Philly bill proposes giving money to renters forced from unsafe homes

City Council members advanced a bill that would give financial help to renters forced to move out of their homes because of unsafe or unhealthy conditions.

The bill would authorize Philadelphia to create an Anti-Displacement Fund to help pay for relocation costs when the city determines rental homes are unsafe and residents must evacuate. Renters would be eligible for funds if the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections issues a “cease operations” order.

At a Council hearing Tuesday, representatives from L&I said the agency issued about 30 of these orders for rental properties over the last year.

At the packed hearing, renters and advocates spoke of leaks and mold, pest infestations, cracks and holes in walls, lack of adequate heat, and crumbling bricks in rental homes.

Their stories “are not isolated cases,” said Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, who introduced the bill. “These are symptoms of a broken system.”

Council members passed the bill out of the housing committee for a vote by the full Council, scheduled for June 12.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Adam Weintraub-Barth, a staff attorney at the Philadelphia nonprofit SeniorLAW Center, said renters are hesitant to call L&I to report unsafe conditions because they are afraid of what could happen to them.

If L&I tells them they have to leave, “they don’t know what their next move is going to be,” he said. “They’re limited in what they can do. They don’t have the resources to move. They don’t have the resources to quickly find new safe, stable housing.”

And this most often hurts “the most vulnerable in our society,” Weintraub-Barth said.

Todd Abney, a member of the tenant advocacy group OnePA Renters United Philadelphia, told Council members that he once lived in a small North Philadelphia apartment building that made him and other residents sick because of a carbon monoxide leak. Then they found out their landlord did not have the necessary rental license.

“L&I told us on a Friday that we had to be out of the building by Monday morning at 6 a.m.,” Abney said. “There were five of us in the apartment building, and we were all being kicked out with nowhere to go. L&I offered that we could go to a homeless shelter and didn’t have any other options for us.”

He said he managed to remain in the building for another week and then found another place to stay.

“I am very much in support of the city creating a displacement fund for everyone who has to leave their home because of uninhabitable conditions that are out of their control,” he said.

The legislation is part of a package of bills meant to improve rental conditions, which was introduced by O’Rourke and written in partnership with advocacy groups OnePA Renters United Philadelphia and Philly Thrive.

The two other bills in O’Rourke’s legislative package were held for further review. One would provide tenants who complain about issues in their homes with additional protections against retaliation and harassment by their landlords.

The other bill would authorize L&I to create a program to proactively inspect rental units instead of relying on tenants’ complaints to trigger inspections. It also would keep landlords with L&I violations from getting their rental licenses renewed.

L&I is working with the Pew Charitable Trusts to establish best practices for proactively inspecting rental homes. A 2021 Pew report found that L&I inspected only about 7% of Philadelphia’s rental units in a year.

Council members, city officials, and groups that represent rental property owners said these two bills need to be discussed further and amended.

Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, chair of Council’s housing committee, said members will work on the remaining bills over the summer. The committee is expected to vote on them in the fall.