ZBA Hearing - July 15, 2026

I vote yes, with Proviso.

External trash storage.

Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with proviso.

Michael Johns, my vote is yes, with Proviso.

Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.

Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with proviso.

Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes, with proviso.

Ryan McAdams, my name, my vote is yes, with proviso.

We're going to go to our regular list now.

So, for a point of information,

we have quite a few cases on the list today.

We will be monitoring the length of the cases, and if we have to, we'll have to have some

uh hearings at a later date so and that doesn't mean that we want attorneys to shorten up their

their schedules we'll just have to go a little bit longer so another day okay um because at

this point right now we're we're scheduled i think to at least 7 30. so all right so our first case

This will be number 15, MI 2026-002-362-5534-4 Boyer Street.

Tiffany Lennon is the owner-occupant.

It's a pro se.

Tiffany Lennon has been promoted to panelists.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Okay, Mike's perfect where it is now. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?

Tiffany Lennon. T-I-F-F-A-N-Y-L-E-N-N-O-N. Do you swear or affirm that tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes.

Our Vice Chair has a few questions for you.

good afternoon um have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of

this hearing yes i did okay and we are here for your application for a single room residence yes

for a special exception yes and and yep so your referral you need a referral which requires a

special exception in rm1 um okay so you can uh share your screen and show your pictures and

tell us what you're trying to do all right can everyone confirm that they can see my screen

it's coming on right now okay coming up we see it all right so good afternoon everyone again as

I stated my name is Tiffany Lennon and I'm here to present for a special exception for the property

located at 5534 Boya Street so here today is an agenda of items that we're going to go through

we're going to I'm going to give you an update on the property overview the current existing

condition the property use occupancy some site plans property management and then i'll go over

some good neighbor plans and then if you all have any questions i'll also request for your approval

at the end the property of 5534 boyer street it is currently in the rm1 residential multi-family

zoning area so again i'm looking to extend this to a group living single room residence

This is currently a property that is rented through the Philadelphia Housing

Choice Voucher Program, so it does usually occupy residents for rental property.

Here are some images of the exterior of the property. You have the

front of the property as well as the back of the dwelling as well here.

For the first floor plan, so this is just a site plan overall view of the actual property. And again, we'll get into more details of the actual floor plans into the presentation.

So the first floor is currently has a floor plan layout with the living room, dining room, kitchen, and the shed utility. This will be a shared what we will call a common area.

This shared space, again, will be utilized by all residents that occupy this space.

The property is currently a five-bedroom, one-bathroom home.

And as you look at the floor plan a little more, in the back of behind the kitchen, sorry, go back.

There is a shed utility, so my request today is to get a group living for five occupants initially

with an extension to eight once an additional bathroom is added.

The thought is that this shed utility, eventually we can convert this over to a bathroom in order to add additional residents later on.

So you want eight? How many residents do you want?

Today, five.

Five. And then you want to look sometime in the future for eight?

For eight within extended another bathroom, yes.

The second floor is currently occupied with three bedrooms and then the main bathroom.

again the master bedroom can house up to two beds and then the other bedrooms

Again, the master bedroom can house up to two beds, and then the other bedrooms are smaller rooms, so they can only occupy one twin extra long bed.

The third floor unit has two large size bedrooms, and they both can occupy two beds comfortably along with dressers, and they also will have closets as well.

Again, the occupancy plan, as discussed, is that the master bedroom initially will have two residents. We'll reserve bedrooms two, three, and four for one residence, and then the five will keep that as reserved for our future expansion once we get the new bathroom.

the bathroom renovations as previously stated we want to construct the shady unit that's in the

back to add an additional bathroom there so that we can increase our resident to

residential occupancy within the property

the plans within the property um i would like this to run as not a business but more of a

residential home offering it to veterans and individuals and sober living so again I don't

want this to be occupied as a business so there will be no exterior structure changes to the

residence there's no signs will be placed however we will have an oversight of the property that

consists of a house manager who will come by the unit at least twice a week to ensure that

rules are being followed by the residents and we will have camera surveillance on the exterior

of the property and all common areas within the property. Again, as the landlord and owner of the

property, as I do today for any residents that rent the property, I'll be responsible for grass,

landscaping, snow removals, ensuring that trash is placed on a timely manner and stored in the

proper um trash cans as well parking and transportation um the residents we are going

to encourage the residents to utilize public transit transportation and ride share when

possible however we don't anticipate a large volume of vehicles or any disturbance to the

area as far as parking. House rules. There will be some house rules that will be enforced by any

residents that reside in here. I will follow the same protocol that I do today when scanning

through residents. They will be instructed to submit an application, background check,

um all of that will still remain in place in addition to house rules they have to abide by

um and that's no overnight guests um to be mindful of the quiet hours that we'll enforce

which is from 10p to 7a and again we'll have the house monitor um available to make sure that these

rules are being followed in addition we have access to the cameras 24 hours seven days a week

have you ever done this before uh for in group living no i have just rented the property to

larger size families let me ask you is there anyone is there other group living in the area

um there was in the past i'm not sure if it's thank you um part of my good neighbor commitment

is that i want a positive relationship with the neighbors um and open communication prompt

response to any of their concerns um again that regular inspection is going to be crucial um and

also i will ensure that i'm responsible for the tenants that are screened when placing them into

the home some of the benefits from transitioning this home is of course to provide a safe structured

housing for vets and individuals in recovery this supports the long-term residential stability and

community integration, property improvement, enhanced oversight and safety, preservation

of our neighborhood character, and also it's just been one of the high requests from the

VASH program, as well as Veterans of America, as they continuously look for homes for the

veterans.

As you were talking about the neighbors, could you tell us about the RCO?

Yep, I can go down to the RCO.

we had a public meeting on um june the 25th where i think it was about five community members who

joined the call the rco did submit over their findings yesterday and they are opposed to

this request however the community is in support of this so okay um the rco has expressed that

they're um opposed to this due to um i guess issues that may have they may have

Opposed to this is due to, I guess, issues that they may have encountered with previous group homes, which led to some violence of some sort.

But again, violence can happen amongst anyone.

so again I'm here today to request the approval for again at least five

residents within a group living setting with hopes to increase the eight

residents with the additional bathroom while I may not have the backing of the

RCO I do have the backing of the community and members who you know took

the time to join and see what the home is going to have to offer so i asked today that you approve

that based on the community questions from the board a question you mentioned recovery what is

what is are you anticipating that uh this will be a transitional housing and what is this drug

recovery PTSD recovery are there going to be meds folks on meds what's the so again this is not going

to be ran as a traditional program but per the VASH program and the Veterans of America there

are veterans who have may struggle with some type of you know drug abuse or things in that past and

so I just wanted to put that out there in case these veterans do have some type of sobriety that

they may need assistance with i will provide programs that they can go to but i personally

am not running it as a program i'm just offering them a home i see so so and and your intent is to

i think you mentioned once or twice a week have someone stop by the property so there's there

there won't be an on-site stab person yeah no um i kind of went back and forth and i feel like

But at times when there's on site, there's room for someone to favor one over the other.

So my goal was to just have someone externally just come in and ensure that the property

is being maintained.

Other questions?

Yeah.

So there's one, well, first of all, you have pictures, could you show your pictures?

um and that one bathroom that you have there's there's not a half bath in the

home it's just that one full bath yes the one full five complete strangers to

share yeah okay other questions and and I do have a question so um you're

requesting a group home and is there and I this is a question for for for the

um zoning staff is there a difference between group home and our sro and can you designate

in an sro that it will only be for veterans no no okay thank you other questions

um on your drawing was it for the room that you specified space for two beds would that be for

multiple occupants so they can house they can house up to two vets in one room

and what those like would that be the tenants be related or just two unrelated two strangers

how how does what's the plan for them there will be two unrelated okay so it's kind of the the

roaming setup um again this was a program that the city bash is really um offering and looking

for landlords so that's what kind of drove me to this all right other questions from the board

so that is my question so you you said that you haven't done this before

so what's what's the driving force here what do you what do you why would you pick this as

you know your way of doing well I'm currently a landlord um through the housing choice voucher

program and I've rented this home multiple times over the years to large family um I mean the last

tenant and she had up to i think it was 10 people in this house um and so i constantly get emails

from the housing choice voucher and the veterans of america looking for houses for vets or they

have rooming vouchers for these vets that they're looking to place into a home and so that was that's

what drove me to kind of opening a home for vets um again it's it's it's kind of the same concept

as renting a guest to one tenant um with a large family this would just be

one tenant um with a large family this would just be multiple people within the home that's not

related and you are working with some kind of program to get the tenants yes the housing

choice voucher program currently have a program called VASH and that VASH program is looking for

houses for veterans and so um I started the process but until I get approved I really can't

send over any more details to start screening and recruiting vets, but I did let them know that the

property could potentially be coming. I have rented previous properties through a Veterans of

America program, but that was just one vet in a home at that time. Okay, and then who does the

screening? You do the screening? They do the screening? I do the screening. It's a background

check app that I use, Smart Move, and it allows you to do a background check. You do background,

criminal and credit. And the residents would be people who need some place to stay. They are

going to be out working or whatever during the day? They'll be working individual. If they're

working, again, they're individual vets who have served the country and just don't have nowhere

to call home. A lot of them can't afford to sustain the rent that's out here for a whole

unit and so this seems the way that everyone has been um maintaining i guess with this financial

issues out here okay and what are we doing about food and um so in the kitchen so each cupboard is

going to be designated for the rooms um so i'll have a setup where each room has their own secure

locking for their foods in the kitchen okay and then they would then be cooking on their own

yeah okay yeah so it's not disabled um anyone with um you know any type of disability or need

that 24-hour support home care none of that this is solely for individuals who are functioning

day to day just need a place to call a home okay and what about furniture furniture i fully furnish

the home okay so they have couch there um they'll have tvs tvs in each room um they'll get a dresser

they have the closet and their beds their bedding um i do provide their first set of beddings um

and then if they want any additional bedding outside of what i provide then they're free

to purchase their own but i do set them up initially upon their upon them coming here

because i'm not looking for them to leave again i'm approaching this as a long term like a lease

um everyone will get a year lease as i do everyone else that i screen um it's not like the typical

rooming house where you pay a weekly stipend um just the funding for the most part comes from the

vash or the veterans american program um and if there's a difference that the vets have to pay

then of course they have to meet the requirements to ensure they can pay their portion so it's kind

of like section eight um program but it's just for vets all right so and and then this is a full bath

right yes okay and it's just the one just the one all right thank you questions more attorney

um yes hi lynn reidel huber i'm board council um i don't believe you submitted your presentation

that you just presented so can you upload that by the close of business tomorrow yeah but for some

reason you know how the options are to upload specific documents and exhibit it's not it won't

allow a PowerPoint presentation because I did attempt to okay okay if you can do it by the end

of a close of business tomorrow yeah and I have hard copies if you need as well we need to make

it's in our records that's okay yeah thank you no problem questions or comments from the virtual

audience or this audience here yes chair i have a hand up by the name of cheryl smith i'm going to

allow them to speak okay hello hi would you please state your name and spell for the sonographer

My name is Cheryl Smith, C-H-E-R-Y-L, Smith, S-M-I-T-H.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?

I do.

Are you a neighbor?

No, I represent the 12th Ward RCO.

I wrote the letter.

Please comment.

Give us your comments.

We have the letter, by the way.

We have the letters.

Okay.

You can summarize it if you want.

Okay, so her plan, the neighborhood

okay so um her plan um the neighbors were um none of them were i think it's only two

near neighbors and one was a um the other two were community members um

they were not close neighbors um they lived around the corner or whatever but anyway um

they were in support of the project um one of them was mostly a supporter because he

We knew a person or people who were veterans and were possibly looking for homes.

But once I discussed it with my committee, and we felt like this was kind of an aggressive plan for up to eight individuals who are not related, who are recovering to be alone in a house most of the time.