City Council came to a “consensus” Tuesday to advance only one bill from lawmaker Nicolas O’Rourke’s three-piece legislative package to bolster protections for renters and go after negligent landlords.
The decision came after hours of spirited debate and impassioned testimony from tenants, landlord associations, city officials and others.
Legislators granted preliminary approval to establish a fund to help renters who need to relocate because a city inspection found their home could no longer be inhabited safely. The measure could receive a final vote next week.
Two other components of O’Rourke’s Safe Healthy Homes Act – a bill dealing with tenant harassment and organizing and another authorizing a proactive unit inspection program and strengthening licensing requirements – were held in committee, meaning they likely will not be finalized before Council goes on summer break.
O’Rourke appeared in Council Tuesday afternoon, even as his son, born last week, is being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“I deserve to be with my family right now,” he said. “But last night I was told something that stopped me in my tracks. That if I didn’t come here to defend the Safe Healthy Homes Act, that these bills would not receive a vote. I was forced to make an impossible choice.”
He vigorously argued in favor of his legislation, saying many critiques were addressed in recent amendments.
“These bills simply will not apply to the vast majority of landlords. The policies laid out today are designed to address the most egregious cases,” O’Rourke added. “This is not anti-landlord legislation. This is anti-neglect legislation. This is anti-squalor legislation. This is pro-dignity legislation.”
Leaders from Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration asked that the package be held for further review and alterations, and representatives from landlord groups claimed it could have unintended consequences on well-meaning landlords.
“There are laws already on the books,” testified Paul Cohen, general counsel for HAPCO Philadelphia, one of the landlord associations. “They’re there now and they’re not being enforced. So to have more laws that aren’t going to be enforced is not the answer.”
Bridget Collins-Greenwald, commissioner of the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, said her team is developing a plan for a proactive inspection initiative that should be ready by the end of the summer. Currently, the department investigates property conditions based on complaints.
“We’re completely in agreement with the spirit of the law,” she told Council. “We have questions, and we would like to work through them before something would become law and then we have something that maybe isn’t operationally enforceable for us or legal.”
During the hearing, tenants in support of the Safe Healthy Homes Act shared deeply personal stories of their families dealing with unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
Sonya Sanders recalled sewage leaking in the basement of her Grays Ferry home, which had neither water nor electricity. L&I never responded to her concerns, she said.
“When we lived there, we felt like squatters,” Sanders, a member of the Philly Thrive organization, added. “But unlike squatters, we paid our rent, but we had a landlord that refused to do the work.”
Melissa Monts said she was hospitalized for nine days, due to pneumonia her doctor believes was caused by conditions inside her Frankford apartment. She later learned of a severe allergy to mice and cockroaches – both abundant in her home – and developed pulmonary hypertension, chronic heart failure and chronic respiratory failure.
“I truly believe that, if the Safe Healthy Homes Act had been in place, I would never have gotten sick,” she said. “Please pass this legislation, and it’s not just for me or my grandchildren or my children. It’s for the people you can’t hear because they suffered in silence and died.”
Council, following testimony, broke for about an hour Tuesday afternoon, evidently to hash out their path forward. Member Jamie Gauthier, chair of the housing committee, said they agreed to move forward with only the one bill.
“There is a consensus that some of these bills need more time,” she said. “We need more time to talk through the amendments. We need more time to work with the administration to make sure that they can implement these bills because they’re so important that we want them to happen in the right way.”
Gauthier said members of the housing committee have also signed on to O’Rourke’s call that $10 million be set aside in the city budget for proactive rental inspections. Negotiations on the municipal spending plan are ongoing, and a deal must be reached by the end of the month.
