Tenants move out as Latrobe apartment building inspections ongoing

The owner of the Latrobe apartment building cited with more than 100 code violations is working to correct the “most serious issues,” a city official said, but two tenants have left, claiming the nightmare of living there still haunts them.

The three-story building at 333 Main St. has been inspected twice since an initial blitz inspection in September uncovered violations with the smoke alarm and sprinkler system, which wasn’t functioning, as well as issues such as exposed wires, broken windows and shards of glass.

The complex is scheduled to be inspected a fourth time on Jan. 11, Latrobe’s code enforcement officer, Daniel Weimer, said.

Tenants of the building said they lived in squalid conditions, and had a continuous battle with cockroach and bedbug infestations. They called for the building to be condemned, but city manager Terry Carcella said that’s not the ultimate goal because the city would have to find housing for any displaced residents.

Jay Pan LLC, the owner of the property, is working with the city to correct the most serious issues, according to Carcella — the ones that are critical to the health, safety and welfare of the residents.

An individual from Jay Pan LLC responded to a text Thursday saying that an exterminator treated the building October for bedbugs and roaches, and there will be follow-up treatment in the “near future.”

Weimer, said the most recent inspection on Nov. 2, found missing ceiling tiles, exposed wiring, rubbish piled in common areas, missing dumpster lids, outside padlocks on apartment units and stairwell doors that aren’t fire rated.

He said he received an email reply from Jay Pan LLC stating the issues would be addressed before the fourth inspection.

Moving on

Some tenants whose concerns prompted the initial code inspection, meanwhile, have left their apartments and sought housing elsewhere.

Kara McAdams moved to Derry Township at the beginning of November with her family. She scraped together enough money to relocate and left behind many of her family’s personal belongings, including their beds, TVs, washer and more — primarily due to her apartment’s pest infestation.

“Not everybody has (that) type of money laying around,” McAdams, 34, said. “The economy is terrible.”

“Nobody should live that way,” she said. “My mental health is still terrible, and it’s been a little over a month since we’ve been out.”

When her family arrived to their new residence, they left their belongings in a U-Haul for a period of time to ensure there weren’t any living bugs moving into the new place with them.

After putting off a bug bomb inside the moving truck and waiting for a period of time, she found many roaches, dead and alive.

“I’m … honestly so paranoid now because I feel like I see roaches everywhere,” McAdams said. “It’s insane what that does to your mental health, and I’m still processing that I don’t have roaches now.”

Bobbi Brunot is still trying to find a permanent fix for her living situation. She’s been staying at various places, including an Airbnb, after she discovered bedbugs in her apartment.

“I had them all over me,” said Brunot, 48. “I freaked out.”

She decided to start a GoFundMe to raise money to find a new place to live and have enough money to stay somewhere else in the meantime.

“I refuse to go back in there,” Brunot said. “I should be able to sleep in my own apartment, and I can’t — I don’t even want to go to sleep.”

She has an eviction hearing this week, as she and her husband decided to withhold their rent due to the conditions.

“My mental state is just not good,” she said. “We’re trying everything.”

Officials optimistic

Weimer, along with the fire chief and a representative from the police department, will be present for the January inspection, and he hopes to see progress.

“It takes time, and we realize that,” he said.

Carcella said there’s been “a lot of progress” made in the building so far.

“We’re very pleased that (the landlord’s) working and cooperating,” he said.

What happens next will be dependent on what is found in January, but Weimer intends to see if the city can be granted access to enter the individual apartments for code inspections. This will involve checking the terms of the rental agreements, he said.

Concerns were raised about the conditions of the building at city meetings this fall, and council members advocated for the inspection of the individual apartment units. That’s not possible because there isn’t a rental inspection program in Latrobe, Carcella explained. The city can only inspect a building when there is a complaint made by a named resident; random or routine inspections would require a change in policy.

“I can’t just go knocking on someone’s apartment door asking them to come see their place — I would have to be invited in or the landlord could show me,” Weimer said.

There aren’t plans to enact a rental inspection at this point, Carcella said, but it may be brought up for discussion in 2024.

Weimer said he hasn’t received any additional tenant complaints about the apartments since the first inspection, except for a stray cat roaming around.