Philly rental inspections are complaint-driven. Housing advocates want to change that

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Philadelphia may soon launch a pilot program to proactively inspect rental units, a longtime wishlist item for affordable housing advocates pushing to protect low-income tenants against displacement.

Bridget Collins-Greenwald, a commissioner with the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections, told lawmakers Tuesday her agency is in the process of crafting the program with help from researchers at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

She said more details about the pilot may be available in July.

“We have been talking through what it would look like to have a proactive approach,” Collins-Greenwald said during a joint hearing on rental housing conditions held by Council’s committees on Housing, Neighborhood Development and the Homeless and Licenses and Inspections.

Philadelphia is one of the only big cities in the country that does not proactively inspect rental units. Tenants facing unresolved maintenance requests must either file a complaint with the city’s 311 system or raise the issue with a council member, who can then flag the problem for L&I on their behalf.

Housing advocates say tenants, even those living in units that would be considered uninhabitable under city law, are often reluctant to file a complaint because they fear their landlord will retaliate against them — particularly if they are withholding rent with hopes of getting them to respond.

“Even though the law recognizes withholding rent as a valid way to incentivize a landlord to make repairs, it does not prevent a landlord from filing an eviction for unpaid rent,” said Sherry Thomas, director of the housing initiative at the Legal Clinic for the Disabled.

And it is not unusual for a tenant to ultimately be evicted under these circumstances, a traumatic outcome that typically gives landlords pause, making it more challenging for renters to find a new place to live that is safe and habitable.

Thomas and advocates argue this troubling dynamic helps illustrate the need for a proactive inspection program, which they say could help keep these low-income tenants housed. They also point to high-profile episodes, like the recent sale of Brith Sholom House and the death of 12-year-old Jah’nae Campbell earlier this year. Her mother blames the dangerous conditions inside their West Philadelphia apartment.

“L&I should inspect rental units before people move in so that these issues can be prevented,” said Janet White, a member of Philly Thrive who was displaced soon after she told the city her water-damaged apartment in Germantown had no heat for an entire winter.

HAPCO Philadelphia, the city’s largest advocacy group for landlords and property owners, is less enthusiastic about the prospect of proactive inspections. President Gregory Wertman said doing them will only burden small landlords who must already comply with a growing number of city regulations.

“Why do they continue to go after the landlords that follow the rules? That’s why we have so many that stop following or never followed the rental rules,” Wertman said.

Funding a citywide program could prove challenging for a department that has struggled with manpower. At present, the city has just 19 property maintenance inspectors, which are distinct from building code inspectors. That translates to one inspector for about every 16,000 rental units.

A proactive program in Washington uses nine inspectors to inspect approximately 16,000 rental units a year, said Keith David Parsons with the district’s Office of Strategic Code Enforcement.

A 2021 Pew analysis found that only 7% of Philadelphia apartments are inspected each year.

The city is trying to tackle the issue in other ways.

In 2023, Philadelphia launched the Rental Improvement Fund to help small landlords make needed repairs to their properties. The program offers forgivable and zero-interest loans that can be used to repair roofs, windows and doors. They can also be used for asbestos, mold and lead remediation, as well as electrical and plumbing improvements, among other repairs.

To date, the program has completed more than $8 million worth of repairs since launching, said Rachel Mulbry, director of policy and strategic initiatives at the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation.

“For comparison, RIF makes about as many loans on an annual basis as all private banks make to small-scale rental investors for home improvement in Philadelphia, according to Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data from 2022-2023,” Mulbry said.

Tuesday’s hearing is part of a broader effort to improve living conditions for low-income Philadelphians amid an affordable housing crisis.

In late February, OnePA Renters United Philadelphia and Philly Thrive launched their “Safe Healthy Homes” campaign with a news conference outside City Hall.

The groups are pushing for $10 million for Licenses and Inspections to perform proactive inspections, and another $10 million for the Built to Last program, a repair program for low-income homeowners. This as lawmakers begin budget negotiations with Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration, which is making housing a top priority during the mayor’s second year.

O’Rourke, who is supportive of the campaign’s budget platform, is expected to introduce a legislative package next month aimed at protecting renters and holding landlords more accountable.

The package, for example, will include provisions designed to deter landlords from retaliating against tenants who speak publicly about conditions at a particular apartment building. It will also seek to make the rules for rental licenses more stringent and call for the creation of a fund to help tenants displaced by L&I violations.

“A baseline standard for housing conditions won’t be set if those elected to represent the people don’t do it. It’s on us…to hold the line on setting a legal standard for safe, healthy homes. Otherwise, it turns into a race to the bottom for the least responsible bad actor landlords out there,” O’Rourke said at the start of Tuesday’s hearing.

The campaign moves forward as renters across the city sound the alarm about unfit and unsafe building conditions — conditions they say they cannot afford to escape.

Last week, tenants at Bentley Manor, an apartment building in West Oak Lane, filed a lawsuit against owner Odin Properties.  The class-action suit alleges the company violated city law by continuing to collect rent after Licenses and Inspections had designated the building “unsafe.”

CEO Philip Balderston said in a statement that Odin is “carefully considering the allegations of the recent complaint and plan to respond appropriately.”