Oakland Housing Series Continued…
“Current zoning permits Multi-Unit Residential Moderate Density (RM-3), which makes it difficult to control the spread of substandard rental properties: landlords can legally increase the occupancy of the properties up to the maximum allowed by the Zoning Code” – Meyran Ave study.
Overcrowding in Oakland (Pittsburgh)
A problem in Oakland, the home of the University of Pittsburgh, is the over-crowding of off-campus student housing. The 2000 Census defines overcrowding as 1.01 people per room fit for human habitation and severe overcrowding as 1.51 or more people per room. In renter occupied units in South and Central Oakland, 3.2 % of units are overcrowded and 1.6% are severely overcrowded, contrasting with owner occupied units where 1.6% are overcrowded and none are severely overcrowded.
Strangely, one archaic Pittsburgh law says that no more than three unrelated persons may dwell in the same building. Yet, many landlords circumvent this law by having students sign more than one lease, or only asking three residents to sign the lease. Stacey Papa, Esq, advises that students run away from these dishonest landlords as fast as they can should this happen…and, to be safe, stick to 3 maximum occupants in a rental unit. One Oakland resident who was worried about overcrowding asked Robert (bob) Eckenrode (the notorious Oakland slumlord with the most complaints against him - and ALSO one of the top 5 keywords driving traffic to this site - via Google Analytics), “’[H]ow many people do you have in your apartment?’
Bob Eckenrode replied to this older Oakland resident (occurring to an OPDC study), ‘I don’t know, the check just comes to my house. Oh, I’ll check it out tomorrow to see how many is in my house.’
The Oakland resident said, ‘He didn’t check it out. As long as he’s getting that rent and paying his bills, he’s fine.’”
Lax Building and Health Code Enforcement in Pittsburgh
The residents of Oakland also believe the lack of landlord property supervision results from the lax building and health code enforcement by the city of Pittsburgh. Many believe that landlords do not keep their properties up to code and do not respond to complaints on time due to the lenient code enforcement. The new zoning code, RM-3, allows a mix of housing and rental units in urban areas. It allows for single-unit detached residential, single-unit attached residential, two-unit residential, three-unit residential and multi-unit residential.
Even with relaxed building and health codes, violations remain. There are illegal units with extra kitchens. Slumlords will refurbish the units right after the building inspectors have conducted an on-site review of the properties. The Oakland Planning and Development Corporations hands are tied when it comes to uncovering these violations because no one has the legal right to enter private property. “Building inspectors can only search for exterior code violations unless the property changes hands, or the tenants or the owner has reported a violation” stated Bud Sukulovich, of the OPDC.
To understand the problems with code enforcement, it is important to examine the departments that deal with such issues: The Bureau of Building Inspection (BBI) and the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD). Most complaints received by these departments do come from renters in low- income housing. In 2002, the BBI received a total of 13,558 complaints. A total of 98,593 inspections were made, 27.6% of which were code enforcement inspections. Housing Court records show that 1,700 code enforcement cases were brought to court, with an average fine of $69.12 per case.
The Bureau of Building Inspection and the Allegheny County Health Dept.
“The Oakland Philosophy of Wealth: Several landlords maintain housing because they view housing, regardless of the condition, as a measure of wealth. Many view that this ‘wealth’ can be passed on to their children. Several Oakland landowners will simply pay the fines and continue to hold on to their real estate” – Meyran Ave Study
The Bureau of Building Inspection is authorized to enforce both Title 10 (building) and Title 9 (zoning) of the Pittsburgh Building Code. There are 44 inspectors, split into areas of concentration: (1) building construction, (2) code enforcement, (3) electrical inspections, (4) demolition and (5) heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. After receiving a complaint, the inspector sends an initial letter to the property owner with a deadline for completion of repairs. This deadline is typically extended by 15 days to account for administrative procedure. If there is no violation apparent on the re-inspection, the case is closed. If not, the case goes to Housing Court, which is a long process until completion. Under this current system, a violation may take over six months until resolution. Another problem is that many landlords and building inspectors are well acquainted with each other, and instead of receiving the initial letter immediately, a phone call is made to the landlord. This can extend the deadline for repairs even farther.
The Allegheny County Health Department received about 3,500 housing complaints in 2002. The Mayor’s Service Center only sent 207 complaints to the actual department, again filling a role as moderator between the citizens and the city. In 2002, ACHD prosecuted 237 cases, with an average fine of $15.09 per case. The ACHD must enforce Article VI of the Department’s Rules and Regulations entitled ‘Housing and Community Environment.’ The process is a bit shorter at ACHD than at BBI, but there are a few inherent problems. Instead of conducting immediate investigations, a Pre-Inspection Notification letter is sent. This is typically needless, since the residents usually alert their landlord before alerting the Health Department of the problem. It often takes rather long to schedule a re-inspection. The main problem with both agencies is receiving a timely response.
What Does This All Mean?
Evidently, the lax code enforcement is going to contribute to the growing problem of depreciating property values and the loss of tax revenue for the city. Many properties owned by absentee landlords end up in pretty bad condition. This causes the property assessment to be lower than the true value of the property, which then loses tax dollars for the city. Furthermore, neither department above has the monetary means to be any threat to the absentee landlords. A raise in fines for code enforcement violations is needed to raise the city’s revenue.
Rant and Rave!
Loading ...
Great points about the housing problems.
As you have made clear, problems abound in the Oakland housing situation;however, I do not think it is reasonable to paint Robert Eckonrode as a shady slumlord without anything besides a comment from an undocumented OPDC study.
Like many landlords in that area, he could be another businessperson trying to earn his fare share in a difficult and depreciating industry. This conjecture has no documentation, but I think it brings up an important issue. When readers face such inadequate evidence for creating an informed opinion on Robert’s business it is important to argue a favorable view, as this may be just as valid as the negative comments your article contains. Thus, I do not want to play apologist for Rob’s business, but rather wish to point out the danger in making conjectures either way without having adequate evidence.
In passing, I think it would help to have an external reference for that law concerning only 3 tenants to a house.
Thanks for the comment. I definitely appreciate it.
For the record, and you could reference my first posting on housing and the ’story about the stairs’ - Bob Eckenrode was my landlord for a whole year and it was the worst year of my life. No repairs we reported were made, we were left without steps up to our house for months … honestly the list goes on and on … but, it can be all found in this blog. So, the evidence to me is more than clear. He is no solid businessman in my book - and I’m a businesswoman myself. I was also the Off-Campus Housing Chairperson at the University of Pittsburgh for a year so all the stats I have have been pulled from a variety of reports (some of which I no longer have a copy of) as well as a year of member meetings at OPDC, which I was the student representative for.
I hope that you can now see the credibility in my claims. Thanks again for your comment!!