A week ago, I submitted my column to the Editor of this newspaper about the moratorium on evictions during the Pandemic being lifted. Before the ink could dry well on that column, things changed in the news, and it was announced by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), that a stay was put on the Moratorium for people across the nation that live in some of the hardest-hit areas for COVID-19. The stay extends the moratorium in certain areas, including the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection through October of this year.
Somehow though, it seems as if that Memo did not get to everyone in Philadelphia because families and individuals were being evicted as of yesterday, August 9th, even as the press conference was going on outside of Philadelphia Municipal Court.
During an urgent press conference held yesterday, Philadelphia City Councilwoman Helen Gym, City Councilwoman Kendra Brooks, PA State Representative Rick Krajewski, PA State Senator Nikil Saval, Rev. Robert Collier, President of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity, Housing advocates, and other concerned citizens came together to demand that some action be taken to not allow evictions to go through in our city, until further notice.
“I have heard from families with young children who have been suddenly thrown out of their homes, with no notice and nowhere to go,” said Councilmember Gym. “I have heard from renters now living in their cars despite qualifying for the CDC moratorium. One family was locked out despite the fact that their landlord was paid through rent assistance. Lockouts are traumatic, dangerous, and counterproductive. With leadership from the courts, we have built nationally renowned alternatives to eviction that can keep renters housed and help landlords get paid. We now need the courts to give us time to limit the spread of COVID by keeping families in their homes and ensuring whole communities remain stable.”
Over 300 renting households are scheduled for lockouts in the coming weeks despite their pending rent assistance applications, and other households may qualify for the CDC moratorium but are not yet aware of their rights, according to Community Legal Services. Philadelphia’s rent assistance program has distributed over $120 million so far and has yet to distribute half of its latest round of federal and state funding – over $65 million, which could save thousands of renting households from lockouts. Of the 1,500 households that have completed the city’s nationally renowned eviction diversion program, over 91% of landlords and tenants have agreed on an alternative to eviction.
Councilwoman Gym shared, “There are children involved. Two weeks before school starts, here we have web families being evicted in the midst of a pandemic. I heard from a gentleman today with a household of six, where his Landlord received $7,000 in rental assistance, and they were still told to vacate the premises the same day, with three children age six and under.
Gym added, “Nine members of Philadelphia City Council signed a letter that was sent to the Courts asking them to stop evictions last week. The press conference against evictions was held August 9th, because Council members didn’t hear anything over the weekend and there are hundreds of scheduled lockouts for this week.”
A commonsense approach is needed. Councilwoman Gym says, “there’s a new order that was issued by the Courts, that will pause the lockouts for people with approved or pending rental assistance applications, so that will take care of some of the people in a housing crisis. But bottom line, this isn’t about rental assistance. This is about COVID. When you evict people, there are consequences to that. People lose the roof over their head, said Gym. They are less likely to be stable. You get a terrible eviction record. Yet with Diversion, people can negotiate an exit. People can get rent assistance. There are options that are available. There are still millions of dollars more that are supposed to be distributed. There’s no reason for us to pursue a traumatic and often devastating lockout where you just have a few minutes to grab your most important possessions before you’re thrown out onto the street. They don’t even allow you to get all your things. You have minutes to leave the premises, maybe less. It’s so unconscionable.”
City Councilwoman Kendra Books commented, “I know first-hand from personal experience the challenges low-income renters face at times. There is no more effective strategy in stabilizing working families and slowing the spread of COVID-19 than protecting Philadelphians’ rights to housing. Through a mandatory eviction diversion program, a moratorium on lockouts and evictions, and rental assistance, Philadelphia has been leading the nation in protecting our most vulnerable residents. From displacement, homelessness, poverty, and instability. I’m talking about seniors on fixed incomes. People with disabilities and chronic health conditions. People of color and low-income people and immigrants. We are here today because our work isn’t over yet. We are here once again calling for action to protect our city from a catastrophic wave of lockouts that will do immeasurable harm to our neighbors if we do not act immediately.”
Stephanie Darnbush was also on hand for the press conference. She represents an organization TURN, which stands for Tenant Union Representative Network. If your landlord has threatened to evict you, or you fell behind with your rent, or you need repairs on the home or apartment where you are renting, you may want to connect with TURN. Learn about your rights as a tenant, and that’s where TURN comes in.
TURN offers regular tenants rights online workshops, Mondays – Fridays at 12 noon in English. On Mondays and Wednesdays at 6 pm, they offer a tenants rights workshop online, in English. On Tuesdays at 4 pm, they offer a 4 pm workshop for tenants’ rights in Spanish. On Saturdays at 11 am, they offer a tenants rights workshop online in English. All workshops are on Zoom. Admission is free! Pre-registration is required online at https:/rturn.net. Or you can call 267-807-3077 to pre-register.
Tenant Union Representative Network is all about educating and organizing to promote housing as a human right. To learn more about this group, log onto their website at www.rturn.net. Contact them via the Philly Tenant Hotline at 267-443-2500.
The evictions I am referring to are primarily happening to women and to women of color in Philadelphia. 74% of evictions in Philadelphia involved a Black tenant. 70% of evictions in Philadelphia involve a woman. 50% of evictions in Philadelphia involve a caregiver of a child, a senior citizen, or somebody who is disabled.
Rev. Robert Collier, President of Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity shared, ”We were there at the press conference to petition the courts to overthrow these lockouts because we know that Black and Brown folk have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, with a loss of jobs and poor economy. To lock them out, particularly, illegally, because you’re supposed to have a court order before you lock somebody out, they were locking people out, without a court order, the last few days. When you lock people out like that, you make them homeless. Homelessness will only contribute to the poverty rate in Philadelphia. We’re already one of the poorest cities in the country and to lock folks out and make them homeless will make us the poorest city and we don’t want for Pennsylvania. We don’t want that for Philadelphia. We don’t want that for anybody. We’re encouraging Landlords to avail themselves of the programs that are put here to help them. We’re not trying to cheat Landlords out of what’s due them. They will get their money. We just want them to be compassionate and allow renters to have the opportunity to pay what they owe, over time, because they cannot do it all at once.”
Stay tuned SCOOP Readers for more updates on this story as they become available.
