Nov 3, 2017 3 min read

The Roma asylum seekers who poured into California this summer, drawing opposition from some neighbors, have abandoned the borough while reportedly owing their landlord thousands of dollars in rent.

Some of the families also left behind other unpaid bills and damage to many of the 32 rental units that were either owned or managed by the Vito Dentino Agency in California, the owner of the business said.

“They’re gone. They don’t leave a forwarding address,” Vito Dentino said this week.

The Romas, who are descendants of nomads, travel in family groups and are referred to as gypsies. The Romas have been persecuted in Europe since before World War II for a variety of reasons.

The immigrants were attracted to the borough because it had a lot of vacant, affordable housing due to enrollment declines at California University of Pennsylvania.

Dentino in September and October began 18 eviction proceedings involving the Romas before District Judge Joshua Kanalis, online court records show. While Kanalis dismissed a couple of the cases, he ordered judgments in Dentino’s favor for more than $30,000 in unpaid rent. Dentino also sought thousands more for damage and related costs, money that was not awarded to him by Kanalis.

The landlord said he doubted he would ever see any of the money owed to him by the Romas, some of whom also left behind unpaid hospital and rental car bills.

The Romas were believed to have entered the country from Mexico and later were placed by the federal government into its Alternatives to Detention program because the nation’s immigration detention centers have been at full capacity this year. The leaders of the family units were given ankle bracelets to allow the government to track their locations.

“I was supporting them,” Dentino said, adding he received an overwhelming number of complaints while they were living in California.

He said he came to discover some families kept chickens in their residences and others were living in the borough without water or electricity.

In all, there were 90 Roma families in the borough and, in some cases, three families shared the same rental unit, he said.

Carla E. Anderton, editor of the free publication Pennsylvania Bridges, said it was a challenge to reach out to the Romas because they don’t speak English.

“It was a hurdle not speaking their language,” said Anderton, who made efforts to build an understanding in the community of the Roma culture.

“It’s kind of a shame. We had an opportunity here, and we blew it,” she said.