#AbsenteeOwnership

[cmusoa-udbs]

Part of the Problem:  The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an article called “ Riding OD Road” (it can be found here: https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/riding-od-road/) chronicling the rise of opiate addiction issues in the Carrick neighborhood of Pittsburgh.  There are clear connections to issues surrounding affordable housing.

The UDBS has discussed many of the themes explored in the article.  Absentee landlords often provide safe havens for drug dealers to operate with little or no worry of discovery.  One such example is that of Realty Choice, a property manager that purchased more than 200 properties throughout Allegheny County (the picture shows the properties in Carrick) and then promptly sold them to outside, usually overseas, investors..  Additionally, as urban renewal efforts like St. Clair Village, a public housing project built in the 1950’s that originally contained 680 units, failed, hundreds of families were forced to move with little notice and without appropriate replacement housing.  For many of them, Carrick is where they went.  Some of the families were shifted to Housing Choice Vouchers which they used to rent houses recently purchased by landlords in adjacent neighborhoods.. According to the article, Carrick had 265 families using vouchers.  As communities continue to struggle with issues of affordable housing, it’s important to understand that though housing is part of a much larger scale problem that must be addressed on all levels including possible drug recovery issues, criminal pasts, and future opportunities.