For information and resources for tenants, please visit www.phillytenant.org. We want to use them to create a community land trust. We don’t believe that it’s a crime to place a family with small children into a home so they can sleep safely and soundly. Annotations Off Follow Changes Share Download Bookmark Print. We want to use them to create a community land trust. As Dickerson put it, "If I could afford my own place, I couldn't afford to eat. A friend told her that she could get her into public housing, but Stremist thought she meant that she would be expedited off the waiting list.
Philadelphia Housing Authority Extends Eviction Moratorium In City Until March 2021The Philadelphia Housing Authority said Thursday it'll be in place until March 15, 2021. Johnson said that both encampments were created after long-standing encampments elsewhere in the city were evicted. So far, Bennetch and other organizers have housed over 40 people by occupying 11 homes, all owned by the authority whose responsibility it is to match people with public housing. She's doing what she says is "the government's job to make sure people who need it have housing." Philadelphia Gas Works, the city’s Water Department and other utilities late last week suspended utility shutoffs in response to the outbreak. Eviction All eviction and lockout proceedings have been suspended through at least July 10. We are independent, non-profit, advertising-free and 100% reader supported.Common Dreams is a small nonprofit with a big mission. But according to Sterling Johnson, an organizer with The Black and Brown Workers Cooperative and Philadelphia Housing Action, houselessness "was a public health issue before Covid. This is public property.For more, we go to Philadelphia, where the mayor has postponed the eviction of an encampment of unhoused people that was scheduled for this morning — about right now, in fact.
With the pandemic and its economic reverberations ongoing, mass evictions and foreclosures are likely, meaning more people could join encampments like these. You know, it’s really important to see what the Housing Authority in Philadelphia — and not only Philadelphia, but other housing authorities across the country — have been doing to basically privatize public property. The landlord tenant officer can evict you 21 days after the judgment. Many of those on the waiting list have to wait up to 13 years to get housing.Although Bennetch got a "cease and desist" letter and was threatened to be charged with felony criminal trespassing for assisting with the occupation, she believes that, ultimately, the families will be able to stay in the homes. As the weather gets hotter and workers' unemployment checks run out, more and more people will be at risk of eviction or foreclosure once states' and cities' moratoriums end. People's landlords are already trying to evict them illegally now." ABOUT PHA Established in 1937, PHA is the nation's fourth largest public housing authority. Bennetch believes that "the city knows that when courts open back up, there's going to be a way bigger problem than what we have now. “I’m not sure what else [PHA] would have them do.”Get the news you need to start your dayPHA’s aggressive, short-sighted response –– to threaten the organizers with legal action, and intimidate protesters off the property with its private police force –– has crystallized what those facing housing instability have said for years. If your landlord changes your locks or otherwise tries to force you out, call 911, contact the Tenant Hotline (267-443-2500), file an emergency petition with the Court of Common Pleas, and file a complaint with the Attorney General. They also echo the call heard at many protests around George Floyd's murder to disband the Philadelphia police department.While there's been some temporary municipal and state-wide relief for renters, there's been no legislation that actually forgives rent or mortgage payments during the pandemic.
- Craig Brown, Co-founderA homeless encampment nestled in a park at 22nd Street and The Benjamen Franklin Park Way brings to light the need for housing, healthcare, food security, and community, connecting them to the defund the police and Black Lives Matter movements in Philadelphia on July 5, 2020. This time, things ended with a positive resolution. A lawyer has stepped up and offered to represent the families, which have also been supported by housing and homeless activists across the city. That eviction … The Eviction Process in Philadelphia County. Even when she had enough money to rent a place, she was consistently rejected, either because her credit was bad, or because she was told she had too many kids. Instead, we rely on readers like you, to provide the "people power" that fuels our work. To remain an independent news source, we do not advertise, sell subscriptions or accept corporate contributions. Public Housing Residents: Request emergency repairs by calling (215) 684-8920. "Although it's PHA's sole job to provide housing for those who need it, the authority has been under fire by activists in recent years for being ineffective.