Decades-long squatter takeover left to local Pennsylvania authorities

From so-called drug dens to indoor campfire cooking, local Pennsylvania authorities are working to mitigate a homelessness and squatting problem they claim has been getting worse since 1979.

“We’re stuck dealing with it for 10 plus years until the bank sells [an abandoned home] or until it gets so bad that it eventually falls down or we take it down,” Jeannette fire chief Bill Frye said on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning.

According to the chief, the Pittsburgh suburb saw a massive population decrease in the early 80s after factory doors were closed and jobs were lost.

A lot of homes were left behind in that migration, forcing resident numbers down from 18,000 to 9,800 today.

“At one point about 10 years ago, we estimated 700 vacant buildings. We have been aggressively addressing it,” Frye said. “I think we’re down to about 250 now, which doesn’t seem like a lot to some of the bigger urban cities like Detroit and Trenton, but we’re less than three square miles. That’s a pretty big deal to us.”

In the past year alone, the fire chief estimated 33 homes were torn down due to hazardous conditions caused by squatters including fires, vandalism, and illicit activities.

While the fire department would like to tear down the remaining abandoned homes, the city has run into two major hurdles: deceased owners and real estate losses to banks.

“Couple of years ago when the foreclosures were really hitting hard, bank foreclosures would happen and the banks were not legally obligated, currently, to transfer that property into the bank’s name,” Frye explained. “So they keep the property in the previous owner’s name unless they sell it and, of course, will transfer it to the new owner.”

“But during that time frame, the bank usually keeps paying the taxes on it, so it never goes to tax sale,” he continued.

With some federal funds left over from Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the city is reportedly hoping to use the money towards demolishing more vacant houses.

“The money that we have, we’re really fortunate,” Frye said. “Our county redevelopment authority got $10 million from the county ARPA money and they’re using that to address some of the poorer communities around our county.”

“That’s the only way we’re really getting ahead right now is by the ARPA money, we weren’t going to get ahead before,” the chief continued. “We would tear down five or six a year, and seven or eight more would pop up. So now we’re at an actual advantage to get ahead on it finally.”

The City of Jeannette did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the alleged years-long squatter problem.