Mirror photo by William Kibler Red and white code violation notices can be seen on the front door of a rooming house near downtown Altoona that was shut down Thursday as the first public action in a new initiative called Operation Safe Space. Mirror photo by William Kibler

In a multi-faceted operation Thursday, city and agency officials shut down a red-tagged rooming house near downtown, relocating all but one of eight residents to hotels — where they can remain for a month as agencies work to get them permanent housing and other needed services.

It’s the first public action in a new initiative called Operation Safe Space, created by a recently formed subcommittee within a group called Hope for the Homeless, which consists of social service agency, church and city representatives, plus a landlord.

The move against the rooming house is a precursor to similar ones designed to work on “two fronts: dealing with vulnerable people in our community and the landlords and property owners who take advantage of (them),” said City Councilman Dave Ellis, a member of the subcommittee.

“The operation that took place today should send a loud and clear message to landlords that they can no longer continue housing tenants in unsafe structures,” said Department of Codes & Inspections Director Rebecca Brown.

“When the city red-tags a property for unsafe and uninhabitable conditions and orders a structure vacated, this means no occupancy until a reinspection shows deficiencies have been corrected,” Brown said.

The rooming house was squalorous, according to Mayor Matt Pacifico, who went inside Thursday after representatives from the Codes Department, the Fire Department, Blair County Community Action and Blair Senior Services met with landlord Lou Grillo and offered his tenants a way out.

The house had been without water for a time due to a leak in the basement and then Wednesday, it had lost power due to non-payment of the electric bill, Brown said.

It was also in violation of other codes, with electrical deficiencies, no emergency lighting, no exit signs, accumulations that blocked egress, non-operational windows, raw sewage in the basement and evidence of a mice infestation, Brown said.

“I don’t think Mr. Grillo recognized the severity of the situation,” Brown stated.

Grillo was not confrontational and seemed to understand why the occupants needed to find “other living arrangements,” she said.

The water had been off for a while due to the leak, then the leak was repaired and water service restored, Brown said.

But the leak had recurred, and water service was lost again, she said.

The residents, a couple of whom had called authorities Wednesday when the power went off, showed on Thursday that they had been distressed at the conditions, according to Brown.

They were relieved when offered alternative housing, she said.

The city has red-tagged many properties in the past, declaring them unfit for habitation, but landlords don’t always comply with the order to empty the properties, Brown said.

Moreover, in cases where rental housing is unfit for habitation — whether they’ve been red-tagged or not — many residents are reluctant to call the authorities to report the problem or to confront the landlords for fear of ending up even worse off, according to Brown.

Thursday’s action, which had been planned for next week initially, but was moved up because of the residents having reported the electrical shutoff, is an attempt to ensure that, in dealing with “slumlords,” the victims aren’t hurt, according to Pacifico, Ellis and Brown.

It came about only after careful planning and coordination, they said.

“It takes a village,” Brown said. “Today the village came together.”

Grillo was served with notices of violations, and is scheduled for code court at a city magisterial district justice office, Brown said.

Pam Townsend, executive director of the H.O.P.E. Drop-In Center, where the Hope for the Homeless group meets, has repeatedly insisted in recent months that many of the people she encounters are living in wretched circumstances, and that something needed to be done.

At the most recent meeting of the group, landlord Brian Durbin, one of its leaders, spoke of the plans for Grillo’s rooming house.

The conditions in such places had “overwhelmed” him, causing him to lose sleep, Durbin said — starting to cry.

“The buck stops now,” he stated.

Both men and women had been living at Grillo’s, according to Brown.

There were three related people living together, a couple and three who were living singly, she said.

The occupant who didn’t accept the offer of a hotel room went to live with a friend, Brown said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.