North Philly’s 7th Council District faces unique challenges. Quetcy Lozada knows them well.

In Philadelphia, the 10 City Council members who represent geographic districts are essentially part-legislators and part-miniature mayors for their swaths of the city, connecting residents with city services, wielding almost complete control over land-use decisions, and even influencing personnel decisions for city agencies operating in their backyards.

The job is especially important in the Kensington-based 7th District, where a predominantly Latino community often relies on their local representative to overcome language barriers and be a conduit to a city government many view as failing to address issues like the opioid crisis, violence, and, more recently, gentrification.

For almost two decades, the office of Councilmember María Quiñones-Sánchez has been that connection. But with Quiñones-Sánchez resigning two weeks ago to run in next year’s mayoral election, the torch now passes, at least temporarily, to her former chief of staff, Quetcy Lozada, who is poised to win the Nov. 8 special election to complete Quiñones-Sánchez’s term.

» READ MORE: Philly City Council is about to have an unusual fall session. Here’s what to expect.

In many ways, the transition is likely to be minimally disruptive. Lozada has years of experience under Quiñones-Sánchez, and the office staff will stay on board to handle constituent services during the interregnum.

But Lozada also promises to bring a new style of leadership. She sees herself as more conservative than Quiñones-Sánchez, a self-styled “pragmatic progressive.” And she is taking a different approach when it comes to dealing with machine politics.

In her four successful runs for Council, Quiñones-Sánchez, a Democrat, was never endorsed by the party’s ward leaders and was in near constant conflict with them. Lozada, on the other hand, was nominated to succeed Quiñones-Sánchez by those very ward leaders, all but guaranteeing her victory in the heavily Democratic district.

“I’ve been endorsed by the Democratic Party, and I’m grateful for that. I’m looking forward to working with them and changing the relationship that has existed in the past between them and the 7th Council District seat,” Lozada, 52, said in an interview. “I want to see us continuing to have those convos, us continuing to put our personal feelings aside. ... I am my own person, and I’ve shown people through my work who I am and what my commitment is, and I don’t think it will be difficult.”

Growing up in a Puerto Rican family, Lozada has spent nearly all of her life in the 7th District, and she now lives in Northwood. She has two degrees from Lincoln University, including a master’s in business administration, and she has worked for several local nonprofits in addition to serving as Quiñones-Sánchez’s chief of staff from 2008 to 2018.

While Lozada is taking a different approach to politics, she plans to stay the course on constituent services and community outreach by following an important lesson she learned in Quiñones-Sánchez’s office: “Bring government to the people.”

In communities where generations of discrimination have seeded distrust of City Hall, the way to reach people is to go where they are, she said. She pointed to the city’s struggles reaching Black and brown residents when distributing coronavirus vaccines.

Lozada had left Quiñones-Sánchez’s office by that time but was doing related work in her current role as vice president of community engagement and organizing at the nonprofit Esparanza, which serves Philadelphia’s Hispanic community.

“Government thought that the best place to offer these vaccines was downtown, and we quickly saw that Latinos and the African American community were some of the slowest communities to take advantage of something that was so important,” Lozada said. “My team went out into the street.”

» READ MORE: Philly Council President Darrell Clarke orders special elections to fill two seats vacated by mayoral contenders

At first, they registered people to get the vaccine and shuttled them downtown. Later, they worked with various levels of government to bring a FEMA clinic to Esparanza.

“Somewhere in the district, government needs to be present within walking distance,” she said.

But until Lozada takes office, which likely will be in late November after the election is certified, Council will have no Latino members, and some high-need neighborhoods will have no direct representative.

“We are ground zero for the opioid epidemic, gentrification, displacement, the gun violence epidemic,” said Adán Mairena, pastor of West Kensington Ministry. “It’s interesting that a Black and brown, poor community is not going to be represented at City Hall. If we’re not there, it’s like we’re not counted. Who’s going to speak for us?”

Mairena said he valued Quiñones-Sánchez’s dedication to the community.

“A lot of our elected officials have a hard time with the boots-on-the-ground reality of a large city where the Latino community is the poorest of all ethnic groups, and Kensington is the epicenter of the heroin epidemic,” he said. “She represents us well, she knows what’s happening because what’s happening is in her backyard.”

» READ MORE: Race for City Hall: Who is running for Philadelphia mayor?

Neighborhood leaders say Quiñones-Sánchez often went to great lengths to connect residents to resources, such as enrolling homeowners in affordability programs and helping small businesses get economic development support.

“She won’t let [constituents] leave. She will make her phone calls, or make sure they get the support they need, and make that attempt to make sure that folks are heard or supported or receive services,” said Edwin Desamour, director of the Lighthouse Sports Complex. “And she always follows up.”

Quiñones-Sánchez is confident Lozada can carry that legacy forward.

“She is smart, hard working, and will fight for the district as hard as I did for the last 14 years,” Quiñones-Sánchez said in a statement.

Will González, executive director of Ceiba, a coalition of community organizations, said Lozada “is a tireless worker who exhibits some of the traits [Quiñones-Sánchez] has.”

“What [Lozada] has done in the community over decades, working closely with community organizations, serving resources, connecting families with programs and support — to me that is what’s important,” González said.

Despite the olive branch she is extending to party leaders in her district, Lozada expects to face an opponent when she runs for a full four-year term in next year’s municipal elections, likely from longtime Quiñones-Sánchez nemesis State Rep. Ángel Cruz.

But in the meantime, she will leave the door open.

“I’ve always been able to say, ‘OK, that was a different conversation, and we all are not happy, but how do we move forward?’” Lozada said. “I’m even willing to work with Rep. Cruz.”