Tenant Advocacy Beyond the Office

Exis members are dedicated to service, and they show this in their daily work by relentlessly advocating on their clients’ behalf. One of our members, Tactix, has recently transferred this same attitude of service to their community. They’ve partnered with a law firm to form an initiative to serve men, women, and children in need in the Philadelphia area through advocating for residential tenants who are being mistreated by their landlords. Read more about this initiative below, written by Glenn Blumenfield, principal at Tactix Real Estate.

The Tactix Tenant Advocacy Project came together through a series of fortunate events. Tactix has always been very involved in the nonprofit community in Philadelphia as many of our professionals and staff serve on Boards, volunteer their time and provide financial support for these important organizations. The Tactix family hosts annual toy drives for children in the foster care system, regularly prepares meals for families at the Ronald McDonald House and participates in bike rides and walkathons.

For a long time, we have wanted to have a project that we could take ownership of and that corresponded to our core mission—helping tenants.  Late in 2017, Glenn Blumenfeld was talking to two of his former Dechert colleagues at the Public Interest Law Center—one of the nation’s leading legal advocacy organizations and the one spearheading the recent gerrymandering case in Pennsylvania that has drawn national attention.  Jenny Clarke, the Executive Director of PILC, and Glenn Blumenfeld, used to be partners at Dechert LLP.

Jenny described some of the class action work that PILC was doing to help tenants in Philadelphia who were being dispossessed from their homes or constructively evicted because landlords were not providing basic services including heat, plumbing, electricity or secure premises. PILC assembled a team of top flight attorneys to represent these underserved citizens but their resources were limited so many tenants were still not getting the help they needed. Glenn and Doug Simon, another partner at Tactix, looked at each other and  knew they had found their partner.

Within weeks, Tactix and PILC had hammered out a partnering arrangement whereby Tactix agreed to fund the tenant advocacy work of PILC under a new program called  “The Tactix Tenant Advocacy Project.”

Through our new program, more tenants will be able to obtain much needed advocacy in the courts and ensure they have the basic housing they need for their families.  We couldn’t be more excited.

Every day at Tactix we do one thing and one thing only: fight to protect the interests of tenants in the Tri-State area and make sure they get the best terms possible. Now, through the Tenant Advocacy Project, we’ll be able to extend those same tenant advocacy and protections to our City’s most vulnerable families in the residential context. This initiative is a natural extension of our company mission and values and emphasizes our strong commitment to serving tenants whether they are in an office building or in an apartment building.