We are thankful. We are thankful to all you Councilmembers who are here with us today and we implore you to say to support safe, healthy housing for all. Okay. And I thank you. That's it. (Applause.)
Thank you so much. You're a great spokesperson. And I also wanted to say obviously Renters United is a very strong advocacy organization. But while we work on this proactive rental inspection program, if you all have open items for L&I from your members, feel free to submit them to the Committee because we will help you press on those issues and get responses. (Applause.)
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Yes, ma'am. My name is Shawmar Pitts, and I'm the Co-managing Director at Philly Thrive and a lifelong resident of District 2. And before I was at Philly Thrive, I had multitudes of jobs, right, always had a job. And one of my jobs I worked with a contractor as an apprentice, carpentry apprentice, right. And the name of our company was First Class Renovations. And boy, he used to work me hard, right. But we used to go from a gut-out to a showroom finish. And Ms. Janet right here sitting next to me, one of the many low-income people from my community that I know and that experience unsafe and unhealthy rental conditions, which is just a shame, and I also know Ms. Janet's sister. And we know that this past summer, this was one of the hottest summers that we've had in a long time. And I just remember her sister living in an apartment that was without electricity during those hot summer months, right, and that was just terrible. And then I have another friend of mine whose name is Maria, she's also here in attendance. She was out of hot water for so long, it's a shame. She's been without hot water for over a year and a half. And these landlords are not held accountable for these things. But guess what? They want their money. They want their money. You better have it. That's what they want. They want their money. And I also know of a young lady from our community, her name is Rashida and she couldn't be here today because she has a small newborn. And in the house that she lives in right now she has electrical fire hazards. And when she reported this to L&I, the landlord retaliated and wanted to get her evicted because of the electrical problems that's in the property that she owns. She wanted her to be evicted. Her children are not even able to take a bath in the house because the tub is broken. Unsafe rental conditions, especially for low-income renters are widespread and a major problem throughout our city. But me being a contractor or working for a contractor before, I know there's a different way, and there's a different way possible because I've seen it. My sister who is a small landlord, she owns two properties. She's a responsible landlord and wants her tenants to live in healthy conditions. So since I used to work with this contractor, she hired us to work on one of her properties. She purchased it and we started working on it and we were going to make this compliant for Section 8. We wanted to help low-income renters, so we made sure that we was going to be compliant so that a Section 8 person would be able to move into this home. And so, we renovated. We put in a new kitchen, a new bathroom, we put in new windows. It was a lot of water damage and things to be done to the house because the person that was living there before under the landlord they were living under, it wasn't repaired. So it was a lot of repairs that had to be done. And we did the repairs. And L&I came out and they inspected and they made sure that every outlet was grounded, and they made sure there were no leaks and they made sure everything was proper. And I just remember the person that moved in when I talked to her, she said I was online looking for a house and I saw this house, I was getting ready to call your phone 3 o'clock in the morning when I saw this house because I just want to move so bad, right. And I was just so happy for her that she was moving into a nice home that was done with love and care. And so, L&I came out and they made sure that this was properly done. She was just so excited when she moved in that it was just a joyous occasion. And this is a success story of what proactive rental inspections from L&I should look like for every person in this city in any house that they live in, in any apartment that they live in. But as we heard from my fellow panelists and the people who have been up here, we know that that's not what's happening.
Low-income tenants have nowhere to turn for support and are forced into unlivable conditions because they can't afford anywhere else whereas small landlords who need financial support to make repairs, they have places like the Rental Improvement Fund for support, even though that needs to be fixed too, because that has problems also. But low-income renters don't even have that to even look out for, right. They don't even have that. They don't have many options for affordable units in the city as it stands anyway, right. It's unlikely that you're going to end up in my sister's property, right, because she only owned two properties. So it's only two, right. Now, you can end up in her property by chance maybe, right, or end up in a corporate landlord building where they're profiting, and making needed repairs is not on the list. They're just out for profit and no 9 one is holding them accountable. And safe and healthy housing should be a guarantee for everyone, not based on your income or by chance. )
This is something that is allowed to happen when we can do something about it. We shouldn't allow these things to take place. It's well within our ability to correct it. And not only that, Philadelphia is behind the other major cities as we seen the brother come on from D.C. and talk about their program. They like years ahead of us in Philadelphia, right. And they have programs that have proactive inspections. And it's a no-brainer and a way to ensure that low-income renters are protected and that they have a safe and healthy home, and we need our city to invest in proactive rental inspections so that every rent unit has a thorough inspection, especially at a time when our federal government is getting rid of protections. We are turning to our City Council to stand up for us and I urge the Committee to support a pilot proactive rental inspection program. And thank you so much for allowing me to testify. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you so much for your work and your advocacy. And if Philly Thrive has recommendations for the Rental Improvement Fund, you can feel free to submit that to the Committee and we'll take that into consideration as we talk about the ongoing life of the program. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony and good afternoon.
My name is Theresa Howell, and I first want to thank all the Councilwomen and the Councilmen that are here listening that care about what renters go through in the city of Philadelphia. So firstly, we want to thank you. My name is Theresa Howell and I'm a proud member of OnePA Renters United of Philadelphia. I'm a renter and a lifelong Philadelphia. I have lived in my current residence for 13 years. I love my community and my neighborhood. I have built long-lasting friendships, relationships in my community. We look out for one another. We watch out for each other's children. Even when we go on vacation, we keep each other's animals. That's just how close we are in that community. However, I am being pushed out of my home for many reasons. My home was built in the 1930s and it has not been updated in almost 100 years, except for the kitchen which I fought and I advocated for. And through organizing with OnePA Renters United, I got a brand new kitchen. (Applause.)
I have been plagued with the need for so many repairs over the years. Each time the landlord Drew DeMarco sent someone to make repairs, it was only a patch job. It's a battle to get repairs from the property manager, and I've been battling for years. Recently I learned my home has an unsafe amount of lead. and a child in my care of contracted lead poisoning from this home, but I was given a lead-safe certificate. Drew DeMarco owns over 500 properties in the City of Philadelphia. So it makes me wonder did he use his own inspectors to cheat with other homes in lead tests as he did mine, because clearly he cheated on my home. Bioenvirnmental came out to do -- after we realized this child had lead, Bioenvironmental came out and did a lead test and it was vastly different from the lead test that Drew DeMarco turned into the City of Philadelphia, vastly different. Oh, and more importantly, do we have the Administration that cares enough for the parents and children living in these homes to find out whether these landlords are cheating on these tests? It's not just lead tests. We don't even have a precedent for mold in this city and children are dying from asthma attacks left and right from the mold content that's in their homes. During my time organizing, I have discovered so many renters are having the same or worse issues that I have. I've had people say to me, why not just move. My answer to that is, it is not that we want to live in horrible conditions but many of us are unable to have a plethora -- we don't have a plethora of opportunities or options. The affordable options that we're usually left with are the predatory property owners that do minimal work on their homes and move us into unsafe conditions. They are only in it to make the most profit with minimal repairs. So I have a question to ask. Since my options are limited and so many other Philadelphians' options are limited because we're on fixed incomes, does that mean that we are entitled to less than people with higher incomes? Do we not deserve safe, healthy homes to raise our children in? Our rent is paid. Our property owners, because we pay our rent, they can afford to send their children to colleges and private schools and things that we afford them to do, and they can't even keep up our properties to keep us healthy and safe. (Applause.)
No one wants to move every couple of years because the house is unsafe. People who rent still like building community which takes years. And then because no one makes the property owner keep up the place, we just have to keep moving and moving and moving. Therefore, we can't build community. We can't get to the child that might be in trouble that we can save from going down the wrong path because we have that ability to do so. But because we are not in the community long enough to build anything with these children because the landlords are so inadequate, this is what we're faced with. So we have more crime in low-income areas because there's nobody there to look out for them because we're too busy trying to stay safe in our homes, you know what I mean. We're trying to keep it where it don't break out in a fire because it's not safe or our home isn't flooded with sewage because no one will come with a snake, with a simple snake and just snake the line. Sometimes that's all it takes. But by the time the landlord get to it, it's at the property line. And now, we have a big sewage problem and we have to move. So I'll ask you a question. Since my options are limited and so many other -- no, that's not where I'm at. Why should I have to leave? Why shouldn't the property owner be made to make my home adequate? If we had a team of code enforcement inspectors that could go into our homes and do a real inspection, make the property owner repair things properly, then we could stay in our homes and we could build that community or continually build that community. The City gives owners a license to rent and I need the City to make that license mean something to protect renters. (Applause.)
The reactive inspection system that L&I currently has is inadequate. We all know that. We've heard that. We have children dying from mold, children dying in fires unnecessarily, people's health suffering. Mine being one, I'm asthmatic. And because I live in a house with lead and mold, I don't need to tell you it's a lot worse. And it's also possibly taken years off of my life. I have grandchildren that I want to see graduate from college. But because I'm living in a home that is inadequate, it probably won't happen if this City doesn't do something to make us important enough to have a healthy, safe home. (Applause.)
We cannot afford to wait for the next child to die. We need our city to be proactive in protecting us by inspecting properties before families move in. That's why we're asking for $10 million in the budget for L&I to implement a pilot program, a pilot inspection program. The $10 million is a drop in the bucket, but it also is a good start. The last thing I want to talk about is retaliation. I had an experience of retaliation for my landlord after I started organizing and speaking out publicly. One morning someone tied a rope from the outside railing of my home to the doorknob of my house literally locking me in my home. I could not open my front door. Immediately I started thinking like, oh, they're trying to burn me out and kill me in this house because I'm speaking out against what I'm going through with this landlord. I literally could not open my front door. I can't prove that it was Drew DeMarco. But I'm here to tell you I live a peaceful life. I'm a person that will help you before I hurt you. Everyone in my community knows me. They know my name, they know my children. We are helpful to one another, so I know no one in my community would do this to me. So it wasn't hard for me to figure out where this came from. He was tired of me talking about him. And I mean, I drug him through the mud at every chance I got. Every time they put a mic in my face I let everyone know, because I told you he has 500 properties. And most of our members that start coming in originally were from the same landlord, which is mine Drew DeMarco. But here I sit at this panel and I'm still talking about it. Because I'm not scared to live in a lead-free home, why should I be scared to speak up about it. So we definitely need legislation to give renters stronger protections against retaliation. Renters should not be afraid to call L&I, afraid of eviction or harassment just because we're asking for our basic human rights to a safe, healthy home. When we look at renters having problems with predatory property owners, think about your mother, your father, your sisters and brothers. Although they may not be experiencing what we're experiencing, we're somebody's mothers and grandmothers that they revere dearly. So please help us stop the predatory practices of these corporate property owners and what they are doing to low-income Black and Brown communities. We need all of City Council to support the safe, healthy homes platform by giving L&I the resources they need to do proactive inspections. Thank you, Councilmembers and panel members, for your time. I really appreciate it. (Applause.)
Thank you so much for your testimony and your advocacy and for sharing your story. I have to admit I was very disturbed to hear about the fake or fraudulent lead certification. I would love to follow up with you after the hearing about that just to learn more and to see what we can do to stop that from happening in the city. Minority Whip O'Rourke, did you want to make a comment?
Just briefly I want to just thank you all for your testimony. It's particularly important I think in these hearings that we prioritize, commonize alongside the experts in the fields that can give you information on data, the lived experience of those tenants, right. I think you all as renters giving the sort of testimony like, hey, I experienced a situation where actual lead certification could perhaps be fraudulent or at least bias for the landlord, I think that's particularly important. Politics is about a contest toward resources to kind of work on a common life together. And so, this sort of information I think is super helpful as we are thinking through how to allocate funding, where money needs to go in order to realize an actual community. Your commentary about having to move all the time or being forced to, all that kind of making community itself unstable, you can't realize it because folks keep moving about, I think that should be heard really clearly that if we want to have a safer city, it does start with creating spaces where community can stay community. (Applause.)
Folks talk often about what about this generation, this generation that, these kids are doing this, they're doing that, what have you. But if you have mothers who are saying, I would love to be a guiding light, I would love to provide some sort of advice or guidance or what have you but I can't because I can't stay here long enough because of the conditions. Thank you for making that point. It's super helpful. And I thank you all for what you've shared today. I think this is one of the best things, one of the most important things I've heard all week. Thank you so much. (Applause.)
Real quick before you go I wanted to first of all also thank you. And particularly, Ms. Howell, I've been saying for years how important it is for tenants to also become the fabric of our communities. Nowadays people do not stay in properties for years. They're being pushed out and being forced to move in a much shorter period of time. So our goal is to make sure that people can rent and stay in their communities for longer. Our goal is to make sure that you're not being sold something as is or a sight unseen, that we really can have people moving into safe and healthy homes. Thank you so much. (Applause.)
We are now going to move into public comment. I believe we have about 10 people on the list for public comment. But before we start, I'm going to ask for your help. Everybody coming up for public comment you're going to have two minutes to summarize your testimony. At the end of two minutes, you're going to hear an alarm from our clerk and then that means can you please take a few more seconds just to wrap up. Thank you so much. Clerk, will you please call the first person for public comment.
Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture, Malaika Gilpin and Raymond Huxen. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good morning. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture. I'm an organizer with the Philadelphia Tenants Union and the Justice for Angel Davis and Latese Bethea Now Campaign. Thanks to Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke, his staff and the entire City Council for this very important hearing, grassroots housing justice organizations, agency heads, elected officials, et cetera must all work together to solve our current housing crisis. First and foremost, we as tenants must organize ourselves to fight back and build our own power. When we vote, we must carefully research candidates to know where they stand on housing issues, being very careful about developers, landlords and how they make campaign donations. L&I is a very important agency and must be given all the resources necessary to build their capacity, hire more inspectors have all the necessary tools to properly do their job to assure the public of safety for housing and other buildings. As a member of the Philadelphia Tenants Union, I sometimes answer hotline calls. Some of those calls include tenants who are concerned about their landlord has never had a license, delay or refusal to make urgent repairs such as mold, cracks and ceiling, et cetera. Even illegal evictions, and it's often the small landlords, the mom-and-pop landlords that are the worst in this regard. And if a landlord and tenant have not gone to court, if a judge has not signed off, then that eviction is illegal. Right now we're facing a tendency among some landlords. They want to threaten tenants with slander, libel or defamation of their character when they are bad landlords, and that infringement of our First Amendment right will not be threatened. We are very glad that the former Landlord Tenant Office of Marisa Shuter no longer exist and we will make sure it does not come back again. Two years ago Angel Davis and Latese Bethea were shot during LTO evictions, and their landlords at that time were the notorious Odin Properties and the Women's Community Revitalization Project, respectively. At the time that Odin Properties had Angel Davis shot, they did not have a license and both these landlords have a large number of evictions. So joining us -- I want you to know that joining us today we have Angel Davis and she would like to thank you all publicly in her own words. Angel.
Thank you so much for being here. Do you think you can start by stating your name for the record.
Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Angel Davis. I would like to thank everybody for letting me be here and speak. Two years ago I was shot on Odin properties by my landlord March 29, 2023. I was shot twice in the head close range by an LTO. At that time, the LTO office was last led by Marisa Shuter and Odin Properties did not have a license as required. This has been a terrible experience for me and my family, but I am thankful to God for my life. I ask the for the continued prayers. I ask the continuous your support please and let's hold bad landlords accountable. Let's make sure what happened to me and Latese never happens again. That's why I won't stop. (Applause.)
Thank you so much. You are not a stranger to these chambers, and it's just been so inspiring to see how courageous you've been with everything that you've been through, continuing to share your story and adding in to all of this advocacy to make sure that people have quality housing. Thank you so, so much. (Applause.)
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for caring about us and calling us together and hearing our voices, but I have to go fast because I didn't know I had three minutes. But I just, you know --
Malaika Hart Gilpin and I'm with One Art Community Center. And you all know this, but there is a plague that's ravaging our beloved city, the same one that ravages the country. It's not an illness of the body but an affliction of greed. It moves swiftly consuming neighborhoods, displacing families and seeking to erase the very essence of our communities. Overnight historic homes are reduced to rubble, replaced by towering developments with rental prices so high that the very people of this city can no longer afford to live here. We're here today to discuss landlord-tenant issues, but these are only the symptoms of a deeper disease, profits over people. Under the guise of progress, our communities are being violently torn apart by a system that values wealth over well-being, power over people and unchecked development over dignity. Our City's leadership has embraced rampant development in the name of housing, but I ask who is being housed? Who is being left behind? Families that have lived here for generations who've contributed to the culture, the history, the love, the fabric of Philadelphia, they're being forced out. They're being misplaced, displaced, pushed aside and treated without care. This is not just happening. It's being allowed to happen. Developers, many of whom are not even Philadelphians, hide behind shell companies, tax breaks and zoning loopholes to seize land and build without accountability. This is the City of Brotherly Love, Brotherly and Sisterly Love, and they've tried to bury us under cookie-cutter, cultureless condos. They tried to cover us with evictions, neglect and injustice. They've treated us like dirt. But what they do not realize is that we are the seeds, we are the seeds and these are seeds of love. And so, we ask that you continue to nourish these seeds and pass legislation. I can't list everything, all of our demands, but you're hearing them today. And again, we thank you to be in this with you all. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you for your testimony and for being here today and for the wonderful space, wonderful and loving space that you continue to steward at One Art. We really appreciate you.
Thanks to all of you. And will the Clerk please call the next public commenter.
Ray Hudson, Craig Summers, Martha Mosley. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony, with your comment.
Craig William Summers, and I'm here on behalf of the Tenants Committee from the Hardy Williams Veterans Apartment Complex in Southwest Philadelphia. We've been going through a lot of situations that shouldn't be happening. A lot of things that should be happening aren't happening. It's supposed to be a senior citizens complex and it's -- like, I was actually at Brith Sholom House before I moved there. And I had moved out of Brith Sholom House because of this. I was part of the Tenant Committee there. And now, I'm part of the Tenant Committee where I'm at now because I thought it was a better place and it's not at all. The mismanagement going on there, the owners of the building really don't know what's happening. It seems like they just don't care about us, and we need change. And, Councilman O'Rourke, you were there when we protested. They retaliated on us by taking the shopping carts from senior citizens that get their groceries out the car. We had two carts and they took the carts away and people were struggling for over two months and still is struggling now because they replaced the two carts with just one cart and it has two handles. It doesn't have a bar in the front to hold on to for people with disabilities to be able to use. It's sad. I have a picture of if you want to see it. But it's deplorable things that are happening there. It's not good. It's not good for anyone. So we just want change and I want to thank everyone for their help, but we need to do a lot more.
Thank you so much, Mr. Summers. I'm so sorry that you would have to go from one --
-- really bad experience to another. This is something that's not uncommon with our subsidized properties unfortunately. A lot of them -- a lot of the owners aren't sort of making the repairs that are necessary. But we want to help with this issue. I know that you're talking with various Councilmembers. I believe that this is in the Council President's District potentially or --
Okay. So I just want to make sure that he's also plugged into this issue and we'll do our best to help make this a better situation. Thank you so much for being here.
Will the Clerk please call the next person for public comment.
Maria Yelverton, Rashida Price, Rosa King. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good afternoon. So good to see you, Rashida. Thank you so much for being here. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Good afternoon. Thank you for having us today and hearing us out. My name is Rashida Price. I'm a homeowner and a community leader, a committee person. And I'm here representing OnePA West Southwest Rising, which is an organization that includes both renters and homeowners. I want to thank you all for your ongoing support. I know that you all are staunch advocates for affordable community housing. So I'm here to urge Council to continue to support us in safe and affordable housing for all Philadelphians, particularly low-income and working-class residents. As a former renter, I understand how proactive rental inspections can greatly contribute to ensuring quality of life. That's what I'm really here to promote. Often times renters and homeowners are pitted against one another despite their urgent housing concerns overlapping. There's no new news for you all that we in Philadelphia are facing a housing crisis. Renters live in unsafe conditions which other panelists have detailed, and it's created a public health crisis. Homelessness is rising at an alarming rate due to corporate greed and people being displaced. And big landlords are profiting from low-income Philadelphians' collective misery. (Applause.)
On top of all of that, poorly-maintained properties encourage criminal activity and increases further threats to public safety. So then we're fighting on all these different fronts. And even though I'm a home owner, because there's still rental properties in my community it affects me as well. We at OnePA West Southwest Rising strongly urge Council to join us in supporting the Safe and Healthy Homes Campaign by voting to grant $10 million for proactive rental inspections and $10 million for low-income home repairs. Property maintenance is a form of community investment. Well-kept homes contribute to a safer, more attractive and more prosperous neighborhood for all. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you so much. You're absolutely right on everything you said and the public safety aspect. I just read an article yesterday in The Inquirer that teens are more likely to carry a gun if the surroundings around them are in disrepair. So this affects us in many, many ways. Good afternoon.
Thank you so much for being here. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Hello. My name is Maria Yelverton and I'm a member of Philly Thrive. I am a District 7 resident. I'm speaking on Resolution 240267. I need to move out of my car and apartment as soon as possible because the conditions, they are unlivable. I have not had hot water for a year and a half. Throughout the winter in order for me to take a warm shower, my daughter has to carry boiling water up a flight of stairs into my bathtub, and this is dangerous. And this is on top of the fact that I continue to pay my rent every month. Why is it that my landlord can get away with these dangerous, unlivable and inhuman conditions and still continue to pay -- make a profit? It is not right. We need L&I to hold corporate landlords accountable to make needed repairs. This is not the first time that I experienced unlivable rental conditions. I remember raising my young kids in a house that was filled with mold. My son suffered significant health challenges, God bless his soul, because of this environment including throat cancer. It is clear we need more rental inspections, but not only that the process for calling L&I should not only be reactive. We need L&I to inspect rental units before people move in so that these issues can be prevented. I hope that the City Council will act in support for that and everyone, including low-income renters like myself, can live in a safe and healthy home. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you for your testimony and for sharing your story. And I'm very sorry to hear about your son. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comment.
Okay. Thank you very much for having me here, Councilmembers. My name is Rosa King. How are you all? I thank God, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for the opportunity to be here. I am accustomed to being evicted, you know, five times when my children were small -- well, they're grown now with their own children. But where I currently stay I was without heat for three years, from 2013 to 2016. And as a result, I am now severely anemic. I've also been harassed by L&I to get into my house, even though I told them that they can come in with the property managers with the keys because I'm constantly at the doctor's office for my problems of being diabetic Type 2 and severely anemic that causes ongoing symptoms. I just want to say that something does need to be done for low-income tenants. I am in project-based housing, which means my voucher stays to the building. So that if I leave, I will no longer have subsidy. I need the subsidy. I'm on SSI. I do have a work history. I would like to return to work one day, but I have to put my health first. And it's becoming just ludicrous because I should be able to work and not all the time have to take care of health issues because my property is improper condition right now. And so, please consider whatever laws that need to be made. And just so the record shows, I was always evicted the five times by slum landlords that the law said I should have never been evicted from and I was paying my rent. It was like one landlord I didn't pay my rent to. I used the money to send my son to acting school because I was just fed up. Thank you for letting me speak. (Applause.)
Thank you for being here. I'm sorry to hear about everything that you've been going through. Do you still need action from L&I today?
Yes, I still need action from them, but I don't need the harassment. Don't make me feel like an ant under your feet because I said I give you permission to go in with my housing manager in spite of your desperation for court. I don't trust the Department of L&I because you allow me to live without heat for three years. And at the time, my sons were younger. They're grown men now. But I had to send them to live other places while I stayed there to sustain a roof where I was freezing inside more than outside. It doesn't make any sense.
You're right, that's unacceptable. And we're happy to follow up with you after the hearing --
-- to get that taken care of. Thank you so much. Thanks to all of you. (Applause.)
Will the Clerk please call the next person for public comment.
Is there anyone else here to testify on this resolution?
Good afternoon, Chairwoman as well as other Councilmembers and associates, members of the audience and different groups. I must apologize. I was not ready for this --
That's the first time I ever asked is there anyone else to testify and there was somebody to testify.
Please state your name for the record and proceed with your comments.
Thank you. My name is Cherese L. Kitchens and I don't belong to any particular group, but I'm here on behalf of myself and so many others in the city of Philadelphia as well as all of these groups who have testified. I would like to thank you all for giving me this opportunity to be able to speak because I think that and I may have spoken to you or some of your representatives in the past or sent letters. I'm so sorry what happened to the young lady in the -- I'm so sorry. I cannot remember your last name. However, I remember the incident. And it comes to the point where a lot of these things could have been prevented if the City of Philadelphia or if different administrations follow similar programs that work. In the past, the City of Philadelphia had the Sheriff's Department to do evictions. It's been a long, long time. I don't look as old as I am. However, I did send in a letter to the Housing Director at the time after this young lady's incident and my heart felt for her. However, as far as landlords go and as far as the L&I Department, one who's done inspections under PHFA, Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, I also managed properties with PHA as well and market rent properties, it is imperative that the funding be granted not just for L&I workers itself but they may need an assistant to go along with them out in the field. Now, we're talking about low-income housing, but it just doesn't do that too. I'm in Cindy Bass' District. I was in Curtis Jones' District when something happened to me. I got evicted with the management company manipulating my checks, bringing in the U.S. Treasury because they manipulated it, they processed it, and I still got evicted. I still have a -- what is it, a judgment. Now, when I say did I struggle? I'm disabled. I may not look it because you cannot judge a person by their visual appearance. I live in market rent housing and I basically was harassed beyond being harassed, locked out under a key fob system not being able to get into the building itself. Then these landlords actually offer a concierge service, but then they eliminate them so no one has access, not even L&I. And I believe -- the same organization, which is Montium Management Company, and I lived in a 500-unit building, 250 units on each side. They did not pay any taxes, they did not have a license certificate to operate, but they received funds and continually re-enroll people, then took them to court. A building having 500 units, how do you take 198 people to court? This all happened during the pandemic. The back end of my building looked like a shopping center, because people who moved out just left. To this day some of these same people have judgments against them. I fought mines, but everything has to line up. Every city agency needs to line up going across the board. The City of Philadelphia has to develop a partnership with the state, with the city -- the city, state and federal government regarding housing. We all occupy the same land and something has to be done. That's why if L&I, they said $10 million, another million, make it $11 million or $12 million to ensure that you end up getting -- (Applause.)
-- that you end up getting what is rightfully owed to any and all people in the city of Philadelphia. Now, surprisingly --
And can I ask that you maybe take the next seconds or so and wrap 13 up your comment. 14
Okay. I 15 definitely will. The same things 16 that these people testified to in 17 saying health issues, no one in 18 this room is exempt from it because 19 my building put a new heating 20 system, air-conditioning system, and mold was found inside of them. So when I tell you they're putting them in throughout the city of Philadelphia, all new developments are getting them. But if they're not maintaining them and if they feel as though that they have not gotten any city, state or federal government money, they feel as though that they can do whatever they want to do. And why should they not be able to continue to pay their rental license fees and deny our children a proper education because those fees go to different city services. And I'm just saying, I wrote about this here. They changed it because I said, allow the owners to be responsible for whenever a management company is going to switch over management companies, but the owner needs to be able to hold on to a license until they make that transaction, so no money can slip through the city of Philadelphia in which it has been denied. I'd like to thank you all and thank you again. And I thank God for just allowing me to be here at this moment and be able to give my testimony to you all. Thank you so very much. (Applause.)
Thank you so much. Thank you for making up your mind to speak today and I love your ideas. Thanks so much. So -- oh, there's somebody else. Come on. I didn't know you were on our list. I'm so sorry. (Witness approached Witness table.)
I was not, I was not. I learned about this last minute yesterday. As you know, this is something that we've been following closely at the Urban League of Philadelphia. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Abraham Reyes Pardo. I'm the Vice-president of Housing at the Urban League of Philadelphia. The Urban League of Philadelphia is a civil rights organization that has been around for 108 years. Let me just say that I had something prepared. The testimony today was so powerful that there is very little much more to say. I just want to say that we have assisted thousands of families at this point as a cornerstone partner with the Eviction Diversion Program. In our five years of existence, we have identified a trend that has been shared here many times today, tenants being agreeable to substandard living conditions at the fear of retaliation, a condition that exacerbates as the availability of affordable housing becomes more scarce. For us as housing counselors, we get to contrast this experience with our homebuyers program. And let me just tell you why. In most home-selling transactions, sellers must disclose everything they know regarding the condition of the property. They have to fill out a form that will be reviewed by the buyer and the agent. We go as far as reminding prospective buyers that they must opt into having an inspection of the property and make them sign an affidavit to confirm the information was both provided and received. The realtors enforce this requirement as well as it allows them to negotiate the financial aspect of the transaction. It only makes sense. But in addition to the $10 million, $12 million, $11 million that L&I could potentially be receiving in funding, it only makes sense to incorporate similar procedures for transactions involving rental units. These procedures shall be familiar to many managers, as many of them are also part of the realtor community. We know that because they've been opposing some work on the record sealing side. So we understand that. As the housing industry relies more often on algorithms to make their decisions, we must make sure to close the gap of information with a human approach, whether it's to verify a record for a tenant or the condition for property before someone moves in. Thank you. (Applause.)
Thank you so much, Abraham. We greatly appreciate the work of the Urban League. Okay. So seeing no one else here to testify on the resolution, this concludes the business of the Joint Committees on Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless and Licenses and Inspections for today. The public hearing on Resolution No. 240267 is recessed to the call of the Chair. Thank you all very much for your attendance and participation. Have a great day. (Joint Committees of Housing, Neighborhood Development and The Homeless and Licenses and Inspections concluded at 1:40 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL