December 2, 2022

By Paul Schwedelson

Implementing policies designed to protect tenants and address affordability in the local rental market could disproportionately harm mom-and-pop landlords in Philadelphia, according to a new study. 

Kevin Gillen, the senior research fellow at Drexel University's Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation who conducted the study, found that Philadelphia’s rental housing stock is owned by an unconcentrated group of landlords dominated by individuals rather than institutions. Those small-scale landlords, already operating without much wiggle room in their budgets, would be hurt by rent control and other one-size-fits-all policies, possibly resulting in unintended consequences like a reduction in housing supply, according to the study. 

“Landlords in Philadelphia are much more diverse and diffuse than people think,” Gillen said. “… Any policy intended to help out the tenant at the expense of the landlord could just end up hurting another working class person even though it’s intended to help the original working class person.” 

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