortgages Program

Governor Ed Rendell says a state-federal partnership will boost Pennsylvania’s housing market by providing 11-thousand new mortgages to home buyers.
Rendell says the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency will use federal funding to offer 30-year fixed rate mortgages with interest rates around five percent.

"Low-interest, fixed rate loans are exactly what we need today. They’re the opposite of the kind of sub-prime, interest only adjustable rate loans that got so many home owners in trouble in the first place."

State bond sales will also finance 50 million dollars in loans aimed at home construction. Rendell says he’s also expanding a program that offers 6-thousand dollar interest-free loans to first-time homebuyers. In all, Rendell says the effort will cost 1.2 billion dollars.
More than 18-thousand Pennsylvania residents are in foreclosure right now. Rendell says the state’s median home price dropped by more than six percent last year.

Forum Held to Discuss Homelessness in County

A forum was held Thursday to bring awareness to homelessness in Allegheny County.
The forum was part of a series of events leading up to the 2009 Sleep-In for the Homeless organized by Community Health Services and to be held in front of the City-County Building on October 9th.
The speakers at the forum were Congressman Mike Doyle who discussed national legislation impacting local homelessness, Sarah Kahn, Director of Field Mobilization for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Mike Lindsay, Allegheny County Housing Director in the Department of Health and Human Services, Rev. Mike Wurschmidt, Rector at Shepard's Heart and Adrienne Walnoha, Executive Director of Community Health Services.