Stephanie Hall never considered herself a cat person.
But when mice began invading her Uansa Village home and eating her food, she figured it was time to get one.
One didn’t do the trick, though, for what was transpiring there.
“It wasn’t like we were seeing one or two mice,” she said Friday. “There were literally whole colonies coming in.
“It was like Armageddon. You had to brace yourself for what was happening. There were holes I would patch, but they’d just chew another hole next to the one I patched. You’d think you got them all, but then you didn’t.”
She wasn’t the only Uansa Village resident facing problems with mice – among other things.
“We were having group meetings in the neighborhood and all of us were saying, ‘We’re not cat people,’” Hall said. “I’d never owned a cat in my life. None of us had. But it seemed like one wasn’t enough – I had to get another one.”
Hall said she and her daughter, Ma-Leah, prepared for the worst day after day.
“They were eating packs of noodles, getting into our bread. I had to buy a breadbox. Now they’re eating all the paper. I didn’t know mice ate paper.”
Hall won’t have to put up with that problem and the other issues in her Uansa Village home for much longer. The Allegheny County Housing Authority Board of Directors on Friday voted to demolish the 37-unit public housing development, located in the McKees Rocks Bottoms, and dispose of the property. The 37 units are spread out among 10 two-story buildings. A community center on the property would not be demolished.
The ACHA has already began preparing documents to send to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which must approve of the demolition/disposition plan. County Executive Sara Innamorato’s approval is needed before the documents can be sent to HUD, ACHA Executive Director Rich Stephenson said.
Stephenson said he hopes Innamorato signs off sometime during the coming week. Stephenson said it could take a couple of months for the HUD process to play out, but in the meantime, all the remaining Uansa Village residents will be relocated to other ACHA properties or given vouchers to live elsewhere. Stephenson said the goal is to relocate all Uansa Village residents by the end of June; he said roughly half of the former residents already had moved.
Hall said she and her daughter will be moving to a two-bedroom duplex in Rankin within the next two weeks. “And I’m taking my cats with me,” she said.
The move isn’t ideal for Ma-Leah, who is finishing up her junior year at Sto-Rox High School and will need to attend Woodland Hills High School next year.
“She’s not happy about it at all,” Hall said of her daughter. “Senior year is kind of a big deal for people and we’re moving to a place on the other side of town where we don’t know anyone. But she’s trying to do the best she can.”
Stephanie Hall has no problem relocating. “I’m very happy to get out of there,” she said of her Uansa Village unit. “I’ve been down there for about eight years, and I think it should have been taken down then.”
Stephenson admitted that the problems in Uansa Village are significant, and that’s why he thinks it makes sense to demolish the place, which opened in 1953 and underwent a $4.3 million renovation in the early 2000s, rather than try to rebuild it.
Stephenson said one major problem that kept resurfacing throughout the development, named in honor of a late 1920s All-American college football player from McKees Rocks named Octavius “Toby” Uansa, was pinhole leaks in the water lines located behind the walls.
Because the leaks were so small, Stephenson said, they could go undetected for quite some time. During that time, mold, mildew, insect and rodent problems could fester, and by the time they came to light, the damage would be major – and widespread.
“We would take care of one unit’s problem and have the same issue in another,” he said.
Residents would be forced to vacate their home while pipes were replaced, but it got to the point where it was no longer cost-effective to keep operating Uansa Village. Hence the ACHA board’s decision on Friday to approve a resolution calling for the demolition of the buildings and the disposition of the property.
Stephenson said the ACHA could have decided to rebuild Uansa Village. Instead, he said, the board acknowledged developments like that are a failed concept, and that it would make more sense to take the money that could have been used to rebuild it and instead “do single-family homes in partnership with the borough.”
Such an approach, Stephenson said, would be the best way to go for the borough, which could use the tax revenue that would come from the new homes, and for the ACHA, whose mission is to “provide decent, safe and sanitary housing for eligible low-income families and senior citizens in Allegheny County.”
Stephenson said rehabilitating vacant homes or building affordable single-family homes on what is now vacant land and making them available to low-income residents who need housing makes more sense than developing large-scale public housing.
“These are not places that children should have to grow up in,” Stephenson said of Uansa Village and Prospect Terrace, another ACHA development that also is destined for the wrecking ball.
Stephenson said residents who would live in the single-family homes built in the McKees Rocks area would be required to work, or “work on working,” with the goal of having them eventually own those properties.
That approach would benefit everyone, Stephenson said, as those homes would go on the tax rolls, which will bring revenue to the borough and the cash-strapped Sto-Rox School District. Residents would go through some sort of workforce development program to help them either land jobs or provide job training and education.
Assuming Innamorato agrees with the ACHA board and HUD approves the ACHA request to demolish the Uansa Village structures, the next question becomes, what happens to the property?
The borough of McKees Rocks already has gone on record as saying it would like to have access to that property with the goal of redeveloping it and putting it back on the tax rolls.
The borough sent a letter signed by council President Archie Brinza to Stephenson Thursday saying that it fully supported the proposed demolition of Uansa Village “as soon as possible and the transfer of the real estate to the borough.” The letter also states that the borough would help in getting municipal reviews and approvals for the demolition.
“Once complete, the Borough is interested in acquiring the property by intermunicipal gift or other transaction to foster meaningful redevelop opportunities within the neighborhood,” the letter states.
Stephenson said the ACHA would not “give” the property to the borough.
“We will work with McKees Rocks to determine the best use for the property,” he said Friday. “We will need to get the fair market value of the land no matter how it is used.”
Stephenson said he didn’t know what fair market value was, and that an appraisal would be completed “at the proper time.”
Stephenson said he’s confident an equitable arrangement can be reached because he believes he’s built a trust with borough officials “that’s never existed before.”
“I’m here to work with them on whatever the best use of the property is,” Stephenson said.
Brinza said Friday that the ACHA’s decision to move toward demolishing the property “is huge for McKees Rocks.”
Brinza said he’s heard from numerous community members who “want their town back” – meaning they would like to see the Uansa Village property used for something other than low-income housing. McKees Rocks already is home to several other ACHA properties and a recent proposal to redevelop another ACHA property in the borough – Hays Manor – was met with much opposition. Now there’s some question as to whether that project will move forward.
The borough council in February approved a lot consolidation plan needed for a public-private partnership featuring the ACHA, Pennrose LLC and Falbo Group LLC to develop a 50-unit rental community on what once held 138 units spread out over 14 buildings constructed in the early 1940s.
A Pennrose spokesperson earlier this week was noncommittal when asked if that project was still happening. “We continue to have ongoing conversations with our partners and stakeholders about how best to serve the community,” she said in an emailed statement.
Stephenson said earlier this week that a final decision on whether the Hays Manor project will move forward could be made in the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, Brinza said the borough is eager to help attract a developer to make use of the Uansa Village property, assuming that HUD approves demolishing and disposing of the property.
“I will work my tail off to see that property develop in the best possible way we can,” he said. “We’re going to look at every opportunity to get the town something it deserves, and I think we’re a little more appealing now than we were a couple months ago.”
As for the type of development that would be best suited for the Uansa Village property, Brinza said it would need to be a decision made by the full council.
“Our first step is to try to get developers on board and figure out which way to go – commercial, industrial or residential,” he said. “I don’t want to get ahead of myself without talking to other council members but I don’t think residential is the best way to go.”
Taris Vrcek, executive director of the McKees Rocks Development Corp., said the property has “tremendous potential.”
“There should really be a competitive process to look at different development proposals,” he said.
The borough’s letter to the ACHA supporting the demolition/property disposition step said the action is necessary to “advance more just, sustainable and equitable opportunities for residents and for the borough of McKees Rocks.”
“This is a great opportunity to get our town in a way we would want it,” Brinza said. “I’m very excited to get to work.”
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