“Stand up for yourself. Stand up for your children. Be courageous. Because if you don’t, that crack you slip through? You’ll stay there.”
Support Ricci and her family’s fight by chipping in $5 here: gofundme.com/the-innocents
We went to PHA HCV Landlords today to speak with Bret Holden about reinstating Ricci's voucher but he refused to talk and called the police on us instead. So we talked to people outside Philadelphia Housing Authority about what's going on, how Ricci and her family got forced off the voucher program because of a retaliatory landlord lawsuit, and how PHA refuses to do what's right and get Ricci back on the program. Stay tuned for some video from today's action. In the meantime, chip into Ricci's GoFundMe here: www.gofundme.com/the-innocents/donate
"Each time the elevator serving her unit was not operational, Ms. Harrison would withhold a third of her rent for that month—an act that is her right as a tenant in Pennsylvania—informing Pelham Court property managers and reminding them of her disability. In 2013, an elevator outage prevented her from visiting her father in hospice before he ultimately passed.
In 2017, Pelham Court threatened to evict her for withholding a portion of her rent while the elevators were out of service. Ms. Harrison filed a complaint with the Philadelphia Fair Housing Commission, which found that this threat of eviction violated the Philadelphia Fair Housing Ordinance. Even then, her landlord continued to attempt to force her out."
pubintlaw.org
Landlord Pelham Court LP threatened Brenda Harrison with eviction when she withheld rent while confined to her apartment by a broken elevator. She is now suing in federal court under the Fair Housing Act.Facing Decrepit Conditions, Another D.C. Apartment Building Goes On Rent Strike
dcist.com
Residents say they're living with leaking ceilings, vermin infestations, and mold.We need renter protections NOW!
We need Good Cause legislation NOW!
"The percent of Philly households renting shot up by more than 6 points between 2006 and 2016, to 47.9 percent. That jump was bigger than the national increase of 4.2 percent, and the third largest among the nation’s 10 most populous cities."
"'The increase of renters means there are larger constituencies for our elected officials to listen to the needs of renters and increase renter protections across the city,” said Emily Auerbach, communications director for the Philadelphia Tenants Union. “Because currently, the law is just not strong enough, most of the time, to protect people.'"
planphilly.com/articles/2018/10/16/new-map-shows-philly-renter-spike-sharper-than-other-big-cities