Demolition begins in Monessen to clear way for modular homes

By Michael Richter
mrichter@yourmvi.com

Demolition of the former apartment building is underway, while the construction of five modular homes began as well on Motheral Avenue.

A vital step in Monessen’s revitalization began this week as demolition of blighted properties and the groundbreaking for modular, income-based homes took place on Motheral Avenue.
Demolition of the former apartment building is underway, while the construction of five modular homes began as well on Motheral. The city submitted demolition orders for additional homes on the street a couple days ago.
“That, to me, is the complete cycle from blight to reconstruction to bringing it back on the tax rolls and replacing blights with new development,” Mayor Ron Mozer said.
Westmoreland Community Action will bring five modular homes — one of which has already been sold — to the city by the end of October. The homes will be built about 100 miles north of Monessen at Manorwood Homes in Emlenton, Pa., and will be completed in about two weeks.
“They build it in such a way that they can greatly reduce the labor cost and build homes very quickly,” Mozer said.
Once the homes are assembled, they will be transported to Monessen and placed on Motheral.
As with traditional, stick-built homes, modular homes adhere to International Building Code standards.
Demolition process
The process required to demolish a property is not a simple, pick-and-choose task.
“But you can’t just walk up to a property, say it’s blighted and we’re going to remove it,” Mozer said. “You have to have legal authority to do that.”
The city attempts to contact the owner, informing them their house must be brought up to code. If the owner is unreachable, the city will look into how much in back taxes is owed on the property. Many of the blighted properties have between $20,000 and $40,000 in back taxes, Mozer said.
Through local legal action, the city must inform property owners that a public demolition hearing will be held in 30 days. If the owner does not show up to the hearing and their property is deemed to be demolished, they have another 30 days to respond. If there is no response at the conclusion of that second 30-day period, Mozer has the ability to issue a demolition order.
Through the county’s $10.4 million program funded by the American Rescue Plan, it will then demolish the property after the 60-day process.
The county land bank also has the ability to purchase and demolish blighted structures if applicable through the program. The land bank may choose a contractor to rehabilitate a blighted property if it’s feasible to do so.
Most of the city’s blighted properties are a byproduct of the steel mills ceasing operations in the 1970s and 1980s, forcing thousands of people to leave town and look elsewhere for work.
“They just picked up their belongings and just left, never paid taxes and so forth. So you end up with a lot of houses that have been vacant for 40 or 50 years,” Mozer said. “And after 40 or 50 years of no heat, no occupancy, things like holes in the roof become major holes in the roof, and the next thing you know is that the floor is wet and caving into the basement, and things are really, very, very bad for the house. There’s nothing that can be done for these houses other than demolition.”
Addressing blight
Even before he was mayor, Mozer understood that Monessen’s blight problem was holding the city back from progress.
“I started contacting all of our state senators, congressmen, county commissioners, everybody saying, hey, what can you do to help us out with getting rid of some of this blight in Monessen?”
Mozer said those conversations were helpful, but nobody could come up with a way to secure funds to address blight.
It took Mozer a while to convince county commissioners just how severe the blight problem is in Monessen.
“I made three different PowerPoint presentations, and I would take pictures of blight, suggestions and everything else,” he said.
But then he discovered a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University that found fixing up dilapidated structures in Philadelphia resulted in improved mental health among residents and a decrease in violent crime.
“And when the commissioners saw that, they said, OK, you’ve convinced us. Now we’re going to consider doing blight removal in the county,” Mozer said.
To date, more than 100 blighted properties have been razed in Monessen. The county has committed to demolishing 350 blighted properties in total.
“They’re fully engaged in this project and fully supportive of it,” Mozer said.
As the demolition, rehabilitation and addition of properties continues, Mozer hopes residents of the depressed former steel town will once again prosper.
“It’s important to me that we level the playing field for all ethnicities,” he said. “I don’t care what color you are, what religion you are, but I do think that it’s one of the rights for a person to be able to have something to pass on to the next generation. And that is just something that is hard to find in a lot of these neighborhoods. And that is why I’m so adamant about these programs.”