In a rare ruling, Philly’s Fair Housing Commission said a landlord unlawfully retaliated against a tenant for organizing her peers

Officials at an East Falls apartment complex unlawfully retaliated against a renter for participating in her tenant association after she shared online listings of executives’ homes in a group chat, the city’s Fair Housing Commission ruled.

The ruling is a rare case of a tenant organizer proving retaliation before the commission.

Companies tied to the real estate and private equity firms RAM Partners and L3C Capital Partners own and manage Alden Park apartments and tried to evict renter Kadi Ashby, who helped create a tenant association to push for building repairs.

In September, Ashby wrote in the WhatsApp group chat of her tenant association, “I wanted to see where our money was going.” She referred to the multimillion dollar homes of executives at L3C Capital Partners and sent links to listings from Zillow and Realtor.com, which included addresses.

Days later, officials at Alden Park told Ashby that her lease would not be renewed in December and that she had violated its terms by threatening the safety of executives by sharing their addresses in the group chat.

In a ruling issued May 12, the Fair Housing Commission found that emails exchanged among rental officials and their attorney “make it clear that landlord’s primary reason for terminating the subject tenancy was because landlord was unhappy with tenant’s role in the tenant association” and Ashby’s WhatsApp post “served as a convenient excuse to terminate tenant without seeming to target tenant as a member of the tenant association.”

Renee Chenault-Fattah, executive director of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, said in a statement Friday that she spoke with Fair Housing Commission staff, and “no one ever recalled a case where an organizer successfully argued they were evicted because of their participation in a tenant association.”

The Public Interest Law Center, which represented Ashby, celebrated the decision as “a victory for the city’s growing tenant organizing movement.”

“What this decision shows is straightforward: Out-of-state corporate landlords cannot bully Philadelphia renters into silence about the conditions of their homes,” Madison Gray, staff attorney at the Public Interest Law Center, said in a statement.

The attorney who represented rental officials during hearings did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling. The officials can appeal to the Court of Common Pleas.

In emails last year, a different attorney for the rental officials talked about the good timing of Ashby’s WhatsApp post because it was close to the end of her lease and said the attorney and the property manager were discussing other tenants, too. The president of L3C Capital Partners directed the attorney to “focus on the 2-3 ringleaders.”

Ashby said in a statement that the Fair Housing Commission’s decision “makes clear that tenants have the right to organize and speak up for safe housing.”

“I joined the Alden Park Tenant Association to fight for safer living conditions for myself and my neighbors, but instead of addressing the serious problems in our building, my landlord tried to push me out,” she said.

The city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections cited Ashby’s building multiple times for falling concrete from crumbling balconies. The property had open code violations when rental officials told Ashby she had to leave, so a Sept. 19 notice to vacate is “invalid and unenforceable,” the Fair Housing Commission said in its ruling.

Ashby still lives at Alden Park, and her lease remains in effect until December, according to the commission.

In addition to filing a complaint with the commission last year, Ashby testified before City Council in support of legislation Mayor Cherelle L. Parker signed last week that strengthens protections for renters who participate in tenant organizing. The bolstered protections take effect Nov. 1.

Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke, who introduced the legislation, said the Fair Housing Commission’s ruling “reaffirms that tenants in Philadelphia have the right to report unsafe conditions and assert their rights without fear of retaliation.”

“The Fair Housing Commission’s decision in Kadi Ashby’s case makes clear that retaliatory actions by landlords will not be tolerated,” O’Rourke said in a statement, “and our city will continue to improve our protection of tenants who speak out about unsafe housing conditions.”