Philly councilman wants six-month minimum notice for evictions during rehabs

Longtime tenants in gentrifying neighborhoods should have plenty of advance notice before a new landlord can get rid of them to renovate their building, according to a Philadelphia lawmaker who has introduced a measure to make sure that is the case.

With property values rising in some neighborhoods and regular apartments being turned into luxury rentals, longtime renters need more than a few weeks notices to move out, Councilman Curtis Jones said Thursday.

“We have Penn Wynn Apartments, 200 units in the Wynnefield section, and people … investors bought the property several months ago and started evicting people, asking them to leave without proper notice,” he said. “What this bill would do is protect renters from gentrification.”

Jones wants to require that landlords provide six months’ notice, especially for longtime residents.

“If you’ve lived there 10 years, 20 years and, in some cases, three decades, 30 days is not enough,” he said.

A hearing on the bill has not been scheduled.