Philly City Council will consider new measures to protect low-income residents from displacement

Philadelphia City Council will consider implementing a package of bills aimed at protecting low-income residents from being priced out of their homes, including by expanding the amount of people eligible for property tax breaks.

City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, a progressive who represents parts of West Philadelphia and is among Council’s top housing advocates, introduced three pieces of legislation Thursday that she says will address the city’s growing affordable housing crisis, which threatens to push out residents who can’t afford stable housing.

“Many of our neighborhoods are becoming hostile to the Black and brown communities that have stewarded them for generations,” she said. “The status quo will no longer be permitted to uproot our neighborhoods.”

One bill would allow low-income people who make less than $33,000 a year to freeze their property tax rate even if their home is reassessed at a higher value. Currently, only low-income seniors are eligible for that tax break.

A second bill aims to tamp down on a long-standing problem of property owners refusing to rent to tenants using housing choice vouchers, the federally subsidized program also known as “Section 8.” Landlords are prohibited from discriminating against tenants based on their payment method, yet many advertise that they do not accept vouchers.

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The legislation would amend Philadelphia’s Fair Practice Ordinance to explicitly prohibit property owners and managers from advertising that vouchers can’t be used. And it would shorten the amount of time renters have to wait before they can file a lawsuit after reporting discrimination to the city’s Human Relations Commission. Currently, they must wait a year; the legislation would amend the period to 100 days.

Councilmember Rue Landau, a freshman who represents the city at-large and is the former head of the Human Relations Commission, said the city must also communicate better with landlords to ensure they know that discriminating against voucher holders is illegal.

“If we reinvest in neighborhoods, folks should be able to stay, and we should have people with vouchers be able to move anywhere in the city that they want to live,” she said. “We need to make sure that there’s safe, affordable, and quality housing for everyone.”

Gauthier’s third piece of legislation aims to bolster the city’s Housing Trust Fund, which is used for affordable housing programs and projects.

Currently, developers can receive what’s called a “density bonus” to build projects that are larger than what zoning would typically allow if they include affordable housing in the project. They can also receive that bonus if they make a payment to the Housing Trust Fund.

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But Gauthier said there are too few guardrails around how those funds are spent, resulting in neighborhoods experiencing “overscaled projects” but not receiving affordable housing benefits.

“The city essentially cheats our neighborhoods,” she said.

Her legislation would require that bonus payments are spent within defined geographic boundaries. The change would amend the city’s Home Rule Charter, which is similar to a constitution, and would require approval from voters through a ballot question.

The trio of bills — which were co-sponsored by three other progressive Council members — will be considered in committee before the full Council votes on the bills.