Landlord-Tenant Officer To Resume Evictions Aug. 21 With New Protocols, Much Higher Fee

Philly's controversial landlord-tenant officer is preparing to resume lockouts after a month's pause.

But the city might not be ready.

Lockouts will resume Aug. 21 under a revamped set of policies meant to make them safer, according to a statement sent to HAPCO Philadelphia by Marisa Shuter, the private attorney appointed by Philly's 1st Judicial District Municipal Court to carry out eviction judgments.

Shuter's statement was posted to HAPCO's website Aug. 11. But it represents as finalized a series of changes that are still officially being negotiated, according to a separate statement provided to Bisnow by LTO spokesperson Michael Neilon.

"The Landlord and Tenant Office of Philadelphia Municipal Court is in the process of developing updated eviction protocols in response to reform recommendations from the Court and multiple stakeholders," Neilon's statement read, in part. "The changes will be designed to keep city residents and deputy LTO officers safe during the execution of court ordered evictions and lockouts, and they include the completion of de-escalation training for all LTO staff.

"Our collaborative work with the First Judicial District continues, and it is our intention to share information about future plans and operations when details are finalized."

Shuter volunteered to pause evictions in late July after one of her office's private contractors shot tenant Latese Bethea in the leg carrying out a lockout in Kensington on July 18 — the third time a deputy LTO had discharged a weapon while attempting an eviction in four months.

The plans that Shuter shared through HAPCO include several updates to the protocol for evicting tenants:

• Deputy landlord-tenant officers hired or contracted by Shuter's office will be joined by constables from suburban counties for each lockout, forming two-person teams.
• Shuter's office will disclose the date of an upcoming eviction to tenants and advocacy groups, only upon request.
• Landlords must complete and submit a new safety affidavit with their payment, giving LTOs relevant information about the tenants to be evicted.
• Shuter will charge $250 to serve alias writs of possession, the document that allows for a lockout to be executed, rather than the previous $45.

Shuter said all LTO deputies will have completed de-escalation and use of force training by Aug. 21, but did not give any details on the content of the training in her statement to HAPCO. First Judicial District spokesperson Martin O'Rourke did not respond to a request for comment.

The $205 fee increase partially closes the gap in cost between lockouts conducted by the LTO and by the sheriff's office, which charges over $300. The private LTO still is more convenient because it serves alias writs of possession, the document required to evict tenants in Philly, faster than the sheriff's office does, HAPCO general counsel Paul Cohen said.

The nature of the training being given to LTO deputies is a key sticking point for local officials, who had been led to believe that they would have an in-person meeting with the LTO and stakeholders before any details of the new arrangement were announced publicly, District 3 Councilmember Jamie Gauthier told Bisnow.

“We have to understand more about that training so that we know it’s adequate,” she said.

Cohen, who received the statement from Shuter that the landlord lobbying group published, acknowledged that it was not the result of a formal decision in an interview with Bisnow.

“I understood that this is what we can now start doing," Cohen said of resuming lockouts. "I don’t know if [the statement is] for the public, but it’s for us ... They’re still negotiating exactly what’s going to be required for policies and procedures for the Landlord-Tenant Officer. So formally, that hasn’t been finalized.”

Partly because of the confusion between Shuter's announcement to HAPCO and her spokesperson's official statement, Gauthier is not making assumptions about what has been announced.

“We knew that [Shuter] wanted to [resume evictions] Aug. 21, but we didn’t know that had been made firm,” Gauthier said. “It was our understanding that stakeholders, including our office, Brooks’ office and advocates, would be consulted before a final decision was reached."

A working group meeting about instituting policy changes at the LTO between tenant advocates, landlord advocates, Shuter's office and the offices of Gauthier and Councilmember-at-Large Kendra Brooks is scheduled for Tuesday, Gauthier said. 

"I have not heard anything from the courts," she said. "I’m withholding my judgment until we have a conversation with the courts tomorrow.”

Despite the lack of clarity, landlords are moving forward under the assumption that lockouts will resume Aug. 21, said Cohen, who also represents several landlords in housing court as part of his practice separate from serving as HAPCO's general counsel.

"My office does have lockouts scheduled for next Monday," Cohen said. "And it’s our understanding that it’ll be taking place with one constable from the counties and one landlord-tenant officer.”

Gauthier expressed support for the use of county constables as a temporary safety measure, but she still considers such officials as unaccountable to Philadelphians, being that they are elected by separate populations.

"We’re glad that the constables will have training, but it’s really key that we have that transparency and accountability that is not provided by using constables from outside of Philadelphia,” Gauthier said.

Brooks and Gauthier have led the city government's efforts to reform the LTO since Angel Davis was shot in the head while being evicted by a deputy LTO March 29. Davis' attorneys announced a lawsuit against Shuter, the deputy, Davis' landlord and management company Odin Properties in a press conference on July 25.

In a change of position since the day of the press conference, Gauthier told Bisnow Monday that her office has begun investigating legislative options for imposing accountability on the LTO if evictions are resumed without any additional transparency regarding the training of deputies.

"We think this cannot continue the way that it has, both with the safety concerns and the lack of transparency and accountability, and we’re very focused on returning public accountability to the way this is done," Gauthier said. "So it’s not off the table that we would pursue legislative options for achieving that."

Gauthier does not anticipate attempting to delay the resumption of evictions at the Tuesday meeting.

“We understand the need for lockouts to resume before the backlog grows too large,” she said.

Even with the changes in protocol, the resumption of lockouts under the private LTO was met with "sadness and anger" by the Justice 4 Angel Davis Now Campaign, a coalition of housing advocacy groups formed in March, the group said in a statement released Monday. 

"This announcement comes a mere three weeks after Latese Bethea was shot in her right leg in front of her young daughter on July 18," the Justice 4 Angel Davis Now Campaign's statement read. "No amount of higher fees, additional safety measures, additional LTOs, etc., can make up for the trauma the families of Angel Davis (shot twice in the head on March 29) and Latese Bethea have now suffered."

In a phone call with Bisnow Monday, campaign organizer Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture expressed her disappointment with the local focus on reform, rather than abolition, of the LTO.

“You don’t have safety measures for slavery; you end slavery," Nkrumah-Ture said. "You don’t have safety measures for a gun-carrying person evicting people who is not a law enforcement officer. You end the practice.”