Working Together: HopePHL, Landlords and Tenants

Sandra (her name is changed for privacy), is a local landlord. She was on the brink of ruin, when she met Robin from our homelessness prevention and diversion team. Fifteen of Sandra's long-time tenants were facing eviction from being unable to pay their rent due to COVID-related job loss. Most of her tenants worked in some capacity in hospitality and had faced immediate termination or reduced hours since the pandemic.

The landlord did not want to evict any of her tenants as they had been with her for years – she cared for them as family and had never had issues with them in the past.

Robin empathized with and educated Sandra on the win/win opportunity rental assistance provides for tenants and landlords in Philadelphia. She told her that she would serve as a resource for her as the landlord (as – someone to call with questions about the City's application process. Sandra approached each of the struggling tenants and sent them to Robin to start their applications with the Intake team. After completing the process, each tenant was able to stay in their homes and the landlord was able to keep her properties after receiving up to eight months of arrearages from the program.  

For more information about prevention and diversion work, contact Lea at lsanders@hopephl.org.