City council member pushes for rent control in Philadelphia

A city council member is pushing for rent control in an attempt to keep low-income families from being priced out. FOX 29's Marcus Espinoza reports.

PHILADELPHIA - A city council member is pushing for rent control in an attempt to keep low-income families from being priced out of their Philadelphia communities.

“For the people that’s been here for a long time that don’t really have the income, they’re going to move them out," one resident said.

Turn a corner in just about any Philly neighborhood and you’ll see a lot of for rent signs, but is all the new construction at the expense of legacy residents?

On her very first day as a freshmen councilmember, Kendra Brooks called for hearings for rent control in the city.

“This is why the hearing is so important because in my mind I realize rent control means that you just don’t barely make enough to pay $800 a month. It also could mean you want to walk to work from city hall and you make a decent salary, but everything around here is $3,000 a month," Brooks told FOX 29.

According to a survey by Zillow, the average cost of rent in Philly in 2019 was $1,614.

“It could vary. It could be a voucher system that might not be the only or best way to do that. It could be if the city is investing money and making huge investments in development it should be a certain amount of units in those developments that are still affordable for working-class folks," Brooks said.

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