Philly is ‘rare’ city where eviction filings dropped and stayed down. Here’s why.

Housing counselor Kenya Dow-Hill is good at striking deals.

Through Philadelphia’s Eviction Diversion Program, she was paired with a tenant living in a cold and leaky home who faced eviction after withholding rent for two months to try to force the landlord to make repairs.

During a mediation session last month, the landlord agreed to repair the home, keep housing the tenant, and waive one of the back rent payments. The tenant agreed to pay the remaining $1,500 owed in three installments and resume rent payments.

“Most of my mediations end in agreements, so that shows that [the program] is working,” said Dow-Hill, a tenant information specialist at the nonprofit Tenant Union Representative Network.

Last spring, the city’s Eviction Diversion Program, a nationally recognized initiative created during the pandemic to resolve landlord-tenant issues outside court, became permanent. Landlords are required to participate in the program, which includes an opportunity for financial assistance, and to negotiate with tenants before filing for evictions in court.

The program is meant to help renters stay in their homes and avoid eviction filings, which can prevent them from securing future housing no matter a case’s outcome.

The number of eviction filings in Philadelphia has dropped as a result. As of Feb. 1, landlords had filed for roughly 13,200 evictions in the last year — down 37% compared with a typical year before the pandemic, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

Of the 34 cities and 10 states tracked by the Eviction Lab, Philadelphia is tied as having the second-lowest eviction filing rate per 100 renter households over the last 12 months — 4%, as of Feb. 1.

Since the end of pandemic-era bans on evictions and pandemic-related financial aid, “we’ve seen eviction filings shoot up” in many places, said Grace Hartley, a research specialist at the Eviction Lab.

» READ MORE: Black Philadelphia renters face eviction at more than twice the rate of white renters

Philadelphia has been “one of the rare sites that has remained below the pre-pandemic average since the pandemic,” she said.

Still, more than 13,000 households a year going to court and potentially being displaced “is significant,” Hartley said.

The city calls the Eviction Diversion Program a win for tenants, who can avoid evictions; for landlords, who can get money for missed rent or avoid costs associated with evictions; and for landlord-tenant court, which has to handle fewer cases. The program also has improved communication between tenants and landlords.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker will present her budget proposal next month, and as low-income tenants struggle with rising costs for housing and other necessities, advocates hope her plan will include more money for the Eviction Diversion Program.

“There is more of a need than the current program can support,” said Rachel Garland, comanaging attorney of the housing unit at the legal aid nonprofit Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

Landlords who want to evict tenants must first give them a notice of diversion rights and apply for the diversion program. What happens next depends on the circumstances.

If a tenant owes up to $3,500, landlords can apply for rental assistance on behalf of qualifying tenants.

“A lot of people just get a little bit behind and need help,” said Catherine Anderson, a supervising attorney at the legal aid nonprofit Philadelphia Legal Assistance. The program is “really good at helping those folks who experienced some kind of temporary setback and need assistance getting back on track. … It is really helping in a very significant way to clear out the cases that have a lot of very easy solutions.”

If a tenant owes more than $3,500, the program directs the tenant and the landlord to try to work something out. The city provides resources such as frameworks for payment plans, sample negotiation scripts, and examples of move-out agreements. Sometimes, landlord-tenant pairs work out payment plans and then apply for financial assistance once the tenant owes $3,500.

If landlord-tenant disputes include issues such as the need for home repairs or breaches of the lease, including unauthorized people or pets in the home, smoking, nuisance behavior, or property damage, tenants and landlords are assigned to work with housing counselors and attend mediation.

Counselors can help resolve issues before a scheduled mediation session, saving time. When cases go to mediation, the process is less intimidating than a court hearing. Counselors help defuse tensions and encourage compromises.

When landlords and tenants cannot reach agreements, landlords can file for eviction in court. Of the roughly 9,800 mediations that have occurred since the first iteration of the program in 2020, 70% of landlord-tenant pairs reached some kind of agreement, according to the city.

Steve Chintaman, vice president of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Apartment Association, said moving to evict tenants “is definitely something of last resort.” The association represents about 50 property management companies with roughly 38,000 rental units in Philadelphia.

“We do understand hard times do happen, and we try to work with our tenants to find equitable solutions,” he said.

Garland at Community Legal Services said that because the Eviction Diversion Program is now permanent, city officials and tenant and landlord advocates can focus on improving it instead of fighting over extending it.

City officials have been collecting feedback from groups representing tenants, landlords, mediators, and housing counselors.

“It’s our job to make sure we hash out the details,” which is what is happening now, said City Councilmember Kendra Brooks.

Michal Bilick, program manager for eviction prevention programs for the city, said the “most significant” change underway is a more user-friendly online portal that she anticipates will launch this spring.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said she wants to see the city get money to landlords faster. “We can’t let bureaucracy be the reason someone loses their home,” she said.

Faster payments would be great, said Chintaman at the Pennsylvania Apartment Association, which supports the Eviction Diversion Program with some caveats.

The program “gives the housing provider and the tenant the opportunity to meet at the table to negotiate in good faith,” Chintaman said.

But the association also wants the city to identify a permanent source of funding for rental assistance, determine whether tenants qualify for that assistance before landlords enter the program, and reexamine other program procedures.

HAPCO Philadelphia, the city’s largest landlord association, mostly made up of small rental property owners, has always opposed the requirement that owners apply to the program before filing for eviction. The association thinks participation should be voluntary.

Greg Wertman, HAPCO Philadelphia’s president, said the program adds too much time to the already long process of removing problem tenants, especially for landlords who will not receive rental assistance.

“The big guys, they can afford to go through the process,” Wertman said. “It’s mostly the small landlords that are being hurt the most.”

The landlord groups also want the city to put more resources into what they called key components of eviction diversion — financial education and housing counseling for tenants.

The city’s Targeted Financial Assistance program “has been instrumental in resolving a lot of cases,” said Garland at Community Legal Services.

Landlords who are owed up to $3,500 and are accepted for assistance can get enough money to cover that back rent and two months of forward rent. The intent is to cover the time spent in the diversion program and another month as a buffer to help tenants get back on their feet.

Landlords who opt in to the program must agree not to evict the tenant for at least another two months.

City officials said they chose the $3,500 cap on rent arrears based on rental market data, the desire to help as many people as possible with limited funds, and administrative capacity.

» READ MORE: Philly’s Eviction Diversion Program will once again offer rental assistance

But, Garland said, “realistically, we see that for tenants, $3,500 doesn’t cover as much rent as it used to.”

HAPCO Philadelphia advises rental property owners to apply to the Eviction Diversion Program as soon as a tenant misses a rent payment in order to keep arrears down and have the best chance of getting financial assistance.

Since the start of the Targeted Financial Assistance program in January 2023, the city has awarded a total of roughly $46 million to landlords, according to city officials. As of the end of January, roughly 9,940 landlord-tenant pairs have been awarded an average payment of $4,441.

Gauthier said Philadelphia needs to invest more money in the program.

“This is about the stability of our neighborhoods and our city,” she said, “and it’s worth it to keep people in housing.”