Community gathers to help displaced neighbors
Nearly month after a five-alarm fire dislocated 48 households in Uptown, Shawna Patrick and her three children still await permanent resettlement. They are living at the Hotel Indigo in East Liberty, their second hotel.
Others who lived at the Deraud Street Apartments are in various transitions. (The street is spelled De Ruad by the city and on maps, but the designation for the buildings online is the Deraud Street Apartments.)
On Saturday, Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Hill District opened its doors for a lunch party and resource fair to help those families.
“Part of what this event is about is to bring partners together to provide help for people with needs,” said state Rep. Jake Wheatley, DHill District, one of the organizers.
The other purpose was to give stressed-out people a day of fun. A disc jockey played songs while kids played. Adults filed into a supply room to pick up clothing, toiletries, pots and pans and other household goods that were donated, some delivered yesterday morning in a van from the University of Pittsburgh.
“Twenty organizations have been at the table all month to help the residents,” said Jeanne McNutt, executive director of Uptown Partners, citing numerous donations including catered meals, transportation, free services and gift cards.
A $10,000 grant from McAuley Ministries helped with hotel costs. Staff and students from Pitt, Carlow and Duquesne universities have donated services and funds. The American Red Cross helped with initial relief efforts after the Aug. 17 fire, when people took emergency shelter at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
“The Urban Redevelopment Authority found so many units in the Hill for us,” said Cassandra Williams, community relations manager for City Councilman Daniel Lavelle. “A lot of organizations came on board.”
She said the Housing Authority of Pittsburgh’s displacement preference policy should apply to some of the residents.
“If there are places available,” said Marlene Williams, Cassandra’s sister and the neighborhood advocate at Uptown Partners.
The units in all the buildings were covered by project-based federal subsidies, which stay with the building. Vouchers, on the other hand, are portable. Voucher holders often have trouble finding a landlord who takes them and projectbased housing is hard to come by, too.
Displaced residents who want a project-based unit are on a waiting list, said Mr. Wheatley. “Seven or eight took the option of other units with the same landlord” because of the shortage. “Four or five got placed [with other landlords] and will receive vouchers.”
Mischelle McMillan, a member of the DeRaud Tenant Council, lived in 2018 DeRuad St. and said she does not want to return because she said her building was uninhabitable even before the fire.
“I’m staying with family members in North Braddock for now,” she said.
Two city firefighters were injured in the Aug. 17 fire and 74 residents were displaced from 11 buildings that span a city block along Fifth Avenue in the front, and De Ruad Street in the back. Eight of the buildings were cleared for occupancy several days after the fire. The city deemed three uninhabitable.
The fire reportedly was started by a child playing with matches in the laundry room, but some residents said they are skeptical of that call.
“I’d like to see that fire reinvestigated,” said Ronell Guy, managing director of the Landless People’s Alliance, citing numerous violations against the property owners.
Hill Com II Associates is listed as the owner on Allegheny County property records. It is an affiliate of Allegheny Housing Rehabilitation Corporation (AHRCO), the landlord residents said they contacted repeatedly to report problems that they said were never addressed.
The Post-Gazette in August obtained Allegheny County Health Department records of violations that included corroded pipes bursting and flooding; water damage; a “foul odor” in the building; and “concerns re: electrical wiring.”
AHRCO’s score was among the lowest of more than 100 HUD-subsidized multifamily properties in Pittsburgh, according to a Post-Gazette analysis of HUD data. But a HUD spokesman said “the owner was in compliance with HUD’s Housing Assistance Payments contract.”
Lara Washington, who is listed variously as AHRCO CEO and spokesman, could not be reached for comment.
Ms. Patrick said living in hotels has been to her children “like a vacation,” but the oddity of it all is stressful as well. “My brother takes them to his house so there is something familiar.”
She said she doesn’t want to go back to De Ruad Street. “The smoke damage was bad. I had to throw everything out.”
Even before the fire, she said, “it seemed like a matter of time before something was going to happen. When you opened the door, mice scattered.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be living there,” she said of Hotel Indigo. “Playing it by ear and keeping the faith.”