It's Our City is a project that uses TV, Radio and Web
to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.VIDEO: Philadelphia Renter’s Law Suspended
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 7:00 pm - by Stephanie Marudas. Filed under: Uncategorized.
It’s rare that City Council passes a law, and then the Mayor suspends it nearly two years later. This is what happened to the Rental Suitability Ordinance. Enacted in 2006, this good-faith measure was meant to protect renters from moving into unhealthy and unsafe places. For the first time ever, landlords had to provide new tenants with a Certificate of Rental Suitability: a piece of paper processed online through the Department of Licenses and Inspections. It guaranteed a new tenant that the landlord was licensed and renting a decent place to live. Tenants’ rights groups embraced the legislation as a big victory, while two major landlord associations in town stood opposed. The landlords claimed the law was unconstitutional, too vague, and drove up their costs. So they went to the court, and the city decided to suspend enforcing the ordinance in April to negotiate new provisions. It seems likely that City Council will have to review the provisions before amending the legislation. But there’s no guarantee council members will all agree on the new measures. So the rental suitability law could end up being suspended longer than the city anticipated. Meaning that some renters in our city could be living in substandard conditions as shown in the video we’ve produced.
Click here to see the video, read a full transcript, and for more information about the Rental Suitability Certificate law.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:00 am
After reading about the suspension of the city’s Rental Suitability Ordinance (It’s Our City, Sept. 10th) and watching the video, all I could think of is “Why hasn’t anyone called L&I on the Philadelphia School District?” and “Should I?” I have been teaching in my current school building for 3 years now with the promise of a new building; a promise which has turned out to be a curse. Since the building is “going to get torn down anyway,” nothing ever really gets fixed. My door handle looks like it was melted in some way, huge water stains cover most of the walls in the school, the paint peels constantly, the air ducts are so full of dust that I have to clean surfaces in the classroom constantly, mice run down the hallways and pipes that heat some of the classrooms are so hot that one year a girl leaned up against one and had a blister on her back from the burn. Many students have asthma and breathe air full of dust particles and sit in classrooms with no air conditioning and windows that open only 8 inches. Electrical outlets fall out of the walls, clocks don’t work (teachers buy their own), and there are holes in walls and doors throughout the school. Were I to produce my own video about unsafe conditions, it would put the featured video to shame. Worst of all, this is a public building where children, our future, come to learn.
Curious about how such conditions could possibly be legal, I went to the Tenant Union Representative Network (TURN) website to look at Renter’s Rights. Turns out, if my students and I were renting the building in which we spend 7 ½ hours a day, 5 days a week, we would have quite a case against our landlord. I want to know: If TURN states on its website that “landlords have a responsibility to maintain their property in good repair and to correct any conditions that make it unhealthy or unsafe,” who is holding the School District accountable for the unsafe and pathetic state of our city’s schools?
September 14th, 2008 at 12:56 am
the lofts at chimney hill have cockroaches…DO NOT RENT THERE