The novel COVID-19 pandemic rocked our world in 2020—the legal world being no exception. It forced legislatures, court systems and legal practitioners to change the way we do business, especially in the area of landlord-tenant law. Over the better part of 2020, we were faced with (and continue to face) a public health emergency, whose very resolution required keeping people safely housed in order to stay home and socially distanced. For Philadelphia, it accelerated the need for real world, common sense solutions to an already existing housing crisis. As you read on, we will briefly explore the state of this area of law prior to COVID-19, changes brought by the Emergency Housing Protection Act (EHPA), the challenges tenants continue to face and concerns moving forward.
Prior to COVID-19, Philadelphia’s municipal court heard hundreds of eviction cases per week, with thousands of cases filed monthly. In the vast majority of cases, tenants represented themselves either to settle their case with their landlord’s attorney or litigate their case in front of a judge. While mediation was available for cases in which neither party was represented, litigants could only avail themselves of court mediation once a landlord already filed a case. Since eviction sealing and expungement has not yet come to fruition, a simple eviction filing, even one resulting in a victory for the tenant or a withdrawal of the case, can follow a tenant like a scarlet letter for years to come, forcing low-income tenants to accept substandard housing for lack of choice. If a tenant and landlord were able to reach an agreement for payment on rent owed, it would be reduced to the form of a judgment, with one misstep resulting in eviction. For many of our clients, living paycheck to paycheck, a delay in pay, a reduction in hours or an unexpected home/vehicle repair accelerated an eviction. With COVID, we saw a huge number of people experiencing these losses, resulting in a mass inability to maintain rental payments across our city.
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