Troubled Penn Hills complex to have water service until mid-January
Water service will remain on in a Penn Hills apartment complex until at least Jan. 15, according to an agreement negotiated Monday by attorneys representing tenants, the Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority and Penn Hills.
Tenants at the Valmar Gardens apartments on Robinson Boulevard have been caught in a tangle of disputed ownership of the buildings, shutoffs of water and electricity, and an order from municipal
officials to leave because of unsafe conditions.
“You have some breathing room here,” Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donald Walko told applauding tenants and their supporters in the courtroom after attorneys agreed to the settlement Monday.
The judge credited Neighborhood Legal Services and others who had been aiding the residents. Several tenants and advocates carried signs or wore red T-shirts reading “ANEW Community Institute,” a group that has been assisting residents.
Tenants who weren’t present in the court have until Oct. 26 to object, under the terms of the settlement. The settlement is also contingent upon electricity remaining on at the buildings. A spokesman for Duquesne Light could not be reached Monday.
The apartment building at 2700 Robinson Blvd. had been without water since Sept. 10, and 2648 and 2698 Robinson Blvd. had been without water since Sept. 13, when the judge ordered the water be turned on Wednesday. Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority officials said the water had been turned off because the property owner failed to have a backflow prevention mechanism inspected as required by law.
Tenants were in court Monday because of two separate complaints filed last week against the Wilkinburg-Penn Joint Water Authority — one brought by Neighborhood Legal Services on behalf of four tenants, with a separate complaint filed by another group of tenants.
“Tenants do not have water for medication, medical equipment, food, flushing, washing,” the residents wrote in their legal complaint.
The complaint filed by Neighborhood Legal Services alleged the water authority violated the Utility Service Tenants Rights Act, as well as its own rules for water services by turning off water service to the three apartment buildings without proper notice.
Penn Hills officials had initially ordered tenants to leave by Thursday but then relented and said they could have more time to relocate after water service was restored and electricity came back on in the common areas of the building, which allowed the fire alarm system to work.
A number of residents said they wanted to leave the properties but couldn’t leave on such short notice.
“Right now, I’m on a waiting list for a lot of apartments,” said resident Geraldine Barnes, who said she has lived there 11 years.
Tenants said the ordeal of being without running water was trying.
“It was traumatic,” Lisa King, a resident who has lived in the building for three years, said just before Monday’s hearing. “It was very traumatizing. We are human beings, first. And we should be treated with dignity and respect.”
For the agreement reached Monday to be viable in the long term beyond January, “the ownership of the property has to be figured out,” said Craig Alexander, an attorney representing Penn Hills and the water authority.
The complex was sold at sheriff’s sale in September 2017, but the validity of the sale is being challenged in court. A company called PA Real Estate Development, which is listed in online county real estate records as the property’s owner, bought the property for $1,000 through a quit claim deed in January.