November 11–18, 1999

hall monitor

House of Corrections

City Council is scheduled to vote on an amendment to current eviction law thatopponents contend threatens Philadelphia’s poorest residents with homelessness. The proposed ordinance would allowcertain landlords to "lock out" tenants without taking their cases to Municipal Court.

The legislation, introduced by Councilman Frank DiCicco, passed the Rules Committee on Oct. 26 and is scheduled for avote before the full Council on Nov. 18.

A city code (#9-1600) outlaws "self-help evictions," such as cutting off electricity, changing locks,seizing personal property or threatening violence as a means of booting tenants from a rental property. The amendmentintroduced by DiCicco would create an exemption to the code for "nonprofit boarding houses."

"This is potentially going to hurt a lot of vulnerable people," says Mike Carroll, an attorney forCommunity Legal Services, a public interest law firm that is attempting to postpone the vote.

People residing in boarding houses are already "living on the edge," he warns.

These tenants are low-income, and often elderly, mentally ill or physically disabled, Carroll says. "There is agreat danger they will become homeless."

DiCicco says the amendment is necessary to protect the livelihood of nonprofit boarding homes. He introduced theamendment on behalf of Coles House, on the 900 block of Clinton Street in Center City.

About 60 "women in transition" live in Coles House at any given time. Rents range from $150 to $400 permonth, according to testimony given during a Rules Committee hearing, and the home does not receive any governmentfunding.

The director of Coles House, Susan Lewis, asked DiCicco to help amend the city code because "about four or fivetimes a year, she has a problem removing clients," he says. Lewis testified before the Rules Committee that she wasarrested for locking someone out.

Normally, if a tenant fails to make her rent, Lewis will give her a chance to "pay down the debt" byhelping out around the building, DiCicco says. "But if a client doesn’t respond, Susan wants to remove her— and that takes four to six months."

Lewis referred a call to her attorney, who did not contact City Paper before press time.

DiCicco contends that the budgets for Coles House and two similar nonprofit boarding houses in Philadelphia areextremely tight. Missing revenue from just four months’ rent could cause them to shut down, he adds.

"These are nice, safe facilities but they have budget problems."

Opponents of the ordinance question the logic behind changing the entire landlord-tenant scheme for a mere handful ofcases per year. But DiCicco defends his legislation.

"This is a case where the tenant is not living up to her responsibilities. It is worth it to change the codebecause we need to protect these institutions from going bankrupt."

However, Carroll is skeptical of Lewis’ testimony that it takes several months to evict someone under theexisting system.

"She says she gives 60 days notice and many chances before a lock-out, but the current eviction process isfaster than that."

It typically takes two weeks to get a hearing, and then the client has 21 days to vacate the property, he says.

Robert Meek, an attorney with the Disabilities Law Project, testified against exempting nonprofit boarding housesfrom the code.

"Proponents of the ordinance want to underestimate the number of people affected," he asserts.

While there may be only two facilities "exactly like" Coles House in Philadelphia, numerous other boardinghouses could fall into the exemption for self-help evictions.

"There are a lot of not-so-reputable boarding house operators out there," Meek points out. "All theyhave to do is create a straw nonprofit and they would be exempt."

Rules Committee members David Cohen and Angel Ortiz voted against the ordinance. Along with DiCicco, CouncilmenMichael Nutter and James Kenney supported it.

Meek says opponents of the ordinance are concerned that the remaining members of City Council will not hear testimonybefore they vote Nov. 18. He hopes that "political pressure" will postpone the vote.

—Gwen Shaffer