Pittsburgh cracks down on overcrowded houses
An Oakland house in the heart of a neighborhood packed with college students has three empty bedrooms.
Weeks after they moved into the Lawn Street home, the landlord told three of the six University of Pittsburgh and Point Park University students renting the house that they needed to move out because he could be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for violating laws that limit the number of tenants in a single-family home.
“Initially, we were like, ‘This is crazy. No one else has to deal with this,' ” said Amanda Navari, 21, who stayed in the house.
More students soon might find themselves in the same situation.
Neighborhood groups, Pittsburgh city officials and judges are cracking down on landlords who cram up to eight students into homes.
Mayor Bill Peduto said that to give enforcement “some teeth,” the city hired a lawyer to focus on landlords who violate the city's housing code.
“When these landlords keep showing up to court with an attorney and we show up with a building inspector, we lose,” Peduto said.
Pittsburgh's housing code allows three unrelated people to live in a single-family home.
Charles Eckenrode, the owner of the Lawn Street home, appealed a $270,000 fine for violating occupancy limits. During a hearing Friday, Common Pleas Judge Robert C. Gallo did not rule in the case but said ignoring code violations could ruin a neighborhood.
“If you let it go, eventually the whole neighborhood becomes deteriorated,” Gallo said.
District Judge Eugene Ricciardi last week fined Shaun P. Cusick, landlord of a rental house on Parkview Avenue, $300,000. Cusick can appeal.
City Solicitor Lourdes Sánchez-Ridge asked Ricciardi to levy a hefty fine.
At the same time as Cusick's hearing, about 30 neighbors, members of the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation, and City Councilman Dan Gilman, D-Shadyside, attended a Zoning Board hearing to oppose a landlord seeking an exemption from the city's occupancy law for a Beeler Street house, said Wanda Wilson, executive director of the Oakland Planning and Development Corp.
Eckenrode, Cusick and attorney Ken Yarsky, who represents both landlords, declined to comment.
Some landlords petition the city to designate single-family homes as two-family homes. Others try to skirt the law by having only three students sign the lease.
Melissa Ness, 21, one of those who remained at the Lawn Street house, said tenants signed two leases for Eckenrode.
“He told us it was illegal to have more than three people sign the lease,” Ness said. “It didn't throw up any red flags.”
At Eckenrode's hearing, Yarsky told the judge that his client's lease was with three students. If the students decided to have more live in the house to help pay for it, that was their decision, Yarsky said.
C.J. Liss, the assistant city solicitor prosecuting the case, called that arrangement a “scheme.”
Geof Becker, 54, lives near the Lawn Street home. He helped revive Oakwatch, an arm of the Oakland Planning and Development Corp., about four years ago.
Members focused on curtailing loud parties in the first year. In the years that followed, members began patrolling the neighborhoods for couches on porches, trash cans in the street, and too many names on mailboxes.
“The people living in illegally over-occupied units are at extreme risks for their health and safety,” Becker said.
Five or six students living in one house can stress electrical and plumbing systems designed for one family, Becker said. Landlords create rooms in basements and attics with questionable fire escapes.
On its off-campus housing website, Pitt suggests students ask landlords about occupancy limits.
The website allows students to rate landlords and warn others about problems. Point Park University staffers counsel students about the dangers of substandard and crowded housing, said Lou Corsaro, a university spokesman.
Tom Hucker, 21, lives in a house on Dawson Street in Oakland that is split into two apartments. Four guys live in one apartment. Hucker and his three roommates live in the other.
“My room is particularly small,” Hucker said.
Friends sometimes express concern about over-occupancy, he said, but for the most part, they feel safe.
“Oftentimes students don't want to work with us because they're scared about what's going to happen to them and where they are going to live,” Gilman said, whose council district covers Oakland and other East End neighborhoods popular with students.
Landlords often delay hearings until students move out and the rules of evidence make it difficult to prove how many people live in a house. City attorneys cannot use the number of utility meters as evidence.
The number of names on a mailbox sometimes works.
City officials say inspectors are receiving more training and technology to help them do their jobs. Council is weighing legislation to require landlords to register with the city.
“We're trying to do our best in a system that is really set up to protect the landlords,” Gilman said. “There's just not the time or manpower among city officials.”
Aaron Aupperlee is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7986 or aaupperlee@tribweb.com.
