LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Big Investors Are Moving In
Michaelle Bond’s article on how big investors are moving into the city’s rental market fails to mention the city’s responsibility for this trend.
This city is seriously anti-landlord, and small housing providers are selling out. During the pandemic, Philly’s courts actually protected nonpaying working tenants from eviction — unheard of in other cities. I lost six months’ rent to a scamming tenant and have no recourse to recovery.
City Council recently passed a law saying a housing provider cannot reject an applicant with past evictions and poor credit. Who in their right mind would want to stay in this business? There are many other insane regulations driving mom-and-pop housing providers to sell to big investors.
As long as the city sees small housing providers as adversaries and refuses to dialogue with them on their challenges and frustrations, they will continue to sell out to big investors.
The crisis in affordable housing will only get worse.
Pauline Rosenberg, Philadelphia