Sharpsburg neighbors living next to abandoned home frustrated by absentee landlord

People who live next to a blighted and abandoned property in Sharpsburg say they're living in a nightmare. 

"Raccoons, rats. We can't sit out here at night because of the mosquitoes, flies," said neighbor Bill Fitzpatrick. 

The weeds in the backyard of a home on 21st Street have grown over 10 feet tall. Neighbors say it's crawling with vermin. They say the empty house is full of mold and mildew and raccoons have made it a hotel of their own. 

"We even had homeless people come and they refused to live there because of the situation on the inside," said Bill Fitzpatrick. 

"This is the worst year that we've seen it," said Marty Kukul.

Twenty-six years ago, a man named John Medina bought the house for $25,000, and since then, those who live next door say it's been the property from hell. Despite fine after fine, court appearance after court appearance, things only get worse.

"We take good care of our property, put a lot of money into it, same as everybody else on the street and around here, but nothing gets done here," Kukul said. 

"We have had hundreds of citations filed. At one point, we had almost a hundred open violations," said borough manager Christine DeRunk.

The property is one of more than a dozen owned by Medina in Sharpsburg and other municipalities, which have repeatedly cited him, fined him and hauled him into court. He's racked up the longest docket sheet KDKA investigator Andy Sheehan has ever seen with 36 pages of individual judgments against him. And yet, the properties, including his own residence on Main Street, continue to decline. The borough says all it can do is file more citations.  

"There are limitations to what we can do. We have to follow the process and we have to follow the law," DeRunk said. 

District Judge Matt Rudzki has repeatedly fined him, but Medina files appeals or pleads poverty. He now owes the court more than $20,000 in fines and court costs, and Rudzki has put him on a payment plan of $100 a month. At that rate, it would take him more than 16 years to pay off what he owes, but in the meantime, the borough continues to issue new violations and says he ignores its orders to clean the properties up.

"I'm very frustrated as the mayor of Sharpsburg. We are trying to clean this community up and it seems like we just keep hitting all of these roadblocks," said Mayor Kayla Portis. 

After KDKA made a few visits to his home, John Medina finally answered the door.

"Your property on 21st Street, weeds are 10 feet high. They say there's rats, raccoons living in there," Sheehan said. 

"Yeah, I hear that. I got 20 properties. I hear it every day from every tenant. But yes, it is true. It is very high," he said. 

In fact, Medina did not dispute any complaint against any of his properties, conceding he is slow to make any improvements or fix any problems, especially when people do complain. He calls that harassment.

"Everybody harasses me, but I am a little slow," Medina said.

"It's not harassment, sir. They have to put up with this. For 20 years, they've had to put up with this," Sheehan replied. 

"Well, they sued me up in 21st Street, too. So, I don't do anything in a hurry," Medina said. 

When asked if he was going to do anything, he said he has a hearing on the 12th. Medina is actually scheduled back in court on Sept. 16. The borough expects the judge will fine him and order him to clean up this property but doesn't expect anything to change.

"So if you're living next to this property, you're just out of luck," Andy Sheehan asked. 

"I'm not going to say that. We are doing everything we can do to resolve the issue, but if we can't force someone to comply, there isn't anything that we can do," DeRunk said. 

Dealing with an absentee landlord

Medina's isn't an isolated case. 

Towns across Pennsylvania are trying to rid themselves of blight and bring back neighborhoods, but nearly all have absentee landlords who let their properties deteriorate. Towns like Jeannette in Westmoreland County are saddled with scores of blighted houses owned by out-of-state investors or local ones who let them go to seed.  

"A big part of the challenge is that this is private property, and private property is protected by the Constitution," Brian Lawrence of the Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority said. 

There's a movement across the state to get more forceful with absentee landlords by denying them permits and blocking them from buying new properties. In Westmoreland County, they've moved aggressively with condemnations of the most blighted properties, telling the owners either tear them down or the government will. But the legal hurdles are many.  

"It comes back to this issue of private property rights," Lawrence said. "I'm not suggesting that we need to infringe on those, but trying to rebalance the scales towards the community's rights to live in safe, clean neighborhoods and downtowns. I don't have all the answers."

Of course, local leaders said the problem wouldn't exist at all if property owners just did the right thing.