Summer Lee, Pittsburgh officials, advocates slam 'deplorable conditions' at region's subsidized housing

Pittsburgh officials and housing advocates are grappling with how to address serious safety issues at privately owned, publicly subsidized housing complexes throughout the region.

During a Wednesday City Council meeting, advocates painted a disturbing picture of babies living in apartments plagued by mold, families finding raccoons living in their ceilings and neighbors struggling to stay warm as their apartments were without heat during a subzero cold snap.

Apartments owned by New Jersey-based NB Affordable have been reported to suffer from bedbug infestations, holes in the floors, security concerns and rodents, officials and advocates said.

NB Affordable purchased about 1,300 housing units in the region — including in Pittsburgh’s Homewood and Hill District neighborhoods and in nearby West Mifflin and Rankin — in 2023. The properties, subsidized by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, are so poorly kept as to pose serious health risks to residents and surrounding communities, according to housing advocates and elected officials.

“It’s inconceivable that at any time, but especially in the dead of winter, that we would have people living in absolutely deplorable conditions in privately owned yet publicly subsidized units in our region,” U.S. Rep Summer Lee, D-Swissvale, said.

Officials said they’ve struggled to contact NB Affordable to attempt to resolve problems. Their website is down. No one answered a phone call from TribLive Thursday, and the voicemail box is full and not accepting new messages.

While officials and advocates agree NB Affordable should not be permitted to continue operating housing that is deemed unsafe, they’re limited in what they can do to address such issues.

Pittsburgh Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections Director David Green said the city’s enforcement is curbed to when the property owner or tenant grants entry to a building. If officials can provide evidence of violations, they also can seek administrative warrants from a court.

The city’s rental registry — which has been long delayed by legal challenges — could help inspectors gain more frequent access to buildings once it goes into effect.

City officials were recently granted access to the Maple Hills apartment complex in the East Hills neighborhood, where Councilman Khari Mosley, D-Point Breeze, said people were leaving their stovetops on to try to warm up their cold apartments after the heat broke. Officials determined at least 10 units didn’t have heat. They condemned those units and worked with county officials to help the tenants.

While officials and advocates said they wanted NB Affordable to be held accountable, they acknowledged there’s no easy way for government leaders to remedy the situation. Closing down the apartments could make it challenging for residents to find anywhere else to live as the city faces what many have called an affordable housing crisis.

“HUD has one strong enforcement tool and that’s to abate the housing contract, force the relocation of the tenants and leave the owner with empty properties and no rent,” said Kendal Pelling, executive director of Rising Tide Partners, a Pittsburgh housing advocacy group. “The problem is that when that housing contract gets abated, we lose that housing as a city and the tenants get displaced.”

His organization is working with other partners to raise funds to try to buy the apartments owned by NB Affordable if the opportunity arises, he told council members.

HUD, he said, never should’ve allowed NB Affordable to buy the properties in the first place, given immediate concerns raised by housing advocates about whether it would be a responsible landlord.

“Something went wrong,” he said.

Fredrick Schulman, NB Affordable’s founder, last year pleaded guilty in federal court to a wire fraud charge connected to a mortgage loan, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. charged Mon View LLC, which is connected to NB Affordable, with a felony in October amid allegations of failing water systems, rodent and insect infestations, mold growth and a child falling through the floor at the Mon View Heights subsidized housing complex in West Mifflin.

City Controller Rachael Heisler reported at least 23 violations have been found at NB Affordable properties in the city and nine criminal complaints have been issued, including for inoperable fire systems.

Mosley, the Point Breeze councilman, chaired the Wednesday meeting.

“No one should have to live like that, regardless of your bank account, regardless of your zip code, regardless of your station in life,” Mosley said.