Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke said a lawsuit filed by two landlords that halted a planned vote on a bills package that boosts tenant protections a “bad faith attempt to delay and distract” from the legislation.
“It’s a disrespect to the democratic process, to this institution,” O’Rourke said during Thursday’s meeting. “At the end of the day, this is about whether we’re allowed to do the job our constituents sent us here to do, and I am not going to be deterred from doing the thing that the people sent me here to do.”
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On Thursday, the governing body was set to vote on the Safe Healthy Homes Act, which strengthens existing laws on housing conditions and evictions. However, two landlords filed a lawsuit Wednesday saying that council members violated the state’s Sunshine Act, which requires the government to hold public meetings, by discussing amendments to the bills in private. The lawsuit also says the council’s Housing Committee voted to put the bills before the full body without hearing public comment, the Inquirer reported.
Per a settlement, members did not vote on the legislation and the bills will be sent back to the Housing Committee.
Safe Healthy Homes includes three separate bills. The protections say landlords can’t change lease terms or refuse to rent to tenants because they’ve reported violations or joined an association. The package also authorizes the city to create a proactive inspection program and calls for expanding the city’s “good cause” law, which bans landlords from terminating leases or issuing non-renewal notices without showing a reason such as non-payment. The law only applies to leases under one year, but the new bills would expand it to all renters.
A third bill, which calls for the creation of an Anti-Displacement fund for tenants who are forced to move because their property was deemed unsafe, was approved in June 2025.
O’Rourke (At-Large-Working Families Party) first introduced the bills in April 2025 and has spent the last year working with landlords and tenant organizations to amend it. However, HAPCO Philadelphia, the largest landlord advocacy group in the city, opposed the legislation. The two landlords who filed the suit are HAPCO members, and the group expressed its support for the legal action.
“For small landlords in particular, these requirements could make it extremely difficult to operate and remain in business by adding extensive new compliance obligations and overregulating the rental industry,” the group said in a statement.
A representative for O’Rourke said earlier this week that the legislation is meant to inform tenants of their existing rights and solidify the work that good landlords are already doing. The council member said he plans to “keep on pushing” with the bill package.
“What’s been clear, though, in every conversation, is that there is sheer commitment across this body to keep moving, to schedule a new hearing as soon as possible and ultimately deliver what we’ve promised: safe, healthy homes for our constituents,” O’Rourke said Thursday.