HARRISBURG — In his annual budget address, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro urged the divided Pennsylvania legislature to pass a measure that would seal eviction records for potentially hundreds of thousands of people.
In 2024 alone, more than 115,000 tenants in Pennsylvania faced eviction filings. And while most filings end with rulings in favor of landlords, housing advocates told Spotlight PA that about a quarter do not, and some are never even adjudicated.
Regardless of the outcome, that original eviction filing stays in a tenant’s public records indefinitely and can negatively impact their ability to find a place to live. Often, landlords use third-party screening programs that automatically scrape state records for past evictions.
Shapiro endorsed sealing records “if you weren’t actually evicted.”
“As soon as an eviction is filed, it becomes a permanent mark on someone’s background, even if that case eventually gets ruled in the tenant’s favor,” Shapiro said in his budget address Tuesday. “That makes no sense.”
Landlords have broad discretion to evict people so long as they allege a tenant breached any term of their lease. Those terms can include continual late rent payments, repeated noise complaints, or a tenant failing to switch utilities into their own name. Some landlords give tenants notices to leave, while others go directly to local courts to file eviction notices. Once a notice is filed, tenants in most of the state must address it in court.
Only Philadelphia requires landlords and tenants to participate in an eviction diversion program before a filing is made.
Shapiro’s pitch was light on specifics. His formal plan said only that the commonwealth had already opted to seal certain criminal records through its Clean Slate Law, and that, “The same automatic sealing can and should be done for eviction records of individuals who have not faced a conviction, to allow better access to safe and affordable housing or better job opportunities.”
In recent years, lawmakers in both chambers have introduced bills that offer frameworks for eviction sealing. That includes a measure from state Rep. Izzy Smith-Wade-El (D., Lancaster), which passed committee last year before stalling.
That bill would have automatically limited public access, including through a state court database, to eviction records other than ones where a judge ruled in favor of a landlord. Those records would be sealed after seven years.
Parties involved in an eviction case would still be able to see the filing, as could educational institutions or nonprofits that are conducting research. Other people seeking access would need a court order.
“When it comes to bankruptcies, foreclosures, these [things] stay on the credit report only about seven years. So it's time to level the playing field,” Smith-Wade-El told Spotlight PA.
Smith-Wade-El is currently seeking lawmaker support for a version of the bill he plans to introduce this session.
A spokesperson for state House Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said the caucus was “grateful” that Shapiro prioritized affordable housing by calling for eviction sealings, but stopped short of committing to calling up a bill should it make it to the floor.
State Senate Republican leadership did not respond to a request for comment.
While the idea has traditionally been championed by Democrats, there are signs of bipartisan support. State Sen. Camera Bartolotta (R., Washington), a member of the GOP leadership team, co-sponsored companion legislation in the upper chamber last session and signed on again this year.
Last March, Bartolotta told PublicSource that getting an eviction notice “should not preclude you in the future from ever getting a rental agreement.”
Over a dozen other states have laws that seal eviction records.
Aaron Zappia, director of government affairs for the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, an organization that advocates for affordable housing, told Spotlight PA that landlords may automatically reject applicants for having any kind of eviction filing records.
“It’s kind of a de facto punitive consequence for a civil action,” Zappia said.
Zappia said that sealing eviction filings from public access would bring relief to hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania renters over the next decade.
Paul Cohen, a real estate lawyer and legal advisor to the Pennsylvania Apartment Association, which advocates on behalf of landlords, said he’s not fundamentally opposed to eviction sealing but wants to see the measure coupled with policies that benefit landlords, like preempting rent control.
“There has to be something for landlords somewhere along the line,” Cohen said. “The regulations are killing the industry.”
Shapiro framed his support for eviction sealing as part of a larger approach to housing policy. Last year, he signed an executive order directing state officials to develop a comprehensive plan that would “propose a strategy to help ease the burden of high housing costs in Pennsylvania by increasing the supply and preservation of housing.”
That plan is due this September. In his budget proposal, Shapiro said his goal was to prepare for it by pitching new funds for housing.
Along with announcing support for eviction sealing, he proposed spending $10 million to help first-time homebuyers with closing costs; a gradual increase in funding for an affordable housing program; $1 million to help municipalities with housing planning; and $50 million to help Pennsylvanians fix aging homes (a similar proposal to the existing Whole-Home Repairs program, which went unfunded in last year’s budget).
Zappia is hopeful that Shapiro’s call for eviction sealing might garner support after years of inaction. But as he acknowledged, many of the governor’s priorities get bartered and traded during budget negotiations come June.
“There’s a lot of asks that come from the governor … you never really know,” Zappia said. “It’s being injected more into the public conversation, and I think that’s only a positive thing.”