Philly Council Member Floats Financial Support For Tenants Booted From Uninhabitable Units

Philadelphia tenants forced to vacate rentals deemed uninhabitable by the city’s inspectors often struggle with the moving expenses that follow, but one lawmaker is hoping to provide them some support.

City Council Member Nicolas O’Rourke is proposing the Safe Healthy Home Act, which would provide one-time payments to renters forced to leave those units, Lexology reported. It would also create new protections for tenants who report subpar living conditions.

“Residents who have their lives turned upside down deserve a sense of security,” O’Rourke told WHYY. “We gotta put some muscles, some teeth in this thing.”

The bill, which does not specify how much the city should pay residents, is part of O’Rourke’s broader effort to beef up the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections. He wants more funding for the agency so it can better enforce the city’s existing code.

L&I has the authority to immediately suspend a landlord's rental license if a property is deemed unsafe for residents.

O’Rourke would like to see the department automatically suspend rental licenses if landlords don’t appeal that designation within 30 days. They wouldn’t get the license back until necessary repairs are made.

The council member’s proposal would also require landlords to notify tenants if they don’t have an active license for a property. It’s illegal for property owners to collect rent without a valid license under city law.

HAPCO Philadelphia, the city’s largest advocacy group for landlords, is opposing O’Rourke’s proposal.

The group’s general counsel, Paul Cohen, told WHYY that the city already has laws in place to protect tenants and that those should be enforced as is.

“The argument is that it’s not being enforced. The answer is to enforce it. It’s very simple. Having another bill doesn’t get it enforced,” Cohen told WHYY. “We’re just going to have another law that’s not going to be enforced.”

O’Rourke made similar waves in the real estate world last year when he sponsored a bill banning the use of algorithmic rent-setting software in Philadelphia.

It was ultimately passed by council, making Philadelphia the second city in the U.S. to implement such legislation.