Pennsylvania may become the latest state that automatically seals eviction records. Here’s what to know

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For the second time in two years, Pennsylvania lawmakers are weighing legislation that would automatically seal certain eviction records for tens of thousands of renters across the commonwealth.

The bill is a longtime wishlist item for housing advocates, who say it would help tenants struggling to find safe and habitable homes because they were the subject of an eviction filing at some point.

If passed, the courts would immediately shield from public view cases where a judge ruled in favor of the tenant. Eviction cases that were withdrawn or led to a lockout would be automatically sealed seven years after the filing.

Eviction cases that did result in a lockout would be automatically sealed after seven years.

The measure would help renters in urban centers like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but also in smaller suburban and rural communities, some of which have higher eviction rates.

“With every year, I mean every month, every week, every day that goes by, the housing situation for our neighbors becomes more and more dire. And I think the need to act on housing becomes more and more urgent,” said state Rep. Ismail Smith-Wade-El, D-Lancaster, who introduced the bill.

The measure faces an uncertain future, however.

The bill passed the House by a slim margin in late June. But it’s unclear if the legislation has enough support in the Senate amid intense budget negotiations with Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration, which supports the measure.

A similar bill Smith-Wade-El introduced last year was never put to a floor vote. Opponents argued the bill would make it hard for landlords to properly vet applicants. They also said it would force them to tighten their standards in order to protect against problem tenants.

The impact of an eviction filing

The bill’s backers are still holding out hope, given the negative impact they’ve seen eviction filings have on tenants, most often single Black mothers seeking affordable housing.

Holly Beck, a housing attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, said renters with an eviction record are often relegated to substandard housing for years on end because they can’t find a landlord willing to take them on as a tenant. For the same reason, an eviction filing has forced renters to live in communities they wouldn’t otherwise have chosen.

This includes tenants who were never locked out, as well as renters who were evicted but have since turned their lives around and could afford a better place were it not for their record.

“I heard from a tenant who had been evicted a good number of years ago. Since then, enough time had passed that she’d gone back to school, gotten a nursing degree, had a decent paying job, but she and her kids were staying in motels and Airbnbs because of the eviction on her record,” Beck said.

In some instances, tenants are denied housing due to an eviction case they never knew existed. For example, if a previous landlord filed but later withdrew the case because they were able to reach an agreement with a tenant outside of court.

Regardless, the filing will remain on that tenant’s record and appear every time a landlord runs a background check on them.

And it’s not uncommon for that court data, scraped from the internet by a third-party company, to only list a case as an “eviction” with the month and year it occurred. That often leaves landlords in the dark, forcing potential renters to repeatedly shed light on their situation — if they get the opportunity to provide an explanation.

All things being equal, landlords typically discard an application if a background check comes back with an eviction record, no matter the outcome. It’s why proponents say the bill would help even the playing field.

“So that people with an eviction record in their past are able to go for the housing that they want them and their families to be living in,” Beck said.

‘I’m scared to apply’

If passed, Pennsylvania would become one of 11 jurisdictions in the country that automatically seal eviction records in some capacity.

Taysha, a longtime Philadelphia renter with an eviction filing on her record, would be overjoyed if that happened.

WHYY has agreed to withhold Taysha’s last name to enable her to move on from her past.

For months, she’s been searching for a new place for her and her three children to live. She said it hasn’t happened because of the eviction filing, even though the case was later withdrawn by her landlord.

For the last two years, the family has been living with Taysha’s ex-husband.

“I’m scared to apply because once they see [my eviction record], they’re automatically gonna be like ‘Oh, I don’t know,’” Taysha said. “Sometimes landlords don’t want to listen.”

In 2022, the Philadelphia Housing Authority claimed Taysha owed more than $7,000 in back rent. But the bill was a mistake.

PHA sets its rents based on household composition and income. And in Taysha’s case, her rent was set too high for her financial circumstances, causing debt to pile up for months.

With the help of a lawyer, the housing authority withdrew the case. But the filing itself has remained on Taysha’s record.

She now hopes lawmakers in Harrisburg will give her — and thousands of others — the chance at living in a habitable home in the community of their choice.

Between January and May, there was an average of nearly 9,000 eviction filings each month in Pennsylvania, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

“I don’t want this to happen to somebody else,” Taysha said.