Date: September 30, 2025
City Hall
- City Council reconvened on September 11th.The first session saw a package of legislation designed to target nuisance businesses in Philadelphia. Nuisance businesses are those that repeatedly violate laws around liquor or drug sales with seeming impunity in neighborhoods across the city, negatively impacting residents’ quality of life.
- The following session saw the passage of Councilmember Rue Landau’s Fair Chance Hiring Law, which governs how employers may use information gleamed in criminal background checks to make hiring decisions.
- Last week, one bill introduced by Councilmember Mark Squilla marked a critically vital next step to advancing the construction of the second phase of the Reading Viaduct Rail Park.
- Two separate bills introduced requiring landlords to provide tenants with voter registration information and prohibiting the installation of additional utility meters at a residential property without proof of a valid rental license were discussed by the Government Affairs Committee. Their concerns and proposed amendments will be shared with the bill sponsors.
State
The PAR Legislative Committee is seeking feedback from members before submitting formal recommendations to the PAR Board of Directors to pursue legislation to modernize the Real Estate Licensing and Registration Act (RELRA).
Your feedback is critical. Please take the time to read the recommendations and provide your input in the following form.
Licensing Law Modernization Survey
Federal
- Real Estate Caucus Co-Chairs Introduce Saving the American Dream Act: legislation designed to enhance federal coordination on housing data and policy to better address our nation’s growing housing affordability crisis.
- NAR reiterates Call for Long-Term NFIP Reauthorization: urging Congress to support long-term reauthorization and reform of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
- NAR Aligns with Pew on Key Housing Affordability, Availability Measures: The principles—cosigned by more than 50 pro-housing organizations—offer a variety of recommendations to facilitate a broader range of housing options, alleviate regulatory burdens, promote growth in high-use areas, and reduce administrative barriers to building more housing.
This report is submitted by Lexy McDowell GPAR’s Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy.