Eva Gladstein News Today

The City of Philadelphia is expanding its Right to Counsel initiative to include two more zip codes. Starting Feb. 1, eligible tenants living in zip codes 19134 and 19144 are entitled to free legal representation if they are facing eviction.

The Kensington Community Resilience Fund directs $200,000 to organizations focused on improving the quality of life in neighborhoods hard-hit by the opioid epidemic.

Beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 1, low-income renters in Philadelphia's 19121 and 19139 zip codes will be eligible to receive free legal representation when facing eviction, according to the city's Health and Human Services Office. The Right to Counsel was passed by Philadelphia City Council in November 2019, and further implemented in December 2021.

Under a new right-to-counsel program, hundreds of Philadelphia renters will soon be guaranteed free legal representation if their landlord files for eviction.

The fight for rent control in 1970s Philadelphia was long, grueling, and frustrating, but provides lessons for tenant organizers today.

WHYY By Kensington, Philadelphia. (Max Marin/Billy Penn) Philadelphia has a new fund to help address the impact of the opioid epidemic on the city’s Kensington neighborhood. The Kensington Resilience Fund, announced Tuesday, is a public-private partnership, and the money will be used to help residents have more direct control over the response to the crisis, said Joanna Otero-Cruz, Philadelphia’s Deputy Managing Director for Community Services. “This community has had long-term disinvestm...

On top of Philly news ‘I don’t have all the answers’: Health commissioner ducks questions at Philly Fighting COVID hearings In a long City Council session, lawmakers and officials traded words with little new information revealed. Health Commissioner Tom Farley at the citys Convention Center vaccination clinic Kimberly Paynter / WHYY Feb. 05, 2021, 4:25 p.m. �� Love Philly? Sign up for the free Billy Penn email newsletter to get...

The Holiday Inn Express and Fairfield Inn in Center City were used as temporary housing for homeless people at risk of contracting COVID-19 to keep them in a non-congregate setting seen as safer than a shelter. Since the coronavirus prevention sites opened in the spring, they peaked at 260 residents, and were down to 160 on Monday, deputy managing director Eva Gladstein told reporters in a news conference. She said the move-outs were to long-term housing that the city arranged or helped them se...