Considering that Homewood has some of the lowest property values in the city, this statistic may be misleading. Plagued with vacant lots, abandoned houses and closed businesses, Homewood may not be the ideal place for a prospective homeowner to explore when shopping for a new home. However, the few new housing developments seem to have done well as far as occupancy is concerned. Their proximity to the Martin Luther King East Busway may be an attraction for those who commute to work Downtown or for households who have children in schools outside of their neighborhoods.
In spite of the many seemingly negative aspects Homewood may be facing, many of its residents and business owners are willing to stay the course as this community holds a special place in their hearts with hopes of a brighter tomorrow. Also, Homewood boasts of having a campus of Community College of Allegheny County, the African American Music Institute, Alma Ellery Health Center, social service organizations and churches, all of which have brought hope and much needed services to the community.
This series will focus on what community members, business people, police and public officials have to say about how they will contribute to making this community a more livable place. There are interviews and comments by school students, teachers and administrators who have been affected by the violence taking place in Homewood. Family members who have been adversely affected by these murders will allow readers an understanding of how they are coping with the loss of a loved one after their story is perhaps no longer considered newsworthy.
According to the Pittsburgh Police Zone 5 crime report provided by the Zone 5 Community Resource Officer Michael Gay, there have been a total 95 robberies (66 arrests), 19 rapes (three arrests), 299 drug violations (366 arrests), 63 prostitution violations (74 arrests), 137 aggravated assaults (105 arrests) and 24 homicides in 2014 in Homewood.
Why the homicide rate is so high for a community with such a small population has yet to be determined; however, it may be due to the drug and gang activity that has plagued the community since the early 1980s.
State Sen. Jay Costa, 43rd District Forest Hills, and state Rep. Ed Gainey, 24th Legislative District, at a meeting on Feb, 5, 2015, at the Homewood Library attempted to assure the community members in attendance that they were not being forgotten as there has been noticeable construction projects in other parts of the city. They said plans for development projects in Homewood are in the works. Costa said, “We are committed to bringing new development to the Homewood neighborhood. We are working with the [Mayor Bill Peduto’s] office and the businesses to do just that,” he said.
When asked what those plans might look like, the senator directed the question to Rep. Gainey who said, “I am working with the mayor’s office as well as some of the grassroots community organizations in Homewood to bring two new housing developments to the area.” However, when pressed for more specifics, Gainey said he did not have that information available and only that he wanted to ensure that those organizations he was working with would have their concerns addressed.
Doc Holiday, 75, a former Homewood resident who now lives in Penn Hills said, “It takes more than housing to rebuild a neighborhood. It takes businesses.”
When asked what was being done about the crime that seems rampant in the neighborhood, Gainey said he, the police and the mayor’s office has worked diligently to clean up the area around North Braddock and Hamilton avenues, which is a known hangout for drug dealers and prostitutes. Gainey said, “there was a concentrated effort to sweep the area, make arrests [49], which resulted in removing much of the problem. This also led to threats being received to shoot police officers if they came back.”
When informed that the area was again infested with more of the same, he said, “they are working diligently to solve the problem.”
Zinna Scott, 69, of Homewood, said, “I raised my children here. What happens is when children grow up, they leave the community and the older folks left simply die off, and this is all that is left behind. There used to be little kids running and playing around here all the time. Not so much now, though,” Scott said. She said she has no plans of leaving the neighborhood although there were three separate shooting incidents last year across the street from her Rosedale Street home
Gainey noted a crime near Shuman’s Market, located on the corners of Frankstown and Homewood Avenues, where a man was shot in the face in front of the store and said it was a trouble spot in the neighborhood. “We are aware of what’s going on near this store,” he said. “There are young people going in and out of the store all the time. We know what’s going on.”
However, he did not elaborate on what, if anything, was being done. Gainey left the meeting before it was over.
Part 2: Neighborhood police, students, educators and businesspersons weigh in.
Part 3: Victims and those they left behind
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