Pittsburgh-Area Seniors Living In Poverty

from WTAE

PITTSBURGH -- The following is a transcript of a report by Wendy Bell that first aired Feb. 11, 2008, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.

One in 10 senior citizens in Allegheny County lives quietly in poverty, surviving on less than $7 a day.

And a staggering number of senior citizens live in houses that are unheated, unsanitary and unlivable.

But one small organization is helping them out, one home at a time.

Dorothy Ramay has lived in her home for 38 years. She lost one of her legs to diabetes and has to manage without it.

He home is in shambles, but it wasn’t always that way. She raised eight children and 27 grandchildren in the home, causing it to crumble.

"I didn't know what we were going to do about a lot of things in this house, because we're old now, and I knew we couldn't do the things we used to do," said Ramay.

Now in a wheelchair, Ramay is confined to the first floor of her home. A makeshift ramp gets her into the kitchen, but upstairs is off-limits to her now.

"I want to see where my grandson is. You know?" she said. "I could crawl up the steps to the second floor."

She often does crawl to the second floor, only to find garbage she is unable to throw out and filth that she cannot clean.

"It's hard out here for a lot of people, whether you're young or old," said Ramay. "It's hard. And keeping warm and not being cold means a lot, especially when you have children."

Rudy Benedetti volunteers for Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh. It's a nonprofit organization that fixes the homes of Allegheny County's low-income seniors for free.

Nearly 18,000 seniors live below the poverty level in the county. Some survive on less than $10,400 a year, with Social Security checks as their only income.

Benedetti audits homes that need the most help and makes a list of the most-needed repairs. He finds basements so cluttered with junk you can barely walk through them. Some have tree trunks holding up sagging floors with open gas lines in living rooms.

He said a lot of homes have no heat, too.

Tony Ufolla's lived in his house for 50 years. His roof leaks so badly that melting snow and rain pour onto his feet as he sleeps.

"I'm laying here, it keeps on hitting me in the legs," he said.

The ceiling has disintegrated down to the wood beams, and everything he owns is covered in plaster dust.

His bathroom is a showerhead with no curtain in a basement covered with cobwebs and years of dust.

"This is his bathroom," said Benedetti. "Shower stall and the commode, and the commode, I don't think, works half the time."

"It's the roof. That's what I need," said Ufolla. "Everything else is OK. It's just the roof."

But Benedetti's home inspections reveal danger after danger in home after home.

"Unreal. But it's not uncommon," he said.

This spring, Benedetti will bring an army of volunteers to Ramay, Ufolla and a few dozen other seniors in Allegheny County.

They'll get new floors, roofs, paint, carpet, windows and appliances.

Ufolla will also get a new bathroom.

"The greatest satisfaction is their eyes, and the tears just coming down," said Benedetti. "They're so delighted that someone's doing this for them."

Benedetti said he saw that look in Ramay's eyes when he installed a furnace in her home before Christmas.

"I was kind of sad all the time, but I don't have anything to be sad about now," said Ramay.

She and her family are warm now. It's the first heat they've felt here in 38 years, Ramay said.

"I feel good. I can smile now. I got a big one," she said. "My grandkids run all through out the house, when they didn't before. I'm happy my grandkids don't have to run around anymore in sweaters or jackets. They can just run around and play.