Pittsburgh Sues Resident Over Hoarder Home

Some of Joseph Regoli’s neighbors are happy the city of Pittsburgh agrees that his debris-surrounded house is a fire hazard that lures vermin and poses a risk to public health.

Others see him as a harmless eccentric who protects himself by keeping hundreds of cardboard boxes piled against the windows and dozens of paper plates on the sidewalk with handwritten warnings: “No Trespassing,” “Keep Out” and “Stay Away.”

A week after neighbors say Regoli turned away a convoy “” front loader, a number of city workers and trucks accompanied by police “” Pittsburgh officials went before an Allegheny County Common Pleas Court judge on Tuesday to force the Perry South resident to clean up his property on Maple Avenue or move out because the house is a “haven for vermin” and “unfit for human habitation.”

“The property has been almost entirely overtaken by garbage and waste material, including human waste, food and open water containers which are hazardous to the health and well-being of neighbors and the public at large,” according to the complaint signed by Bureau of Building Inspection Chief Maura Kennedy.

Regoli was not home on Wednesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

“I have complained to the city for 10 years about this and am thoroughly disgusted,” said Kenneth Perkins, 58, who lives across the alley from Regoli.

“Last week, the city had a bunch of Public Works trucks and police cars converge on the house. They stayed an hour, and then everybody left,” Perkins said.

“He’s not a bad guy. He needs mental help. He hasn’t turned his gas meter on in 10 years. He has no running water, no sewage. I feel sorry for him, but when rats start getting in your house, you become real, real mad.”

The Bureau of Building Inspection alerted Regoli about property code violations six times since May 2009. The violations include piles of trash around the outside of the property and excessive weed and plant growth.

On July 17, the Allegheny County Health Department declared the property unfit for human habitation and gave Regoli until Aug. 6 to remedy the violations, including a lack of water and gas service, excessive plant growth, garbage and empty food containers.

On Aug. 25, the Fire Bureau notified Regoli that the accumulation of combustible waste required “immediate evacuation pending abatement” because it poses a risk to him, his neighbors and firefighters, if a fire were to occur.

Kennedy said the city and health department have referred Regoli to mental health resources, but he has refused.

“Something has to be done,” city Public Safety Department spokeswoman Sonya Toler said. “The focus is going to be to ask the court for permission for the city to go onto the property and clean it up.”

Neighbors Rick Cicchini and his wife, Dawn, both 28, agree that the boxes are a hazard but say they like Regoli.

“It’s not horrible to live by him,” Rick Cicchini said. “He has friends who come by occasionally to drive him to the soup kitchen. As messy as he is, he’ll pick up trash as he walks up and down the street and throws it in the (trash disposal).”

Regoli spends endless hours at the library to learn his civil rights, Dawn Cicchini said.

“He could be a poster child for public service,” she said. “He pretty much uses all the free public services in the city.”

Her husband said Regoli told him that he keeps debris piled against his house because he fears that police can’t protect him.

“That’s his way of keeping people out,” Cicchini said. “It’s a self-defense mechanism.”

Michael Hasch and Adam Brandolph are staff writers for Trib Total Media. Staff writer Bob Bauder contributed to this report.
August 29, 2014