Why Philadelphia Is Bucking a Nationwide Surge in Evictions – WSJ:
Peterson missed her January rent payment, and after an emergency illness that led to surgery and a lengthy recovery, she was about to miss another in February. But once out of the hospital she got an unexpected text. Someone with the city of Philadelphia said they would start negotiating with her landlord to keep her in her home.
First point: It’s not “her home.” She’s a tenant not an owner.
She is one of thousands of Philadelphia renters who have been spared from eviction through a relatively new process known as eviction diversion. After a trial period, the city in June made it a permanent requirement for landlords to go through out-of-court negotiations with tenants before they can sue to remove them.
As long as the eviction diversion process does not add significantly to the burden of landlords to evict non-paying or dangerous tenants, it’s a good thing.
When we managed apartments in Portland (now decades ago), we had a crack dealer on the third floor who we served with a 24 hour emergency eviction when we found out about his activities and he was arrested. It took about 30 days to actually get him removed from the building. To say that we found this unacceptable is an understatement.
When Peterson entered diversion, she worked with a program-appointed counselor named Adam Goldman. They charted a plan to present to Peterson’s landlord. Their aim was to show she could pay off the back rent on her studio apartment, while also making on-time payments going forward.Future rent payments were the easy part. Just a day before getting sick in January, Peterson started a full-time job with the city’s parking authority, sticking tickets on scofflaw cars. She resumed working again in March.
To pay back missed payments, Goldman and Peterson got more creative. Some money came from Peterson’s tax return refund. They also proposed letting Peterson put some of her large security deposit toward the rent. For the rest, they created a plan for paying down missed rent over time, which the landlord accepted.
“Even just having an extra 30 days to really figure things out makes all the difference in the world for so many tenants,” Goldman said.
In other cases, public rental assistance—which Philadelphia is funding at $34 million this year—helps resolve temporary payment problems. Tenants also sometimes agree to move out without having to involve the courts.
If landlords are ultimately made whole, there’s no issue here. Any decent owner would prefer a good, rent-paying tenant stay in place.
If this is all working as described, good for Philadelphia. Portland had a similar mediation-based process all those years ago. I don’t recall if it was mandatory, but it was effortless to use and added very little friction to the eviction process.
If the two sides can’t reach an agreement, the landlord can move forward through the typical eviction process. Just over half of all cases eventually end up in court, according to one 2023 study.
Many landlords support the diversion program’s goals, especially when tied to rental assistance. They can often recover unpaid rent that is otherwise difficult to obtain in court.
But property owners still have quibbles. The Philadelphia Apartment Association, a real-estate trade group, has pushed the City Council to narrow the eligibility criteria, which currently includes lease violations that don’t involve nonpayment of rent. The group also wants to make it faster to evict renters who don’t hold up their end of agreements.
Yes to faster evictions with renters who don’t follow-through. If both sides do their bit, it’s a win-win. If not, it quickly becomes win-lose or lose-lose.