A March 29 eviction attempt that left a tenant in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head threw a bright light on the way in which evictions are carried out in Philadelphia.
Less than two weeks after the shooting, two Philly-based state senators announced a bill that would ban jurisdictions from outsourcing evictions to private contractors.
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Though most Pennsylvania jurisdictions have their local sheriff's office carry out eviction court orders, Philadelphia contracts with a law firm that hires and trains its own private security officers. One such officer shot a 35-year-old woman in the head at Girard Court Apartments in Sharswood on March 29; she was still in critical condition as of Friday, WHYY reports.
State Sens. Nikil Saval and Sharif Street are seeking more co-sponsors before they officially introduce the bill, they said in a public memo to fellow senators. Though the bill would amend Title 42 of the Pennsylvania code, the memo acknowledges that it is targeting Philly, an "outlier" in allowing its municipal court to hire a private firm. The Philadelphia Sheriff's Office already handles evictions when they are part of judgments from the Court of Common Pleas.
No such decisive action has yet been taken by Philadelphia City Council, but its Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development, and the Homeless called for a hearing on the role of landlord-tenant officer on May 8, WHYY reports. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, the committee's chair, also is considering introducing legislation banning the practice, she told WHYY.
“This is a process that requires discretion," Saval told WHYY. "It requires sensitivity. It requires real care. And there’s no way to ensure through this private process that those things are taken into account when evictions are performed."
HAPCO Philadelphia, the largest industry group for landlords in the city, has already come out in public opposition to ending the practice of privatization, claiming that increasing the workload of the sheriff's office would slow the process down and overburden mom-and-pop landlords, WHYY reports.
A law firm owned by Marisa Shuter is the current landlord-tenant officer appointed by the municipal court. One of the court's judges, David Shuter, is Marisa Shuter's husband and has personally decided eviction cases that were sent to his wife's office, WHYY reports.
Though Gauthier said the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office is capable of taking over eviction duties, it has its own history of conflicts of interest and corruption, including its job of auctioning off foreclosed and tax-delinquent properties.
Multiple good government groups have called for the office to be abolished, a call that mayoral candidate, real estate magnate and former Councilmember-at-large Allan Domb has joined, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
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