We submit a proposal to HUD, a Hope Six Grant with a number of properties that we requested. They have an identifiable number, a cost associated with what they consider the cost of demolition which is sometimes lower than what it costs us to demolish them.
Okay. My question is, if you have 600 properties that need to be demolished and they're going to only authorize 150, but these other properties need to be demolished, would it make more sense to get the authorization and as funding becomes available you can then demolish the properties instead of going through that long cumbersome process of asking for authorization to demolish, which takes a year from my experiences. Wouldn't it make more sense to just have authorization to demolish all of the dangerous and vacant properties in your inventory and as funding becomes available you can just demolish those 129 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 properties as opposed to piecemeal?
That's a process that's somewhat involved with HUD. And some of our properties, we can't wait a year or we don't know when they're going to come down.
Some of that is a HUD issue which is a long involved process for approval. But also, as you know, some of our properties, it's in such a state that we don't know when they're coming down. They come down on their own without...
I mean, you know, I've experienced this year after year. You submit a hundred properties to be demolished, and 130 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 you know you have a thousand and we go through this long, cumbersome process to get authorization. I don't understand. If you have a thousand properties that need to be demolished, just go ahead and get authorization an if the Department of Licenses and Inspections may have some additional funds, maybe they can demolish the properties you get reimbursed when funding becomes available. I don't think it makes sense for us to have dangerous properties throughout the City of Philadelphia because you can't get authorization from HUD to demolish the properties.
Councilman, what I have found when I left your office and went over to the Housing Authority is that we have a lot of imminently dangerous --
I may need you back. We want to expand our services. I can't pay you what you're making now, though. (Laughter.)
When I first arrived at the Housing Authority, one of my tasks was to find all of our vacant properties because we 131 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 really had some issues with the census of numbers. I went around the City and looked at a lot of properties that were in a position to be demolished and that we had no plans of fixing because they were just beyond repair. And I found that probably close to 40 percent of those units I had to go and speak to the Deputy Commissioner about because they were to the point where they needed to be demolished and we couldn't wait for approval. So if we have a thousand units and we only submit 600 on a list, the other 400 are probably going fall into Bobby's category of being demolished because they're imminently dangerous and in a position to fall. But I do agree that and I believe that when we submit our package, we submit it for all of the entire properties except what the approval dollar is and work from there.
So you're saying we are asking for authorization for all PHA inventory that is imminently dangerous?
Can you get me 132 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 some documentation to the Chair and the members of the committee to that effect?
No further questions from anybody? Mr. Levin, you've waited with bated breath. (Witness comes forward.)
It's really a great pleasure to be back. It's been five years almost to the day. And I can tell you very seriously that I do miss the opportunity to be a positive force in the City. At the present time, I'm teaching a pro bono course at the College of Engineering. It's a state college at Penn State and I have a lot of satisfaction working with young kids. It's been another very worth while experience, but it really is a pleasure to be back.
It's good to have you back. 133 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555
I've prepared a rather lengthy testimony that I'd like to have incorporated into the record.
This testimony came out of a course, a graduate school course in building failures in the Department of Architectural Engineering. And there is an addendum to my remarks in the back which talk about some of the technical issues as well as some of the social issues.
My view of this is somewhat detached having been absent for five years, but I think I'd like to share with you my perspective as to what L&I's abilities were, what they are, and how this ambitious blight program 134 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 should move ahead in the area of demolition and community involvement. Listening to the testimony this morning, it reminded me very closely of the same conversations that were held at the L&I budget hearings in 1993. We talked about the cooperation of the various different agencies, how we deal with the vacant properties, how we get the properties out of private ownership when they've been abandoned, and we're still addressing those properties. I feel somewhat better about it because hearing from the Redevelopment Authority, I see that there is at least a better focus on it. I'm going to try to just go through my remarks in an abbreviated manner to give you time as much time as you need to question me.
The most troublesome aspect of urban life is the question of abandonment of the City's housing stock. Both the war on drugs and the battle against street crime are tied inexorably to ravages of blight and abandonment that is now rampant in most of 135 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 our City's neighborhood. Every vacant structure, residential or otherwise, will soon fall victim to the ravages of abandonment. Sooner rather than later these abandoned structures will have to be demolished unless a comprehensive plan of blight removal and community revitalization is put into place. Every vacant structure, residential or otherwise, is more likely than not a source of refuge for those who deal in drugs and/or otherwise prey on the citizens who are really trapped in the neighborhoods. Philadelphia is a city with an ever-increasing rate of population loss. There are just too many dwelling units when compared to the viable population base. As a result of the population decline, the lack of rational community development, and economic disenfranchisement, neighborhoods die, buildings are abandoned, and ultimately they collapse into tomorrow's headlines. When I was commissioner, I questioned what L&I's real mandate was with respect to its demolition efforts. L&I's original mandate grew out of provisions in the building code that gave 136 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 it the ability to immediately remove an imminently dangerous property so it was no longer a threat to public safety, health, and welfare. The recent application of that, and I say recent, I'm not talking in the past five years, I'm talking about during my tenure as commissioner, prior to my tenure as commissioner and whatever has happened since I am no longer commissioner. That source of funds, I'd say approximately $10 million worth of money that was set aside for demolition, became disbursed for other agendas. And the value that the City thought that they were getting for those dollars in removing the blight and the cancer in the neighborhoods was not the full dollars of the money that was being expended. Let me give you some examples: There were fencing programs, and the fences were done by the anti-graffiti people, by the Horticultural Society, and by L&I under whatever contracts we did. And that reduced the amount of dollars because we compensated the anti-graffiti people. And if we didn't compensate them in cash, we bought them paint. 137 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 And we compensated the Horticultural Society for the fencing that they did under contract to us. And then we started to evaluate it and we found out that we could buy fencing cheaper as a bid item than through these other agencies which we were in essence using demolition money to underwrite some other activities. The question of fencing should have been outside of the department. It should have been an issue for OHCD. Basically, the department should have focused solely on emergency demolition. The other demolition that was required for neighborhood stabilization and for whatever other reason, economic development, for whatever other reason, should not have been in the mandate of L&I because there were too many competing forces looking to get into that $10 million. And a prime example occurred in Logan. I think in the third year of my tenure as commissioner, I got a phone call from the former mayor's former chief of staff directing me to make a payment of $60,000 out of my demolition 138 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 money to a Wade entity who had prepared a proposal for the redevelopment of Logan. " And I refused -- I refused to write the check for $60,000. I was then ordered to write the check for $60,000, and I refused. I was then ordered again to write the check for $60,000 and I was told that the $60,000 of precious demolition money would be replaced by a like amount of money from OHCD.
And when the check came from OHCD into my demolition funding, then, you know, the order was obeyed. Now, it seems to me it seems to me that this might be one of the few jurisdictions in America where you can expend $60,000 and nobody questions it. It seemed to me to be a rather improper use of demolition funds. And I 139 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 had tried to harbor those funds as best I could so that we could get more value. And that came as a result of maybe the first four months of my tenure as commissioner going to Logan with my deputy who is at the zoo now Ken Woodson. And we went into Logan and we saw a house here and a house there and a house over there, and there was tremendous pressure from the clergy to speed up the process. " And what we found out that there was something was wrong and somebody was indicted and we had stopped the process in Logan and then we started again. But we forced the people who were managing the relocation to concentrate on the street face, relocate the people so we weren't doing ones and twos; we are doing 30s, 40s, an 50s. That dropped the net cost of demolition substantially because we didn't have to go back, we didn't have to stucco. We were able to get done and get through. And then we came up with the concept of Jersey barriers because the fences were getting stolen. And we first tried to weld the 140 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 mesh to the pole and still had problems with that and then we started the Jersey barriers because nobody was strong enough to carry away the concrete in the middle of the night. That also brought savings. And we worked closely with the Streets Department. We were able to close entire streets. It stopped the drug traffic. Even though nothing ever came back, the neighborhood was at least stabilized. We didn't have abandoned cars, we didn't have abandoned tires, we didn't have the drug deals in the back seats of cars. It put a different view on demolition. But I was forced as commissioner to undertake something that really should have been done at the Redevelopment Authority or elsewhere in the City. That should not have been emergency demolition under the L&I building code mandate. The problem, and I think it was addressed very well by the gentleman from the Redevelopment Authority earlier, was that there was very little interagency cooperation. In Logan, there were Mrs. Lipschitz drugstore and there was a health clinic next to 141 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 it, and I had spoken to both of those people. And went to the Redevelopment Authority and I said, "Please condemn these properties so we can demolish them and then we can close Courtland Street. We enclosed the entire triangle and there would be something there for somebody to deal with on a big basis. I can tell you I spit blood. Never could get the Redevelopment Authority authority to come to the table. I'm glad to hear that there's a new process in place now because those two buildings are still standing. And even worse, the City of Philadelphia has been sued by Mrs. Lipschitz's estate by violating their civil rights by not making provision to buy them out at the same time the houses were bought out. The City will spend the money with the lawyers and the City will spend the money in a settlement and you may never read about it because that's how business is done. We settle things and nobody knows what goes on. But it will be far in excess what it would have cost to buy them out and demolish the two properties. So you really need a comprehensive plan. 142 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 I will tell you also that I had an instance in Councilwoman Blackwell's district on Alison Street. The hope of something going back or the hope of all of these houses being saved is a cruel hoax on a lot of people. I think the lady's name was Minnie Moore.
And Councilwoman Blackwell, Bobby Solvibile and I went out one night and I walked the streets, and on Alison Street, it must have been two blocks, and it was as bad as anything in this City. I had to sit down with Mrs. Moore and talk to Mrs. " I said, "You're not going to save houses. " But every time Mrs. Moore walked down that street, that hope was reinforced because nobody was willing to say, You know, it's just not going to work. And I found out one thing and I think I found it in my early experience with then-Council President Street that the people in the poor neighborhoods who are impacted by these kinds of problems, the problems of blight and abandonment, don't want a handout; they want to 143 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 be stakeholders and they want to be told the truth. " Very early on we demolished the entire thousand block of Stella Street, and there was a Carter family. One family remained on the street. I tried to get them a house so I could take down the whole street so there wouldn't be just one tooth in the mouth. Rather then a couple missing teeth, here you just have one tooth. I was finally able to get them a house from an agency, I think on Eighth Street, and we moved the Carter family. They were in a neighborhood where they wanted to be. They didn't want to go someplace else. They were happy there. But there has to be that kind of concern and there has to be the infrastructure. And when it's just L&I doing the demolition, you know, it's just focused on the demolition. This is a much bigger problem. This problem, you know, I don't have the wisdom or the experience of what's going on with the $250 million blight program, but there has to be basically a separate agency maybe in the Managing 144 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 Director's Office. Everybody's ego's got to be left at the door. Everybody has to be on the right page. This is just too, too important; because if this fails or if this isn't done properly, the people that are trapped in this City and have no place to go will give up hope. And the only hope is that this Council and the Administration and the bureaucracy that's going to have to deal with this problem if they do the $250 million bond issue, is the last great hope for our people. If not, pardon the expression, it's going to be another Detroit, and that's the last thing we would want to see for this City and its citizens. But the only place the citizens have to go is to City Council because you represent them. And it's incumbent upon you to do the best you can to make sure the money isn't squandered, it isn't tainted by the usual scandals, and that the people see that they are the beneficiaries because they're going to pay. They're going to pay the interest on that money for 20 years, they're going to pay the money back. And if you don't have businesses here and you have a 145 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 declining population base, there's going to be nobody left to pay the money. And I think that's very, very key. This thing has to be done on a clean sheet of paper. It has to be done in a comprehensive manner. And it has to be done rather openly. I just don't think that the use of this money can be sidetracked for other political agendas. I think no matter whether it's in Councilwoman Krajewski's district which has some problems, not as bad as other people, Councilwoman Blackwell's district, Councilman Clarke's district, the problem is systemic and it's only going to get worse throughout the City. And you people are really the only hope that our citizens have and you have to exercise not only the oversight but the initial initiative to make sure that what the administration proposes is workable for your constituents and it is a worthy expenditure of what's very precious in this City is tax dollars.
You know, we just came through in the last two years of the Rendell Administration over half a million dollars was quietly spent out of L&I funds settling fourth-amendment basically 146 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 breaking-and-entering claims. There were three major lawsuits. You never read about it in the newspaper. It's only if you sit there and look in the computer about who's suing who and what the verdicts are, but they're devastating. It's half a million dollars, at least half a million dollars, that could have gone into the neighborhoods. L&I has too many competing mandates. It has to get back to what the City charter says it has to do. The City Charter's very specific, and I don't think that L&I can afford to lose focus or further lose focus in this whole big program. I think there are very good managers at L&I. I can tell you people handle demolition when I was there and I see someone here now were amongst the best, but L&I has to get back to being L&I and this really has to start on a clean sheet of paper separately. The L&I people, if you take them from L&I and put them into this effort, but I would not park that big a piece of the effort at L&I. There are too many problems. The public has lost faith with the department. There is continually questions of integrity and corruption and the department 147 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 has to be refocused onto its original mandate. " And in the case of the conditions of our neighborhood the abject avoidance of our poor neighborhood has brought the problem to the current crisis. We can no longer pay lip service because it's safe. We can no longer ignore waste and profanity that thrives as a result of political expediency and we must face an issue that is not popular because whatever the benefit of the cure is going to be, the medicine that must be taken to save our neighborhoods is going to be expensive and it's also going to be hard to swallow. The right thing is to embark on a comprehensive plan to maintain the fabric of our neighborhoods and at the same time remove the 148 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 cancer of blight. The program must ensure the maximum value for the taxpayers' investment. We're going to mortgage ourselves for the next 5 to 30 years to pay for the effort. It must not 6 be piecemeal. It must not be political. It must 7 be well thought out, and most of all, it must 8 managed without the hint of the scandals that are 9 attached to so many major undertakings in the 10 City. 11 This Council has the power and also 12 the responsibility to exercise real leadership to 13 ensure that the proposed effort is a credit to 14 our City and that the investment that the 15 taxpayers will be asked to make and pay for will 16 be treated as it is a very precious asset. 17 I'll concluded with that and I'll be 18 glad to answer any of your questions. 19
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to take this opportunity to, in fact, say to my colleagues on this committee 149 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 that now you know why I love Bennett Levin. He and Bob Solvibile and I walked down countless blocks in my district and he's the first commissioner I saw who had a vision who said, if we had house, we could get rid of this one tooth, as he says it, in this block and get this block ready certainly to be developed. In those days when Tim Spencer was still alive and Mantua was against tearing down properties they called it gentrification, Bennett Levin came on board and let people know it's just too expensive; it's not that, but these houses are just too far gone to save. And certainly, his creativeness and his commitment to our people and to our City really I find it unparalleled. I love him. I love Bob by extension and certainly I say we miss you and thank you for coming in, for all that you have done for my district and for our City.
Thank you. 150 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 Again, I want to thank you. I've known you a long time and I know your commitment and I want to thank you for your service to the City. You know, it's interesting, and I hate to have to use this as an opportunity to even bring this up, but you pointed out how many dollars were being mishandled and you reminded me of a situation where many dollars could have been plugged in to do good things in the neighborhoods of our City. And as I speak, we're spending, I hear, $3 million today. There's an authorization to spend $3 million to replace the playing surface at Philadelphia Veterans Stadium for two, three years when the building is going to be ripped down. Can you imagine what 3 million bucks could do in helping the demolition program? I assume that that would be a big help, those dollars. But again, these are just perfect examples of how if we really wanted to focus and do so many good things in the neighborhoods, we could do them. And again, thank you for being that watchdog and making sure that that money gets 151 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 spent properly.
Let me respond to you somewhat if I can. You know, one of the sad things that occurred after I left was the need to shore up the perception that the department was going to lose any revenue base because I was very fortunate. When I arrived, there was million, 9 it wound up at 32 million. I remember the first 10 time I came to Council and Richard Felgus was 11 with me and Richard Felgus said to me, "Tell them 12 if you give 10 more people then we can raise $3 13 million," so I said it. And John Street quickly 14 called David L. Cohen and they came up and it was 15 a whole big issue. But the truth of the matter 16 was, like my grandmother said, was the streets were really paved with gold, you just had to go out and make sure everybody was paying their fair share. And we had a device in place called abatement that if we demolished a building for the Housing Authority or for somebody even privately and that money came in in that fiscal year, I could spend the money twice. The money didn't go into General Fund. The money came in went back into the demolition budget as soon as I 152 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 left abatements were gone because that money had to be counted as revenue so people weren't embarrassed that they weren't keeping up the same kind of revenue stream. And the other thing was, I had a successful arrangement with Mayor Rendell that every time my revenue stream the department's revenue stream exceeded what Council had mandated in the budget ordinance that we in essence split -- and I remember the last year that I was there, there was this tremendous building at 25th and Reed, the Pullman Building, and Councilwoman Verna and it was just like a bone in her throat and it was a million and a quarter to demolish one building. And I went to the mayor and I said "Look, we're 5 million and half; you've got to split it," and he gave me two and a half and of the two and a half, half went to the Pullman Building because it was just a horrible problem in the neighborhood. There were good people, there's a fellow by the name of Robert who was a community activist, and we took that money. But we were aggressive, not only in being custodians of the money, but seeing where other money could 153 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 be obtained to fund the demolition process. Regrettably, when I left, though, a lot of that went away. And the question, I think Councilwoman Blackwell raised about Mantua, you know, we had an informal program where we would give community groups lawn mowers and they would cut weeds and bag them and then Clean and Seal would pick them up on the weekend, but they were stakeholders. It wasn't just throat trash out and L&I was going to come and pick it up. It was rather successful. It wasn't publicized. In October, we took the lawn mowers back and we serviced them over the winter and we gave them back to the people in the community. That's how community people started to bond with the process, but it required some kind of a vision, though, and some kind of a focus.
No, I just wanted to compliment the commissioner because I know when you were there, you literally went out of your way, you walked throughout the areas that 154 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 I had problems with, you sat down with some of my constituents, and I just wanted to say thank you, too.
Thank you. You know, I took the view that after the department's life safety function, the most important thing we did was in our neighborhoods, whatever we could do with what we had in the neighborhoods. Regrettably, that view wasn't shared by the then-mayor or his chief of staff and it was a source of a tremendous amount of friction. But my personal agenda was first life safety and that grew out of the Meridian fire, but secondly, you've got to do something to put the finger in the dike to what was happening in the neighborhoods. I walked the neighborhoods with everybody, everybody who was here at that time, Even your predecessor.
Way back when. When they had the big battles with Mr. Marks, I was the one that was sent to testify at the State Senate 155 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 hearings over conditions in your district. But I was eminently familiar with the district because I was out there. Darrell Clarke came to me one day and said he needed a playground. We got a playground. It didn't cost the city anything. I had a friend, he owed a favor somebody else here. Darryl got a playground where there was demolition before because it was important that those people behind the demolition had something more than a pile of ruble to look at.
Thank you. Councilman Ortiz and then Councilwoman Brown.
How did you go from being the poster boy, right, of the administration to being the sort of the conscience of the Administration of not spending money correctly? I'm interested. We have a huge problem and we have a figure of money to accomplish this problem that we have. How do you see, one, the figure that we are presently projecting, is it doable? What is it -- how should it be structured in terms of spending? 156 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 I know that you're suggest that we structure another division within government in order to be able to handle the problem, but my concern is, one, do we have the vision right now or the plan? And I know you're not privy to -- if you have $250 million, how would you go about putting that to work in terms of removing blight?
Well, I don't know if it's the right number or it's not the right number.
Where do we begin and how do we begin putting certain things together?
You don't have to examine the situation any past Logan. Logan is now maybe in its 15th year. Nothing came back. To make this investment and not have some kind of a comprehensive plan of what you want to see come back and have players on board who want to be 157 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 redevelopers, who want to make an investment in the community, you have to identify that. Harold Hairston, the fire commissioner, Commissioner Hairston and I early on decided that we had a real problem with vacant abandoned industrial structures in the City. They were drug supermarkets. They were a tremendous fire load for the Fire Department to fight and they were interdispersed within the residential neighborhoods. And we made a concerted effort to get rid of a lot of those buildings. If you remember the National Biscuit Building at 13th and Glenwood --
And there were all kinds of problems because everybody had a vested interest that something was going to happen to these buildings and nothing was going to happen to these buildings. So I think what you have to do -- and again, you know, I can't talk about what's happening now, but there has to be a plan. I think the Redevelopment Authority and the Housing Authority and OHCD have to be key players. I think the Planning Commission has to 158 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 be key, but the Planning Commission has to have a plan. At the time I was here there was never plan.
Don't you then have to begin putting all of those agencies that you mentioned under one agent so that they're all functioning and taking this money and spending it in a comprehensive and rational manner?
You need a Department of Community Affairs is what the City needs where these agencies are responsible, not outside of their normal businesses, but they're responsible at a focal point. And they have to have a manager who is strong who can deal with consensus, because if not, everybody's going live their own way with a piece of the pie. And the business of government is so complex in the normal day-to-day functioning of it, I mean there's no time. To be in government, what people don't understand, if you're going to be a good manager in government, you're spending 12 and 14-hour days on the job. This is not an 8-hour a day function. And you have to -- you can't burden that onto people who are already 159 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 committed to hours a day. You have to start rationalizing their work life. That's why I believe it has to be administered, and I'm not one for bigger bureaucracy, but it has to be administered under one umbrella. It can't be part time this guy, part time this lady; it has to be all together and there has to be a boss.
Planning 13 Commission, all have to be with arrows pointing 14 to a central place in which out of that central place mechanisms of expenditures and implementation go out?
Exactly. There has to be a boss. You can't have ten bosses. There has to be a boss. It's like Robert Moses in New York in the '30s. You know, whatever the good or bad of what he did, but there was a boss and things got done. You can't have people fighting over competing mandates.
And there have to be priorities that are set. 160 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555
Yeah, the priorities are set by the Administration and by City Council. Everybody marches to the tune of those who are elected to lead the band. You can't have people walk the ranch doing whatever they want. And there has to be a commitment. I think the most promising thing is that this Administration has a commitment to the neighborhoods where previously it was totally lacking. I mean, it wasn't sexy to go to the neighborhood and you couldn't have a fund-raiser, there was nothing to sell in the neighborhoods. I think there's a perception now that Mayor Street, people in this Council are a lot more focused on what goes on in the neighborhoods. We played the game for the last eight years, you know, one year removed, but now we have to focus on the people that live in this City because, you know, the people that get the jobs in all these new hotels, people from poor neighborhoods, they're going to make enough money that they're the next ones to move out. Who's left? 161 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555
City workers, that's it. City Council people. (Laughter.)
Remember that street that we blocked off, Second and Indiana, we blocked off a whole series of streets, that's still blocked off.
Well, there's nothing going on but it's still blocked off. I mean, we don't have cars on those lots, but the situation is still the same.
I testified at a budget hearing in 1993 here. It was the same testimony that I heard here today with PHA and the RDA. We talked about how do you get something back and there are people what are willing to invest if you make the process rational, you make it so that they go one place and get it solved. And they'll put their money in the City as long as there's people here to buy goods and to buy services. But the problem is that blight and the School District are the two things that are going to kill this City and they both are interlinked 162 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 because they drive people away, they drive taxes away, they drive School District taxes away. You know what I mean? And the question is, if you have bad schools, nobody's going to want to live in the City unless you're trapped to live here. And nobody's going to want to live in the City surrounded by abandonment and blight. So if we're going to make this investment of $250 million, we have to focus on what it's going to do. And maybe we have to land back certain blocks of land. I mean, I talked in Logan, I talked to the Streets Department and SEPTA to close Courtland Street and close Ninth Street so it could be put back into something significant, and there was consensus on that. But the question is there has to be a vision, but besides a vision, there has to be the political leadership to see that the vision is carried out and that all of the players come to the table and they're all reading from the same sheet of music.
Thank you, Commissioner. Councilwoman Brown. 163 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555
Good afternoon. I simply want to join my colleagues in complimenting you on your vision and clear evidence that you -- though you're no longer in city government, it's clear that you still care about what is and is not happening. And though I'm new here in Council, I am not at all new with regards that your reputation of a product of Mantua and worked closely with Tim Spencer and Councilwoman Blackwell and know well of the difference you made in that particular community. So continue to nudge us and beat the drum in helping us do better at this whole issue surrounding blight.
I still have a lot of hope and faith in this City and its ability to deal with the problem. I think we just had a glitch a couple years ago. But, look, I was not born here, but I lived my entire life here. I was educated here. I made a living here. I was glad to come back and contribute to my community 'cause I am a Philadelphian and I have not given hope on the City. I think there's a lot of promise and potential in the City. 164 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555
Thank you, Commissioner. We're all done thanking you. Thank you, Commissioner. I appreciate it.
Kate Clark, Frankford CDC. Thanks, Commissioner. We all appreciate it.
Kate, now you're going to see how it feels to follow like a big --
Yeah, I know. I'm going to talk to Hugh about how he did that.
Good afternoon, Councilman Mariano and members of the Committee on License and Inspections. My name is Kate Clarke, and that's C-L-A-R-K-E, and I am presently the Executive Director of Frankford United Neighbors Community Development Corporation and Neighborhood Advisory Council. 165 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 It's my pleasure to appear here today to speak on Resolution 000555, especially with regards to Licenses and Inspections and their lack of response. As the neighborhood Advisory Council for the Frankford community supported by the Office of Housing and Community Development, we're charged with the task of identifying reporting those properties in Frankford that have fallen into disrepair along with identifying vacant plots of land, commonly known as open space. Presently in Frankford, there are 326 areas of open space and 369 properties which have been identified through our agency as vacant and abandoned, and with each passing day, more and more are added to the list. As this list progresses, so does the incidents of crime and vandalism, trash and short-dumping appear allowing those who believe it is right to perform these acts further reason to help in the decay of our neighborhood. While Frankford United Neighbors reports these property to the offices of Licenses and Inspections on a daily basis and monthly to 166 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 OHCD, our reports are often met with frustration and little action, leaving us with the picture that Frankford is a forgotten community. However, this community will not allow that to happen to them. They are taking positive action for our survival as a prosperous community through the Frankford Plan 2000, a community-driven concept for Frankford's revitalization, a community which is empowering itself. Though much of our frustration lies with License and Inspection, it is primarily their slow movement that has us frustrated. Examples of their slow movement include properties such as 1828 and 1830 Church Street. These are two properties which have been boarded up since January of 1995, scheduled for demolition and are still standing today, November 15, 2000. Also another property is a commercial property at 5027 Frankford Avenue which was ravaged by a fire in 1993, finally boarded up, and went through the court systems and is now finally been demolished in early 2000. However, the lot is left in rubble with no expected 167 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 future. I don't have the answers to some of the problems that exist, however, I do have suggestions that eliminates some of the frustrations that arise with L&I. One of the areas that I would like to speak about is to assign an inspector to work within a designated area or zip code, have them form a working relationship with either the neighborhood advisory council or the community development corporation, have the initial reports made to the local CDC on that who in turn would work with the local inspector to determine what properties need to be demolished or boarded up, Possibly having this person assigned out of the Mayor's Office of Community Service. Another way would be to hold absentee owners accountable. Don't allow abandoned properties to drag out in court. Enforce fines on whatever properties that they might have. Enforce the fines on properties that are abandoned through new properties that they're looking go acquire or other properties that they own. Also, helping the CDC enforce fines. Take 168 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 aggressive action with the CDC. Also, destroy the red tape in turning over properties to those persons interested in rehabbing them. Also, in regards open space, again, with this process, cut the red tape.
With this, form a community panel to determine who would receive an open space, possibly turning open spaces into community gardens which we have, but we do need more, working in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Philadelphia Green. Many of my ideas aren't new; they're already in place, but the problem lies with, once again, the red tape. It's time to cut it. We need to hire more people with Licenses and Inspections to do the job effectively, to get more money for it, but most importantly, we need to listen to what our community says. Frankford is but one area, but if we allow what is happening to continue in our neighborhoods, what will become of our City? With Mayor Street's blight program begins, we need more cooperative efforts to see this through. Let no voice that wishes to heard go 169 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 unheard. We need to hear, we need to listen, most of all we need to communicate. Hugh, I might need your help here. A little present to help with cutting the red tape.
I don't know, but I'm hoping it will be. (Witness gives a pair of scissors to Councilman Mariano's aide.)
Thank you, Kate, for coming in because it took a lot on your part to be waiting all this time and the job that you're doing down in Frankford.
Let me just say, we're going let everybody in on a big secret. Frankford's the next Manyunk. So all you people who want to speculate, go there buy the properties now, open restaurants and you'll all be rich.
Yes. 170 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555
Again, I join in congratulating you and thanking you for hard work. It's interesting, your concept about inspectors. I just about a week ago wrote a letter to the Streets Commissioner suggesting that a position be created or using an existing employee to physically go out into each of the Councilmatic districts. When I ride through the City, I see the stop sign that's knocked down, I see the speed limit sign that's come loose from its fastening, I see the trash that needs to be picked up. And I'm suggesting that we create a position within the Streets Department and also possibly cross-train that person or join hands with L&I to some degree because if we see all of these problems, why can't our government see them? Why do I have to come to work in the morning with two pieces of paper on both sides with all of these discrepancies that I see? I would love to adopt the strategy that I just 171 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 described to you and include what you would like included so maybe we can cut through that red tape because we need somebody out there doing an audit of our street signage, of our broken inlets, fire hydrants that are knocked over. The list goes on. We shouldn't have to depend on the citizens of Philadelphia to have to call in and report every problem that exists in the City. So I'm hoping that maybe we can incorporate that part of the process and my suggestion to the Streets Commissioner to create an inspector that's out there looking for problems that affect your life every day. And again, thanks.
Thank you, Councilman. Thank you, Miss Clarke. We're going to bring everybody up together next so we can get this out of here because we didn't have lunch.
First panel, Judy Carolon (ph), Low Income Housing Coalition, PHCDC Advocate, CDC, and the Urban Affairs Coalition.
We're sorry this takes so long. It's Councilman Rizzo's long 172 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 questions. He has to take Councilman Nutter's place when he's not here. They're the thinkers, they're the thinkers. They're the thinkers, that's why.
Sorry about that. Some people had to leave. Let's start with lady in the blue, you can go first. State your name for the record. You want to testify, right?
Yes. My name is Angel Recchia, I'm the managing attorney of the Senior Citizen Judicare Project which is an independent nonprofit legal services agency that's been providing legal representation to the low income elderly in Philadelphia for about years. We 19 provide service representation, community 20 education, and so on to about a total of about 21 9,000 seniors a year in many areas, which I won't go into at this point, but the reason that we're here in particular is to talk about cases involving property damage caused by the demolition of neighboring property. So far, most 173 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 of the focus has been on the need of demolition and that's certainly not something that I disagree with, but I do want to focus a little bit on unintended or what can be the unintended results of demolition, which is serious damage to the homes of people who are elderly, who are low income, and who are not in a position to recover from that damage without the assistance of those who caused it or participated in causing it. The homes of many of our residents have been damaged by demolition contractors who is often shoddy and essentially unsupervised work has damaged neighboring properties which then adds to the decay and deterioration of these already tenuous neighborhoods. Despite our many attempts through the years to address this problem, L&I and the City have essentially ignored this problem so far and the resulting damage to the homes of Philadelphia residents. In effect, what's happening is that the City forces innocent neighbors of abandoned properties to bear the burden of often careless and substandard work of contractors. It's also worth noting that most of the people, most of the 174 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 elderly homeowners who this happens to never get legal assistance and, therefore, never get the repairs that they need to stop the accelerating deterioration of their homes. In the cases that we see -- well, in all cases, presumably, L&I contracts with a private demolition company and a stucco contractor to do demolition and post-demolition work. And those companies contract with the City stating that they'll indemnify the City for any damage that's caused, and supposedly inspectors from L&I oversee the private contractors' work. But in the cases that we've seen, seniors are left with poorly performed demolition work and debris is usually left in now empty lots. Although I understand that the City has a fencing program, I also understand that there's no money allocated for that fencing program so we also have lots that are left open to vagrancy, to debris, to sleeping, urinating, et cetera. And then probably more seriously economically to the senior citizen, the home is left with the remains of sometimes very shoddy work, including uneven saw cutting of the party wall, insufficient 175 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 stuccoing, stucco splattered on porch steps, cracked and broken porch steps, porch roofs that are insufficiently supported, and water leakage into basements through walls and so forth that cause serious damage. We file claims with the City's Risk Management Department. The City's position is that the contractor is the only responsible party and they indemnify and therefore we have to go to the contractors. The contractors, I think it's fair to say, have not been particularly cooperative in responding. So what ends up happening is that we sue. We have to sue the City, we have to sue the contractor in order to get any compensation for the damage that's done to these people's homes. Obviously, I don't have time to present this. I do have this photographs which I would be happy to leave if you would like to just look at some of the results of demolition. There's three different cases represented here that are separated. We're talking about damage anywhere from, say, $5,000 in one case.
In one case, the property was City-owned and the 176 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 City-owned property caused several thousand dollars of damage before the demolition. The demolition added an additional $10,000 worth of damage. In the third case, about $5200 worth of damage. We're talking about elderly people in their 80s. Two of these people were home bound. They are essentially being left to deal with these contractors on their own, and it's simply not working. Basically, my message is that City regulations really need to be changed to conform with common sense, practice, and industry standards. If these contractors are not being given specs that are good enough for industry standards, they ought to be. The City needs to enforce their standards at least as vigorously for City contract work as for privately contracted work. The City needs to provide effective oversight of the work of its contractors so that it doesn't destroy homes of innocent neighbors and largely people who really cannot afford to bear the economic burden caused by these contractors. 177 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 It's certainly understandable and laudable that the City wants to take down thousands of abandoned and dangerous buildings. I'm just here to remind you that there are people who live next door to those properties in homes that attached, I mean, physically attached to those properties, and that these people often poor, sometimes elderly and they really are not able to recover economically when their homes are damaged by substandard demolition work that causes damage to their homes. So I'm asking you, basically, don't allow them to be harmed and then abandon them. Thank you.
Thank you, thank you. You want to testify too? Thanks.
Good afternoon, Councilman Mariano, members of the committee. My name is Rick Sauer and I'm the Director of Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, the citywide association of CDCs add other organizations working to revitalize our neighborhoods. Our members have extensive experience 178 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 working throughout the neighborhoods dealing with the blight issue, dealing with abandoned property and demolition. I would like to highlight a few key issues as well as some recommendations based on their experience that we believe would make the implementation of the neighborhood transformation initiative a much more effective in addressing these issues in our neighborhoods. First of all, with regard to demolition, there certainly needs to be increased communication and community input into the process. There has been experiences in the past where our members may be planning to rehabilitate particular homes, only to find out either L&I has posted a sign up there that the property will be demolished or in worse situations, see the contractors there actually demolishing the building or it's too late to prevent the damage that was done. We also need to make sure that properties that are really key to advancing neighborhood revitalization are being demolished. I guess this calls for increased communication between the City and local community groups, including CDCs. I was glad to hear the plan to 179 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 assign contractors and inspectors on sort of a geographic or neighborhood basis. Hopefully, there can be relationships developed so that unintended consequences won't happen. We're optimistic that that can move forward in a positive way. L&I is currently doing a comprehensive survey of properties around the City to, I guess, identify imminently dangerous properties. I think it would be really important for L&I and the City to share that information with local community groups where this property is affected in their neighborhood so they can provide some feedback on properties that are targeted for demolition to make sure that there maybe aren't additional properties that should be on that list or properties that should be removed from that list. Finally, when demolition does proceed, it's important that debris are actually removed from the sight. And I understand that there's some new specs that are being designed to address that. It adds significant cost to a new development coming in when they have to excavate 180 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 a lot of debris that are on there. There's also a need to provide clean fill in those holes and hopefully amend, if the site is going to be left sort of vacant land at least for an interim use, there's a need to put in some top soil and hopefully seed it so that it can be a more appealing lot. Finally, with regards to demolition or more importantly maybe to prevent future need for demolition, the City should implement some type of early warning system to track when properties are more likely to become vacant so that they can see it can prevented or at the very least the properties can be encapsulated before they do deteriorate to a point where they can't be rehabbed. With regards to property acquisition and disposition, this continues to be one of the largest obstacles faced by CDCs as well as for-profit developers in redeveloping our neighborhoods. Clearly, the top issue in most cases is a monetary one and the lack of resources that are available to fund redevelopment projects, but acquiring sites from the City in a 181 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 timely manner has been a key obstacle that continues to confront our members. And there's been some efforts in the last few years to improve coordination of the current process, but the problem is there are too many different actors an agencies involved.
There's a real need to consolidate authority to acquire property and dispose of property in one entity. Have it more centralized so the process can be expedited and properties can be both acquired in timely manner but also turned back out in the community in a timely manner. Whether that's a single lot for a side yard or whether it's a matter of consolidating a bunch of different sites so that a larger development can happen. I think it was alluded to earlier that there certainly needs to be some changes in the State statutes, but even if we are successful in achieving changes, unless we streamline the process here in the City, we're going to be continuing to face this problem. Not only is CDCs are going to have difficulty in moving their projects forward, it will be very difficult to persuade other developers to come into the City 182 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 to undertake projects here. And what was mentioned earlier as well is it's very important that PHA properties be included in this process. Right now, folks are able to work through the RDA in many cases to acquire the properties, but it's a whole separate process for PHA properties. And when those sites are intermingled within a neighborhood and you're trying to do a development that include both sites, it's unbelievably complex to deal with. Finally, I think we can't overlook reuse issue. If we don't want to just end up with a lot of vacant lots in our neighborhood, that if well maintained will be less a blighting influence. If not well maintained, we may have just spent a lot of money and not gotten a lot of improvement in our neighborhoods. We need to make sure that there is adequate neighborhood planning going on to direct the future use of those properties and that there is adequate funding in place to support new housing development, housing rehabilitation, economic development, as well as other community development projects so that neighborhood 183 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 transformation can actually complete the whole cycle. Thank you.
My name's Joanne Jackson, I'm the Executive Director of Advocate Community Development Corporation and I will be very brief. I have stayed this long only because this is such an important issue to us. The first, which many people have spoken about, is the need to convey property more quickly. We have numerous instances in our neighborhood where ACDC in waiting to acquire a property, it has deteriorated to such an extent that it has had to be demolished and we've done new construction rather than rehabilitation. The second is careful planning with demolition. Though it's not well-known, I think that our area of North Philadelphia is definitely on the rebound. We'll see some serious change when we see the 2000 census figures. We have a great change of philosophy at Temple University 184 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 and we are seeing, for the first time in decades, private development. Many of the houses that are now abandon are distinctive architecturally. I've given members of the committee a copy of our Diamond Street corridor plan. These buildings represent capital and should not be demolished without careful, careful consideration. The third and final point I want to make is that ACDC has started a homeowner's counseling program which is geared to prevent future vacancies, both solving problems such as tangled titles. We deal with predatory lending. We deal with estate planning. Anybody who would like to refer people that have these kinds of problems to us, we would be welcome to work with them. Thank you for allowing me to testify.
Thanks. On behalf of the Pennsylvania Low Income Housing Coalition, I want to thank the Councilmembers here today for 185 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 the opportunity to testify. My name is Andrew Frishkoff. I'm the director of the coalition. The coalition is a statewide organization, the largest statewide housing advocacy organization in Pennsylvania, representing more than 300 organizational members throughout the State. In Philadelphia it includes some of Rick's members, community development corporations, housing counselors, Housing Redevelopment Authority, advocates, and other groups working specifically to house the elderly and people with disabilities. For the hearing today, as a statewide organization, we are seeing the same problems in Philadelphia in all of the small cities in one degree or another in Pennsylvania. It's combatting property abandonment which is vitally important whether it's in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or any of the other cities that are being overwhelmed by depopulation and abandonment. We have been watching the process in Philadelphia with great interest and even have provided both formal and informal advice to the members of the current administration and how 186 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 they might proceed. But as our particular interest is in statewide work, we're most interested in what attention Philadelphia will give to working with its legislative delegation in the General Assembly to revise state land use and other laws which would impact the process here in Philadelphia. We have been looking at a number of issues for the last several years, and particularly we think that Philadelphia should be seeking changes in the following laws: Urban renewal law as pertains condemnation and eminent domain, reform state adverse possession law, reform of state tax foreclosure and tax sale law, new law to permit the quick taking of abandoned property which heard about earlier being done in Baltimore and to some degree in Rhode Island, and new law to enable the City to land bank property so they can be assembled, packaged, and disposed in various flexible ways. Again, we've heard this from the Redevelopment Authority in that regard. One thing that Mr. Wetzel from the Redevelopment Authority did not mention 187 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 specifically, but Governor Ridge attempting to deal with brownfield issues throughout state, we've waived liability for a number of different property owners and government agencies. The State has failed to date to remove the liability for Redevelopment Authority. And as all property must pass through the Redevelopment Authority currently on the its way to the end user, this creates additional costs. And within the urban renewal law and the eminent domain and land banking, we would be able to address this issue and allow the Redevelopment Authority to have the benefits that other property owners do regarding brownfield. So far, the legislature and General Assembly has been fairly silent in addressing these issues. As you heard, the only urban eminent domain law currently being debated would have a negative consequence for us. And frankly, what we've seen historically -- I think we're seeing improvements now, but historically, the City Administration has not communicated well, I think, with its own delegation let alone with other legislators in key committees and that's 188 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 been to our detriment. Nor has Philadelphia, I think, worked in alliance with other smaller municipalities to try to achieve these changes in state laws.
The coalition is trying to bridge these gaps, working both with core constituents, the community development corporations and others as well as local government, and we would be very interested in working with Members of Council to try to bridge this gap make sure that in the coming session in Harrisburg that we're able to obtain the proper reforms that will allow all of the end objectives which you've heard from the others who testified today to occur. In too many cases, Pennsylvania's statute get in the way. And we have the opportunity now and I think the interest pursued to get changes that will allow the Administration's and Council's objectives to be achieved. Thank you.
Thanks for that extra information. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Next panel is North Lights. I hope they're still here. Sorry. Somebody has to be 189 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 last. Sorry it was you. But, you know, first shall be last and last shall be first; somebody said that before me. (Witnesses come forward.)
I'll get to go first. We're here to talk about 000555. And the part that we were mostly concerned about in that resolution was code enforcement.
Especially for rental properties. I'm part of the North Light Leadership Team. My name is Susan Syrnic, and we are all of part of the North Light Leadership Team and that team is part of North Light Community Center. North Light Community Center serves a community of the 21st Ward, Roxborough, Manyunk, Andorra, and Wissahickon. North Light has formally become a part of EPOP. 190 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 A large part of our organizing efforts are around issues and they start with a listen campaign. We listen to our neighbors, and campaign that was done in the last two years, rental properties and the problems that occur around these properties became a recurring theme. We have properties that are zoned single-family dwellings that have more than three unrelated adults living in them. Trash is left outside all week and in some neighborhoods there's loud partying. We have investors that own more than one or two properties, say, approximately 10 properties. North Light Leadership Team is wondering if there's a way to track these landlords, make sure they have rental licenses and business licenses.
Stick around; the next bill we're going to tell what we want to do with them, the next resolution, if you can.
Okay. If the neighborhood knows that these rental properties do exist -- I mean, the neighborhood knows these properties exist. We're wondering if the City knows these properties exist and does the City 191 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 know or care whether properties are owner occupied, which I'm sure the City does care. Because of what we were hearing, we put together a report and David has some copies. I know Councilwoman Krajewski got a copy of this. In this report we show how a large percentage of properties in a very condensed area of Manyunk are changing into more rental properties than families and we make suggestions in this report as to what could be done. We contacted L&I in the past and we gave them a list of 60 houses, it may have been more may have been less, that we as neighbors knew were in violation of the three unrelated persons code. Dominic Verdi of L&I was very willing to help us, but we found in the end it seem that L&I was unable to enforce this particular violation, and in some way we need City Council to enable L&I to be able to enforce this obvious violation.
Well, they would go to the house -- and this is my understanding. They 192 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 would go to the property, they would knock on the door and no one would be there. They would try and come back when someone would be there. A young man would answer the door. L&I would ask him, "Who lives here?" "I live here." But I think neighbors have told me that more than three people, four guys live there.
Yes, yes. "Oh, that's my cousin and that's my brother, he's staying over." L&I has, you know -- they don't have a warrant. I don't know that they can even go in the property.
Well, they're not going to tell them the truth when they do come knocking on the door.
Exactly, they are not going to tell them the truth. Sometimes they do get in the property, they write it up for fire code violations what they can, the submit -- I think they did actually try to find out if they had rental licenses and business licenses if we were able to give them the landlord's name. And 193 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 that's it. That's where it ended. Some of the properties were given violations and some of the properties were not.
Can I just add to that? My name is Irene Madrak and I'm the Director of North Light Community Center. My understanding is also that fines were fairly small compared to what the economic incentive is because the rentals at this point are getting to $1800 11 because they're almost a per-head rental, per 12 student kind of thing. So that, you know, the economic penalty was small and also not very swift, could drag on because a big backlog and they're kind of, you know, sitting there waiting to go to court. So there is not immediate -- there was nothing felt immediately, so in the meantime, the rent is coming in and that is pretty immediate.
I just feel that we should have a department under L&I just to go out on these issues, you know. I have, in 194 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 fact, right in my own block, there's a house across the street. It's an apartment. They made an apartment out of it; it's not a duplex but they're renting it out to different people. But how do you find out? All right, thank you. I think that's something this Council should look into. Someone else?
My name is John Boyce. It's a pleasure to be here to testify as a citizen of the City and from our community, Councilwoman Krajewski and Councilman Clarke.
It's well worth it, I think. Just to give a little background, I think we're preaching to the converted here, but we really need effective City departments to do something to control this problem that's occurring. I'm here with my mother and father. My mother was born in the house that she lives in along with five sisters, one brother. My great-grandfather started a shoe rebuilding you shop in Manyunk over a century ago, so we've been 195 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 in our community a long time. Our neighbors are African-American or have been or still are, African-American, Irish-American, Italian-American, Jewish family, they've moved in and out of our community over the years. The thing about it, though, was these people were homeowners. They occupied their homes, they paid taxes, they were citizens, they sent their children to schools, they helped to sustain a community. The people who are moving into our community now are renters, basically college students who are there to study during the week and on the weekends they're there to party. So we no longer or at we're at least threatened at this point the quality of life that we've been able to sustain over the past century is really potentially being threatened. So just let me go into a little bit the detail here from the studies that have been conducted and the results. Population declines are a familiar story to all of us, but what struck us was how the pace of decline in families seemed to be quicker. In 19127 zip code which is basically Manyunk and Lower Roxborough, the real and 196 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 projected decline in families between 1990 and 2002 is 32 percent, from 1800 families to 1200. In Central Manyunk the real and projected decline in families in the same period is percent from 6 1100 to 800. We also looked at real estate 7 bases. Within Central Manyunk, the percentage of 8 homes sold to outside investors for reporting 9 purposes was about 21 percent in 1993 but rose to 10 will 42 percent in 1998, A rapid change and we 11 feel for the worst. 12 Several clear discoveries. The 13 density of non-occupant ownership, a radical 14 departure from the home owner occupied ownership 15 that we've enjoyed over the past century. In an 16 area adjacent to the core Manyunk shopping 17 district there's an average of between 40 an 53 18 percent investor owner rental properties. The 19 concentration of outside ownership is in 20 relatively few hands. Basically we look at these 21 kind of people as speculators, speculator 22 investors, not homeowners, not people invested in 23 the community, not people who even reside in the 24 City and pay taxes. Fourteen investors own 177 25 rental properties. One resides in Manyunk, three 197 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 reside in the City, the rest live in the suburbs, in New Jersey, two live in New York City. Starting in the mid-1990s, one local bank cited here simply here for its representational value awarded 3 percent of its mortgages to non-occupant outside investors. What are the results of this trend, this radical trend over the past ten years? Looking beyond our neighborhood, the implications to our City income factors. Family homeowners generally pay more in the way of taxes. Many landlords don't even have the required licenses, rental permits, and thereby escape paying taxes. Destabilizing neighborhoods, we no longer have the families in place up. When I grew up -- I'm 42 years old -- all my neighborhoods were either elderly or the majority of them were families that sent their kids to school in the neighborhood that paid taxes, that paid property taxes. So we have a decline in community institutions from churches, parochial schools, and community centers. We have exacerbated parking problems. It's an old neighborhood. There are a lot of cars. There's 198 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 a competition for parking.
The more rental properties, the more kids, the more parties, the more density, the lower the quality of life. With the decline of family ownership near to the tipping point, we experience a downturn with an oversupply of rentals and declines accelerate faster. So this seems ironic because we have a boom on Main Street, but really we have a -- but we have a decline at the edges. At the base of the community, the kind of thing -- the institutions that sustain the community where they're being eaten away at. So you can have a boom. You can have speculators, you can people live outside the City, outside the community who can put money in their pocket, and they expect the boom to continue. But we know that over time, that booms peter out. What sustained our community has been the churches, the schools, and the families. We're not against the businesses, but we are against carpet bagger-type businesses, speculators, investors. They are going to erode our neighborhood. We don't need that.
Let me ask you a 199 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 question. How that Umbria and Fountain holding out? Because that's where I was born and my aunt still owns has a house there. Umbria and Fountain, they have parking lot across the street. I was born in Roxborough.
I live at 4822 Umbria. Parm's Store, you know, the little store?
Yeah. My house next to my property was demolished and I had incredible structural damage.
Now I have rods in the house because the walls started to pull away. So the problem that they mentioned earlier about you do have to worry about the person -- okay, take this house down. You have to worry about that person next door. This is not a criticism for L&I. I mean, that house was going to fall down, but there was no consideration of what might happen to my property when they took that property down. And I think my husband, he thinks we've spent close to $30,000 on the house. Now, 200 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 I live in the house that my father was born in. It's a big house, and if I was to try and buy that kind of space, I would spend, oh, five, six times the amount of money I spent buying that house. But I've had to put $30,000 into it because they took the property down next to me.
I just want to conclude, you know, I'm reading a lot of information here and I'm trying to communicate what's been going on in our community, and certainly, we're proud of our community and we want to sustain it. But my mother and father, we live on a block where everybody knows about the First Union bike race. It's been a blessing, but it's also been a curse because what happens is it used to be people drink around there all up and down the bike race, the course, and what happens is it brings the younger out in the people and these college students. And not anything against college, but where we used to have homeowner occupied properties, you don't have that anymore. We have rental two doors up. We have a rental across the 201 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 street of college students. It's a dormitory mentality. It's kids that wouldn't pull this stuff in own homes probably in the suburbs because their parents wouldn't let them get away with it. So we have to deal with it. My mother's going to relate an incident that happened two doors up from our house. Thank you very much.
My name's Frances Boyce. This is my son John. He did a very good job.
So I will just tell you about the incident that happened last weekend 11/11. My neighbor at 321 Lyceum Avenue was broken into by a tenant who lives at 325 Lyceum Avenue. Now, he lives there with his wife, two children, newborn baby in September, and a 2-year-old. This tenant at 325 walked up from the main street because he was too drunk to drive. He went to the wrong house. He knocked at the front door. He went to the back door. When I say knock, he was really banging. He went to the front, back, and then he went to the front door again. When he got to the front door, he 202 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 banged so hard, he broke the wood in the door. The glass is all broken, and right now it's boarded up. So this is the way our lifestyle is going. It's really a shame and I hope something can be done. And how long is he going to stay there, you know?
He does. He's a property owner, the house that was broken into. He's a property owner, but right next to him is a rental and then two doors up is another rental.
Well, is it the rental that's giving the problem?
You don't have to give the name out. 203 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555
See, I have a bill myself and Councilman Mariano that will be coming up with some of the landlords, anyone that purchases or rents here in the City. Now that will be coming up shortly when you're through. They give us an address, a P.O. box number, that's no go. We want addresses.
They're very great in putting pose office numbers or whatever. Then I have another bill that we are working on now that we're going back and forth on. We're going to hear that tomorrow, I believe, or today but we have a little problems here and there. That the landlord is responsible. If they get violation after violation, each year when they come in to renew their rental license, they won't get one. They have to apply for a rental license, but if there's violations, I believe that's when -- I don't think they'll get a license.
Let me tell you 204 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 a little secret. Councilman Nutter's office would probably be glad to help you. Find out where this guy lives in Delaware and you can get your box and you go down there and visit him, you protest on his front lawn in Delaware. I'm sure his neighbors would love to see that.
Let him know what's not acceptable in the suburbs is also not acceptable in Manyunk.
They're responsible for that property, and I wouldn't give up until everyone -- I think Councilman Mariano's got a good point. Just let the neighbors know who he is.
I'm John Boyce, Sr. Actually we have different middle initials so I'm not senior, but in any case, what I wanted to throw out is seems to me that we have worked to 205 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 North Light organization here and we haven't been successful. Would it be possible for us -- we have a particular problem on our block. Can we have a private right of action where we can present the evidence to -- go directly, instead of waiting a year and find out as we have now that we haven't been able to enforce anything.
Mr. Boyce, in short of interrupting you, I think Councilman Nutter wants to tell you, you can do that. This is his district. We've done that successfully. I've done that with Councilman Kenney in parts of my district and he's done it all over the City. The Councilman will tell you how you can do that. It's possible.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I apologize for being out of the room for a great part of the earlier hearing and I know that we're technically still in the vacant property or the vacant lot resolution 23 hearing. The good folks from Manyunk and North Light Leadership Team, we have been working with them on a variety of landlord issues and our 206 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 original discussions were around their participation in the hearing for Councilman Krajewski's bill and resolution around that particular issue. So that was the primary reason that the group came here today. And they're still interested in the Councilwoman's bill. We have many of the same problems that you're having in the 6th District we're having in some parts of the 4th, and in other parts we're having problems with students housing. We'll have a different day for that conversation. What I wanted to relate for the rest of my colleagues on the committee is that this particular group has done a tremendous amount of research on their own. They've had some cooperation at certain levels with the Department of Licenses and Inspections, but there are various other departments that needs to be involved in this effort. So for the record, what we would like to request and we will send formal notice and I'll work with the Chair on this, is to provide an opportunity for them to meet with L&I, appropriate Law Department representatives, Managing Director's Office, the Revenue 207 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 Department, and a number of other agencies to directly work on the issues that are affecting many of my constituents in the Manyunk section of the City as well as other parts of 4th District. We are looking at the issue of the private right of action as well as nuisance properties, the Nuisance Task Force through the District Attorney's Office and any other resource we can get. On the other hand, we know from earlier testimony today even on other bills that at some levels there's a disconnect between certain units within Licenses and Inspections as well as a difference of opinion about what can be done under certain circumstances. So we're trying to work on those issues. It's been my personal opinion that L&I does not have enough people. They need more cross-training and also better coordination between L&I, the police, and the Law Department to get resolution to these particular problems. So I appreciate the great work of the North Light Leadership Team. We will continue to work with you and also ensure that now a formal request made in the record for this kind of 208 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 meeting with the appropriate agencies that there will be follow up on that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Councilman. Is that it? We're running a little late.
I just think earlier Bennett Levin talked about eroding, you know, the fabric of the quality of life in neighborhoods. And that's essentially what's happening and you're hearing about. There are laws on the books around the zoning code and they seem to be unenforceable as they are now through L&I. That's basically what we're asking for, the tools for that to be enforced to slow this down a bit so that the community can continue to be a stable and good place to live.
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, if I might, I know that there is still at least one representative from the Department of Licenses and Inspections here. And what I would like to have on behalf of these 209 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000555 constituents is a commitment by the department to work directly with the organization as well as to better coordinate with Revenue and Law and the others. And if we could have that representative come up and clearly state for the record, I would appreciate it.
Mr. Haigler, would you come up. He's waiting around for the next bill. He'll be glad to help. Very congenial guy, Otis. (Witness comes forward.)
For the record, my name is Otis Haigler, Jr., Legislative Regulatory Affairs Manager for the Department of Licenses and Inspections. And yes, Councilman Nutter, we will be more than willing to work with this organization and all departments to resolve the issues that have been addressed here today.
Thank you, Mr. Haigler. And you know from our previous meetings many of these issues have come up. You and I participated in a meeting not too long around 210 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000612 these particular topics. Hopefully today we've helped to close the loop. And if you would be sure when this hearing is over to introduce yourself to the rest of the folks there, exchange phone numbers, and we'll be able to get this process moving.
I thank all of you for coming in and being patient as well.
The next bill, would you read this resolution, it's 000612. And Otis, you're going to testify on this one.
Resolution 000612, authorizing City Council Committee on Licenses and Inspections to hold public hearings to investigate the current methods utilized by the Department of Licenses and Inspections to enforce Section PM 102.6.3 of the Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code.
Good day, Councilman 211 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000612 Mariano and members of the committee. I am Otis Haigler, Jr., Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Manager for the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Today I am here to provide testimony on resolution 000612 addressing the concerns of Council relative to the department's license application process. For the record, I wish to state that it is not the Department's policy to accept post office box information on the applications we process for the various permanent licenses that are issued by the department. To reaffirm this, the manager of the department's license issuance unit has communicated this policy again to the staff under his jurisdiction since Council introduced this resolution. For instances where an event will take place for a temporary period and a temporary business privilege license has to be issued post office box information has been accepted in the past due to the fact that this information was accepted by the Revenue Department at the time the person established their business tax account. 212 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000612 Also, while working cooperatively with Councilwoman Krajewski and Councilman Mariano since the introduction of this resolution, the department has developed new guidelines --
Just a moment, just a moment. I think a there's a little too much talking going on. (Pause.)
Okay. Also while working cooperatively with Councilwoman Krajewski and Councilman Mariano since the introduction of this resolution, the department has developed new guidelines for our staff concerning the issue of returned mail from persons who have failed to notify us of a change in the responsible party information as require by Section PM 102.6.3 of the property maintenance code. The procedure which has been disseminated to the staff within of our license issuance unit for the handling of returned mail includes a computer records check of the Board of 213 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000612 Revision and Tax information, business privilege tax information, and any outstanding violation notice which may have been issued by one of the various inspectional units within the department. If after checking all of these sources, an address other than returned address is not found, the license issuance unit will forward all information an correspondence to an inspectional unit to request a physical inspection in order to determine the correct information for that responsible party and to issue a ticket to that person for failing to notify the department as required by Section PM 102.6.3. We will continue to work to improve our internal operations and invite suggestions from the members of City Council on ways that we can improve our service. Thank you.
Well, I'm a bottom-line person. What are we doing with anyone who applies for a license who owns property here about the P.O. box numbers and not giving us the exact address where we can get in touch with these people? 214 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000612
Again, as I said, Councilwoman, it's not our policy to accept P.O. box numbers on the applications that we issue for permanent licenses. So if a person were -- and this is what I got directly from our manager of our license issuance unit. He's the manager of the persons who actually process these applications. It's not the policy of his unit to accept P.O. box address information.
Whose responsibility would it be if I come in and I apply for a rental license or business license or whatever it may be, whose responsibility would that be that they get the exact address other than P.O. box? Would that be Revenue? Would that be the Water Department? Would it be L&I? Who?
For residential license and licenses that we issue, our requirements are met for which would be license other than business privilege license, then it's our responsibilities, it's L&I's responsibility.
That's all I want to know. 215 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000612
It's L&I's responsibility. But with those licenses it's the Revenue Department because we take the information from the business privilege tax application that they submit for their tax number to come over to L&I and to get their business privilege license. So that part of it really is the information we take from their tax information from the Revenue Department. That's for the business privilege license.
Well, in the case of Councilpeople when we get all of these problems and all of these headaches, just like the people that were here right before you came up with the problems trying to locate a landlord.
It's pretty tough unless we have the exact address.
Now, my question to you is -- maybe I lost it somewhere. What can we do about that to get the right address?
It starts in the 216 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000612 application process. And again, as I've stated, it's our policy to ask for the correct address. As a matter of fact --
I keep getting P.O. box numbers or a real estate address, not the actual owner.
On the application itself for the licenses that we issue, it's our policy to take the correct address, the numerical address of the person whose applying for the license. Our people also ask for identification. We do ask that they show us proof of for identification at the time they apply. So, again, I'm getting this information from the manager of the unit that handles all of this. He tells me that this is what their procedure is. So, again, I'm not exactly sure where the P.O. box information is coming from, but he's telling me that this is what their policy is and this is what they're doing.
When I look up or my staff looks up -- and I'm sure the other Councilpeople have same problem. To look up the owner of the property, we will find a P.O. box 217 11/15/00 - LICENSES AND INSPECTIONS - RES. 000612 number. Am I right? Do you have that problem? I mean, it's impossible to get in touch with the landlord who's causing these problems.
It's just has a P.O box number. And if we send a letter to them to get in touch with us, we're ignored.