AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Agency still owns houses, but not collecting rent

July 31, 2006

By Pat Litowitz
New Castle News

A nonprofit housing group is still in the rental business, albeit in name only.

Despite declaring itself insolvent in late March, Affordable Housing of Lawrence County remains the owner of eight properties in New Castle.

Four have tenants. However, Affordable Housing officials have not collected rent since the beginning of the year.

The other properties have transformed into neighborhood eyesores and potential hazards.

Garbage bags and boxes fill the porch of a vacant Highland Avenue triplex. About two miles away, a Croton Avenue structure no longer resembles a home, after vandals have damaged the interior. Three- and four-unit apartment complexes on East Wallace and Florence avenues are in varying stages of decline.

“Bill Bonner and myself have not made any decisions (about the properties),” said Deno DeLorenzo, Affordable Housing’s secretary and treasurer. “There are a variety of parties involved.”

Bonner, Affordable’s president, took over for Robert Evanick in January. Evanick is the executive director of the Lawrence County Housing Authority.

The authority created the spin-off agency in August 2003. The authority also provided it with approximately $200,000 in loans and additional funds from its coin-laundry operations.

Under Evanick’s leadership, Affordable Housing purchased the eight properties last year for $340,000. First Commonwealth Bank entered into two mortgages with Affordable Housing that total $290,000.

With approximately a half-million dollars in debt, the nonprofit group said in late March it could no longer pay its bills. The housing authority has since ended its association with Affordable Housing and resumed control of its coin-laundry machines.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides the housing authority with its funding, has been investigating the issues involving the two groups.

Maria Bynum, HUD’s regional public affairs director in Philadelphia, said that probe continues. She would not provide additional information.

DeLorenzo said he and Bonner will be meeting this week with representatives of HUD and First Commonwealth.

“We’re going to decide jointly what were going to do,” he said. “Those decisions will be made in the next few days.”

He expects the houses to be out of Affordable’s name in the next three weeks.

First Commonwealth has yet to foreclose on the properties, according to the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Department.

DeLorenzo said one tenant paid rent in March and that was the last check he had received.

“Nobody is paying rent.”

The condition of the properties will have an adverse affect as Affordable Housing attempts to sell them off.

The Florence Avenue apartment building on the city’s East Side illustrates that point.

“It decreases the value over the whole neighborhood,” said Betsy Fisher, a real estate agent with Howard Hanna.

The structure was purchased from Nicholas DeRosa and John A. Orlando for $48,000 on Dec. 7, 2005. The county had valued the property at $30,800 while the state said it was worth approximately $34,000.

It would be difficult imagining the property recouping its sale price. Two homes on Florence Avenue recently sold for $15,000 and $17,000. They had been originally listed at $26,000 and $29,900.

“I don’t want to put a value on those houses,” DeLorenzo said. “That would be inappropriate.”

He said the properties would first be offered at a private sale and then at an auction.