Concerns of squatting, arson and collapse as vacant buildings deteriorate in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — Condemned buildings in the city of Pittsburgh are causing a plethora of problems for neighbors, business owners and employees who work here.

Many of the properties are unsafe and can attract an element of crime and pests or pose structural risks.

11 Investigates has been digging into the issue for months and uncovered the city is significantly behind on demolitions this year. Each year, the city budgets funds toward city-funded demolitions, to address the buildings deemed most unsafe or “imminently dangerous.”

The money does not address all of the most concerning properties. For the last few years, the city has demolished around 100 per year. The budgeted goal for 2024 is between 100 and 120.

11 Investigates previously uncovered the city is way behind on demolitions for 2024. We crunched the numbers which show the city should have approved between 66 and 80 demolitions by September. But so far in 2024, officials have approved six demolitions.

City records show there are more than 1,800 condemned properties in Pittsburgh. Many of them are in as bad or worse shape.

On January 5, just days into the new year, city of Pittsburgh firefighters raced to Chateau Street in Manchester. Flames and thick black smoke were shooting into the air, visible across the city.

“We have a fully engulfed house! First, second and third floor!” firefighters shouted, relaying information back to dispatchers.

The utilities in the home were disconnected, and no one should have been inside. The home had been condemned for over a decade at the time, since March 2010 according to city records.

The fire did not take down the entire home. But during the fire fight, part of the structure collapsed. That forced the city to bid out an emergency demolition to have the building demolished.

Investigators tell 11 Investigates they were not able to go into the home to gather evidence after the fire due to the unsafe structure. The investigation remains unsolved, and the cause of the fire has not been officially determined.

A vacant building on the Southside tells a different story. The commercial building on East Carson Street caught fire in 2022. The burnt-out structure is still standing today and it’s a source of frustration for neighbors and business owners.

“Two years have gone by, and you’d hope something would happen,” said Zack Edgar, owner of Zeds, a vintage clothing store a few doors down. “To have an abandoned store front like that that’s damaged like that right on East Carson Street.”

Edgar remembers the raging fire and the thick smoke that poured from it. He also remembers the neighbors who lost their homes that day, including a long-time tenant of one of the apartments attached to the building that burned. He lost everything.

“I honestly can’t imagine it being me, and I did think about neighboring businesses and our neighboring tenants who were living here,” Edgar said.

The owner of the building is facing federal charges. He was indicted earlier this year, accused of causing the fire. Neighbors are worried the eyesore isn’t coming down anytime soon. Perhaps more problematic are the complaints of squatting in the charred building. Neighbors say several squatters have taken over, filling the building and back of the building with items and debris.

The issue of fires in vacant structures isn’t new and it is happening all over the city.

“We have a lot of single-family homes here. Vacant. We had a fire there. Occupied, occupied, occupied, vacant, we had a fire here,” said Ed Farley as we drove around Homewood.

Farley is a Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire battalion chief and a long-time union trustee.

“Two or three every block,” he added.

Farley pointed out home after home that was vacant and others that had previously caught fire and were still standing, boarded up and needing repairs.

He pointed out one home that burned in 2019 and still sits empty and condemned.

Farley says his fire crews often respond to fires at vacant buildings, and the uncertain conditions inside a neglected property can pose more of a risk for his firefighters.

“They’re not unoccupied until we say that are. Tell us that’s a vacant house, nobody is in there and then we find people in there,” Farley said.

11 Investigates took our findings to City Councilman Anthony Coghill.

“It’s unacceptable that we’re not treating this as high priority as we should be,” Coghill said. “There’s a lot of different reasons why we need to remove these properties, but public safety is the biggest. Secondly, we’re liable. Ok? As a city, we could be sued.”

Coghill admitted the city is not doing enough right now to rid condemned, unsafe properties. He added that he has started asking questions of the Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections and would support an audit of condemned buildings in the city of Pittsburgh. Particularly, Coghill says he is concerned by the hundreds of city-owned condemned properties on the list and believes any unsafe structures that are owned by the city should be demolished as quickly as possible.

“You find the funds and we do what we have to do to take these properties down,” Coghill said.

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