Renters demand end of ‘slumlord tactics’

Mon View Heights residents, advocates plan protest to fight against deplorable living conditions.

Residents are making their voices heard about the ongoing problems at MonView Heights Apartments in West Mifflin.

According to a release from OnePA Renters United, residents of the former Allegheny Housing Rehabilitation Corporation properties spoke out Thursday and demanded that representatives of the properties’ new management companies, Lynd Living and Trigild, meet with residents, immediately fix unlivable conditions in their buildings, and cease making inflated and legally dubious claims about tenants’ debts.

While it was not disclosed in the release when Thursday residents participated in calling out the apartment complex’s owners, they went to the NB Affordable at an event in front of the property management offices in Homewood.

They were Joined by Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, City Councilman Khari Mosley, and concerned community members as well as members of One Pennsylvania Renters United Allegheny.

“Presently, I wake up every morning to a puddle of water in my bathroom,” Syreeta Milligan, a resident of Mon View Heights and a member of One PA Renters United Allegheny, stated.

In March, preliminary hearings for Moshe Silbur, 35, the owner of the apartment complex from December 2022 through September 2024, were held in front of Magisterial District Judge Richard D. Olasz Jr., resulting in the case moving to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.

The 326-unit apartment complex in West Mifflin is privately owned, but receives federal funds to house low-income tenants, and has had issues for a long time, according to case information relayed in preliminary hearings and from residents.

A public nuisance charge for “life-threatening” conditions was filed by detectives with District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. office for both properties against the ownership group. Authorities said they failed a federal inspection late last year.

Allegheny County, as well as a group of low-income tenants, will be permitted to intervene in the foreclosure case of a group of troubled properties, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Christine Ward ruled in April.

The ongoing foreclosure case was brought by an Indiana-based bank against the owners of MonView Heights, a troubled West Mifflin affordable housing complex, and nearby Palisades Apartments in Rankin.

Both Mon View and Palisades are part of a large group of affordable local properties that were purchased about two years ago by a New Jersey-based company, NB Affordable. Tenants soon complained about serious problems at several of the properties.

“This case is not about bank accounts, and LLCs,” Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney John Pittman told the Mon Valley Independent in March. “This case is about the individuals that live in the Mon View apartments. Our citizens, our neighbors, should not live under these conditions.”

One PA was founded in 2011 as a part of SEIU’s Fight for a Fair Economy, originally called One Pittsburgh. By 2016, they expanded to Philadelphia.

“We fought for working families in Allegheny County and worked to change the conversation about injustice and the U.S. economy,” their website states. “We recognized the need to build the political power of working families, and launched grassroots efforts to knock on tens of thousands of doors.”

The residents say they have lived with unsafe conditions and crumbling buildings for months while the management companies refuse to meet with tenants or make repairs.

“When I moved in, there was no heat, and the gas stove wasn’t hooked up,” Milligan said. “When they hadn’t fixed it after a few weeks, I called maintenance to fix it, and I didn’t hear from them for two to three weeks. So I had to pay someone myself to fix the gas stove and the thermostat.”

Residents had previously sent a letter to Trigild, Lynd Living, and the banks that own the loans to request a meeting to discuss their concerns, but the companies never responded.

Instead, according to the residents, the companies have sent outrageous claims of tenants’ debt and have attempted to make tenants pay for the property managers’ own failures in record keeping, recertifications, and lease renewals.

The letter to Lynd Living and TriGild said the tenants of the former AHRCO properties purchased by NB Affordable urged them to meet with residents and elected officials, and stated they failed to communicate their decision to meet with tenants.

They stated that they do not want to be ignored, and ask that they meet with tenants, make needed repairs, distribute utility subsidy checks and erase all debt claims against tenants.

“We deserve safe, livable homes,” Milligan said. “We deserve dignity and running water. We deserve a voice in the decisions about our homes and how that money is spent. We deserve to get the utility checks we’re entitled to.

“All of us being here today proves they can’t get away with ignoring tenants,” she added. “We’ll stand together. We’ve come together as one to fix the community. I’m not always the best at being the loudest, but I’ve got a voice, so I’m going to use it. And I’ve got you to be loud with me.”

The Mon Valley Independent did not receive comment from Lynd Living or the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office as of press time Thursday.