Residents ordered to vacate Swissvale apartments
-
The apartment building at 7330 McClure Ave. in Swissvale that was declared uninhabitable last week by the fire chief. -
Lori Celani cries as she learned she's found another apartment. She is one of 18 tenants being forced to move quickly after their apartment building along McClure Avenue in Swissvale was condemned. -
George Moses of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania (second from right) meets with tenants of a condemned apartment building on McClure Avenue in Swissvale. -
Douglas Williams' windows are a mess from excess spray insulation in an attempt to remedy severe drafts. He is one of 18 tenants who are being forced to move after their apartment building in Swissvale was condemned late last week.
Share with others:
For five years, unsafe conditions have prevailed at a Swissvale apartment building while the landlord built up a stack of violations. The last straw came last week when Swissvale Fire Chief Clyde Wilhelm issued to tenants a notice to vacate, saying the building had become uninhabitable.
The notice was issued the day the owner, Michael Sturdivant, got a continuance on his summary appeal of a magistrate court's decision that he had violated the borough's building code.
Mr. Sturdivant, whose address is a post office box with an East End zip code, bought the former Longfellow School in 2006 for $577,950. According to Chief Wilhelm, "he has been given citations ever since."
Mr. Sturdivant's attorney, Noah Fardo, said there have been temporary occupancy permits and that his client, a retired public school teacher, has tried to meet his obligations.
"We've been dealing with them for almost a year, and they never gave us any indication they were going to do this," Mr. Fardo said.
"Why now? When did it become unsafe? All that's been done in the last year have been improvements." He did not want to say what the improvements were but said he has "a foot-high stack of receipts."
Chief Wilhelm met with residents at the 18-unit building Tuesday, saying he would work with them on relocation but that he wanted them to be working on a move by the end of February. Tenant Doug Williams said he cited various calls the fire department has had to make, including for fires, and electrical and breaker box problems.
The chief said he felt he had little choice in giving the tenants the notice. It reads that the building "is unsafe and unfit for habitation and occupancy due to various violations of borough ordinances, property maintenance and fire codes."
After five years, he said, the court system "continues to give [Mr. Sturdivant] time to make corrections. It's the game. That's why I had no other alternative but to issue that" notice.
"We have filed 18 $1,000 citations over the two years since I have been chief. The local magistrate has found him guilty but by the time it got to Common Pleas [Court] he was granted numerous continuances. He just appealed the latest round of $18,000 in fines" for not having an occupancy permit for each unit," Chief Wilhelm said.
First Published February 3, 2012 12:00 am
