PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – New safety measures could soon protect children from falling out of windows in Allegheny County. It’s one of many proposed safety improvements to the county’s housing regulations.
“It’s a good thing. We’re bringing our housing regs up to the 21st century,” said Patrick Catena, president of Allegheny County Council.
The county council will hear the proposal next week.
Fall prevention devices for the windows of housing in Allegheny County are just one of the safety regulations now up for consideration. And it’s just a coincidence about a week or so after two small children fell from a window.
It’s something Tyler Jefferson will never unsee as the father of those two children who fell.
“It’s tough. It’s tough that we messaged them, and they didn’t do anything until they fell out the window,” Jefferson said.
Quin and Elody fell out of their third-story apartment building’s window onto the concrete window well below and miraculously survived.
New proposed housing regulations in Allegheny County could mandate window fall prevention devices.
“Trying to help the health department for the health department to be able to help them, so I think it’s a good thing all around,” Catena said.
A copy of the new proposed regulations includes guards on stairs, landings, and balconies 30 inches above the floor below, deadbolts for all entrance doors, required lighting for stairways and hallways, stricter requirements for carbon monoxide detectors, and fall prevention devices installed in all windows more than 72 inches off the ground below.
“It’ll come before county council, and county council will obviously act on it, and I expect a positive recommendation from the county council for it to pass,” Catena said.
Housing advocate David Vatz sees a lot of good in it.
“Yeah. Pro-Housing Pittsburgh is broadly in favor of improved health and safety regulations to protect tenants,” Vatz said. “I think one of the things about Allegheny County and Pittsburgh in general is that we have some of the oldest housing stock in the country, and this can often result in substandard conditions for tenants.”
Vatz believes common-sense protections are needed, and calls on policymakers “to make it easier to build new housing in the county.”
“Since we have such old housing stock and don’t build a lot of new housing, there’s nothing that puts pressure on landlords to maintain their sub-standard units and provide the best quality to their tenants.”
These housing safety regulations will be discussed next week at the county council meeting, and if approved, they could go into effect as early as October of this year.
Meghan Schiller
Meghan Schiller is an Emmy-nominated journalist who joined KDKA in October 2017. She’s thrilled to be back in her hometown and reporting at the station she grew up watching.
