The Safe Healthy Homes Act is the largest change to Philadelphia rental regulation in years. It was introduced by Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke and moved through Council in two stages: Bill No. 250331 passed in June 2025, and the remaining two bills passed on April 23, 2026 by a 16–1 vote, with Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. casting the lone dissent.
What each bill does
| Bill | Name | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| 250329 | Right to Repairs | Authorizes proactive rental inspections; clarifies licensing requirements; ties license renewal for problem landlords to a clean L&I record |
| 250330 | Right to Safety | Strengthens tenant protections against retaliation and harassment; requires rental licenses to be shared with tenants or posted publicly |
| 250331 | Right to Relocation | Authorizes L&I to create an Anti-Displacement Fund for tenants evacuated from unsafe housing |
Has the Safe Healthy Homes Act taken effect?
Council has passed it, but no compliance deadline has been published. Passage and enforcement are separate steps. The proactive inspection program requires L&I to hire and deploy inspectors — the Housing Committee backed a $10 million budget request specifically to fund the personnel who would run it. Until that program is operating, the practical change for most landlords is limited.
Do not read "passed" as "you are out of compliance today." Do read it as a reason to get your license, lead certification, and open violations in order before inspections begin, because the inspection program is designed to find properties that have not.
What does "proactive inspection" actually mean?
L&I will be able to inspect rental properties on a cycle, without a tenant complaint triggering it. Philadelphia enforcement has historically been complaint-driven, which meant a property with problems could go years without an inspection if the tenant never called — often because tenants feared retaliation. That is precisely the gap the Act targets.
The practical consequence: violations that were previously discovered only when someone reported them are now more likely to be found on the City's own schedule.
Does this apply if I own one rental property?
Yes. The Act regulates residential rental activity in Philadelphia, not landlords above a portfolio-size threshold. A single rowhome rented to one tenant is covered the same way a large portfolio is.
How does it change rental license renewal?
Bill No. 250329 ties renewal for problem landlords to their L&I record. Under the prior arrangement, an open violation and a license renewal were largely separate administrative tracks. Linking them means unresolved violations can become a barrier to keeping a property licensed — and an unlicensed rental in Philadelphia cannot legally collect rent.
The bill does include a safe-harbor provision protecting landlords from penalties where the City's own administrative delays prevented a violation from being cleared.
Was there a legal challenge?
Yes, and it delayed the vote rather than stopping it. A landlord sued the housing committee in early March 2026 alleging that deliberations violated Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act. The settlement required Council to hold a new public hearing and re-vote — which is what took place on April 23, 2026. HAPCO, a landlord association, also filed a federal lawsuit challenging the approval process.
What we are watching
The open questions are implementation, not passage: when L&I begins proactive inspections, which properties enter the cycle first, what the inspection standard covers, and whether the $10 million in personnel funding survives the budget process. We update this entry as those land.
What HubKey does about it
We file Philadelphia rental licenses for a flat $500, which includes running your property against City records for open violations, license status, and lead-paint requirements before anything is submitted. If proactive inspections are coming to your block, the useful move is knowing what an inspector would find before one arrives.