Philadelphia is extending Eviction Diversion Program through middle of 2024

Philadelphia will extend its nationally recognized Eviction Diversion Program, which requires landlords to try mediation with tenants before filing for evictions in most cases, through June 2024.

City Council voted 10-1 on Thursday to extend the program, a move backed by Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration. Through the program, tenants and landlords have gotten rental assistance, housing counselors have connected tenants with resources, trained mediators have helped broker deals between landlords and tenants, and the city has reduced eviction filings.

This year, more than 900 households that have gone through the Eviction Diversion Program have been able to stay in their homes, according to the city. The backlog of cases in eviction court has been eased because fewer cases reach that step, city officials said.

» READ MORE: City Council is considering extending Philly’s Eviction Diversion Program into 2024

The city first launched the Eviction Diversion Program in September 2020 to prevent both displacement of residents and the filing of evictions in court because renters with past eviction filings have a harder time finding future housing. When the initiative started, it focused on tenants facing pandemic-related financial hardships, but it now applies more broadly to most people facing eviction. Last December, City Council extended the program through 2022.

Philadelphia ran through the federal funds that fueled prior rental assistance programs, which jeopardized the future of the diversion program. But the city has allocated $45 million in local funding for rental assistance this fiscal year and next for the continuation of the program.

Councilmember Helen Gym, who introduced the legislation, said the collaborative network of city agencies, housing advocates, and the municipal court system that was built to administer the diversion program “has been a lifesaver for thousands of Philadelphians and has also been a model of hope and action in dire times.” Similar programs are now operating in at least 180 jurisdictions across 36 states, she said.

“This program was born out of crisis,” Gym said. “But out of it, we came up with something that will stabilize and indeed we hope lead to a more prosperous and stable and healthy and safe city for everybody.”

» READ MORE: Philly’s Eviction Diversion Program shows some early success (from 2020)

At-large Councilmember David Oh, one of two Republicans on Council, cast the only vote against extending the diversion program. In an interview, he said he supported the program’s intent of being an emergency response to the pandemic. Now that the threat from COVID-19 has declined, he said, he worries that added red tape will give landlords less incentive to operate affordable housing units.

“There are many types of restrictions for landlords in this city, and this is one more,” Oh said. “While the program expresses good, it also has adverse consequences. And I think those now outweigh the value.”

Andre Del Valle, vice president of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Apartment Association, said at the Council meeting that landlord representatives, tenant advocates, and city and outside agencies involved in the program have committed “to continue to fix the ongoing challenges of the current Eviction Diversion Program through regulations.” This commitment, he said, will ensure stakeholders can continue to work together “on a program that finds equilibrium for both landlords and tenants.”

» READ MORE: Philly landlords and homeless services nonprofit are working together to prevent evictions (from 2021)

The association hopes to create a model of the program that is voluntary and occurs after the filing of an eviction, Del Valle said. Rental property owners also want to reduce the timeline of mediation, which he called one of the program’s biggest challenges. Rental property owners who enter the program have to participate for at least 30 days, down from a prior requirement of 45 days, before filing for eviction.

Paul Cohen, general counsel for HAPCO Philadelphia, the city’s largest association of rental property owners, echoed that sentiment at the group’s general membership meeting Wednesday night. HAPCO, which is mostly made up of small landlords who own a few units, is involved in discussions about how the diversion program will operate. Cohen said he has proposed that the city reimburse landlords for rent they don’t collect during the 30-day waiting period.

When he told members Wednesday that the diversion program would continue for another year and a half, rental property owners in the crowd of about 30 murmured their objections.

» READ MORE: Philly’s small landlords can apply for loans to offset missed rent during the pandemic (from 2020)

The initial version of the amended Council legislation that passed Thursday did not include an end date to the program. But HAPCO and others worked out “somewhat of a compromise, if you call it that,” Cohen said.

At the meeting Wednesday, a rental property owner asked whether entering the diversion program would help a tenant who usually works but has fallen on hard times. Because rental assistance is attached to the diversion program, Cohen recommended that members participate in the program when tenants fall behind on rent, even when they do not want to evict them.

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.