SHMS is also known as Action Housing.
I received an eviction notice signed by Kyle Webster.
“A present, you owe $2,170, which represents 5 months in unpaid rent.”
The notice lists four options to resolve the issue, one of which is “Agree to mediation with Just Mediation Pittsburgh.” I considered mediation until I discovered that Mr. Webster has a conflict of interest.
Mr. Webster is VP of Housing at SHMS and General Council.
He is also a member of Just Mediation Pittsburgh’s board of directors.
As VP of Housing at SHMS, his primary duty is to act in the best interest of SHMS’s bottom line. Simultaneously, as a board member of Just Mediation Pittsburgh, he has an equal obligation to act in the best interests of tenants who have fallen behind in their rent.
This raises the question of who is he working for at any given time?
Because of that question, I contacted Attorney Bill Bickerton; working pro bono, he called the property twice, asking for an accounting ledger. She never returned his calls.
Since I’m not eligible for legal aid, I contacted the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office on September 12, 2022, hoping they would act as a mediator.
September 12, 2022
September 22, 2022
“Generally, she would receive late notices each month her rent is late as is our standard practice. During the COVID-19 pandemic and consistent with best practices at that time, we stopped issuing monthly late notices so as to avoid adding additional stress on our tenants and instead sent regular messages to tenants to tap into the existing rental assistance options created due to the pandemic.”
That is incorrect.
I received a late notice on January 25, 2021.
“I wrote the notice to quit myself and directed every property manager to issue them to all delinquent tenants-this was not Holly Kavanaugh’s call, but mine.
Mr. Webster writes that approximately 80 tenants received eviction notices. Of those 80 names, why did mine catch his attention?
“In late August, Ms. Pierce called again to complain about a clogged toilet. Maintenance went out and saw that the issue was related to user error, not a maintenance concern. They worked with her to show her how to utilize her toilet properly.”
Mr. Webster had no reason to bring up the broken toilet; I was requesting documentation related to the eviction notice. Yet he felt compelled to weave a story intended to embarrass and humiliate me.
That incident was a product of his imagination—pure fiction intended to teach me my proper place because I had had the temerity to call a government agency, the health department.
Instead, he wrote a glaring insight into his character.
Note to reader: Precisely how would the maintenance man determine that a woman with 70 years of experience using a toilet had made a “user error.”
He ends his response to the AG, saying, “We have made sure she knows the proper channels for complaint but we will be forced to pursue an eviction should she not follow one of the other avenues outlined on her Notice to Quit.”
September 23, 2022
The AG’s office closed my comilant the next day.