Resumed Evictions In Philly Bring Back Accusations Of 'Private Mercenary Army For Landlords'
Tensions continue to rise over Philadelphia's landlord-tenant officer even as the office resumes locking out tenants.
Dozens of activists from several local advocacy organizations protested Monday afternoon outside the Widener Building, home to the Philadelphia Municipal Court across South Penn Square from City Hall, about eviction procedures.
Minutes after the protest ended, the Philadelphia Inquirer confirmed that the court had accepted a proposed list of changes from private attorney Marisa Shuter, the court-appointed LTO.
Shuter voluntarily paused evictions in late July after one of her deputized officers shot Latese Bethea in the leg in front of her daughter, the third instance of a landlord-tenant deputy discharging a weapon while evicting a tenant in four months. Bethea and Angel Davis, who survived being shot in the head during a lockout on March 29, have both filed suit against Shuter's office and the landlords who hired her.
The court's doors closed shortly before the protest began at 4 p.m. despite its publicly listed hours running until 5 p.m., Renter's Justice Campaign organizer Evan Thompson told Bisnow.
The court's docket showed at least a dozen lockouts scheduled for Tuesday, the Inquirer reports. Lockout schedules being entered into the court's public records is among the updated policies from Shuter's office.
Protesters decried a lack of public accountability from the court for accepting what organizer Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture in her public remarks at the protest called a "last-minute hodgepodge of new training and policies" from Shuter.
"It's nonsense, and it shows she's unfit," Nkrumah-Ture said of Shuter's protocol update. "The LTO is nothing more than a private mercenary army for landlords."
Although the policy changes Shuter offered include additional precautions like the recruiting of constables from nearby counties to join private landlord-tenant deputies on lockouts, she provided no details on the increased training protocols she promised to implement for all deputies, most of whom are private contractors.
A statement last week from Shuter spokesperson Michael Neilon only said that at least one member of each two-person eviction team would have all training required of constables in other Pennsylvania counties.
Shuter notified landlords Aug. 11 that her office would resume serving writs of possession this week, although the only meeting she conducted with city government representatives had yet to take place. Shuter pledged more transparency into the process when that meeting took place last Tuesday,, the Inquirer reported.
"It only took [the LTO] until about a week ago to start thinking of a better way [to conduct lockouts]," Thompson said in his address to the crowd, noting that Davis was shot in the head while being evicted more than four months earlier. "And only another week before they said they had a plan that was good enough. But did they talk to any tenants about their plan? Of course not."
State Sen. Nikil Saval, whose district includes the Widener Building, spoke at the protest to reaffirm his commitment to outlawing the use of a private landlord-tenant officer at the state level.
"As the landlord-tenant officer and the private contractors she employs prepare to resume lockouts across Philadelphia, we know that the monetary incentive to perform evictions as quickly as possible, in order to make as much money as possible, remains," Saval said. "There is nothing to ensure that tenants receive timely notification to prepare for their displacement. There is no mechanism in place for training standards or accountability."
Shuter's Aug. 15 meeting with stakeholders like District 3 Councilmember Jamie Gauthier resulted in so few changes to the new protocols Shuter had already announced to landlords, the groups who assembled Monday pledged to focus their continuing pressure campaign on one target.
"[Municipal Court President Judge] Patrick Dugan is the only one with the power to change anything," Thompson said to the gathered protesters as other organizers passed around slips with Dugan's office phone number and scripts to read from.
Within three minutes of Dugan's number being passed around, a Young Communist League member who identified himself as Collin announced that the office mailbox had been filled to capacity. Protesters cheered the news.
