Media Mentions
Advocates Call For AAPI Curriculum In Pennsylvania Classrooms
HARRISBURG, PA — Advocates from the Asian American and Pacific Islander community descended upon the Pennsylvania capitol recently to call for greater AAPI education in schools as a counter to a growing rise in anti-Asian sentiment in the nation. The Pennsylvania...
Senator Nikil Saval to Hold Rally Calling for Passage of Bipartisan Whole-Home Repairs Act
Philadelphia, PA − May 24, 2022 − Today, Senator Nikil Saval (D–Philadelphia County) held a rally attended by more than 200 housing and energy advocates, community leaders, Pennsylvania residents, and Democrat and Republican legislators from the General Assembly to...
Fight blight with Whole Home Repairs | Editorial
Among Pennsylvania’s many distinctions, the commonwealth has one of the nation’s oldest housing stocks — half of all homes in the state were built before 1959. These old buildings are brimming with architectural character, but redbrick rowhomes and majestic Victorians...
Pennsylvania Voters Across Parties Support Public Investments for Housing Repairs
Pennsylvania has some of the oldest stock of housing in the country. For years, weather damage, unreliable heating, and severe structural inadequacies have led to housing insecurity and expensive home repairs. New polling by Data for Progress and People’s Action shows...
Philly officials support GOP bike lane protection bill
Bell-ringing in Philadelphia Friday morning wasn’t coming from Citizen’s Bank Park or the Constitution Center but from a peloton riding into Dilworth Park outside City Hall. Several city and state officials rode into a press conference with the Bicycle Coalition of...
Lawmakers call for teaching more AAPI history in schools
HARRISBURG, Pa. — As a child growing up in the Philly suburbs, Serena Nguyễn was ashamed of her last name. “It was a strange, unfamiliar, hard-to-pronounce sound connecting me to a land distant in time and space. It seemed un-American,” said Nguyễn, who has since...
The Lawmaker Pushing for a State Fund to Help Pay for Home Repairs
A proposed bill in Pennsylvania would use the power and budget of the state government to help homeowners and small-time landlords make critical repairs to their properties, in an effort to address the growing challenges of housing affordability and climate change....
Philly spent a decade reconnecting neighborhoods to the waterfront. Widening I-95 is repeating past mistakes.
Over the last decade, something miraculous has been happening in the central Philadelphia neighborhoods that border the Great Wall of I-95. Guided by a smart master plan, the agency that manages the Delaware waterfront has helped transform its old piers and industrial...
Hughes, Fiedler, Rally with Educators for Full School Funding
PHILADELPHIA, PA — With Pennsylvania sitting on more than $8 billion in excess revenue, and a dismal national ranking for school equity, state Sen. Vincent Hughes and Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler held a pre-budget school funding rally in South Philadelphia on Friday to call...
Where Have All the Liberals Gone?
Last week, I had the surreal experience of reading my way through a stack of high-toned books about liberalism when news trickled out that a conservative majority on the Supreme Court was preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade. Legal scholars were swift to denounce what...
How have Philly and PA public officials reacted to the Roe v. Wade leak?
On Monday, May 2, Politico leaked a draft of the U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion, which indicated that the nation’s highest court will most likely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling which guaranteed the right to abortion in the nation for...
Seek ways to fight blight together
Imagine this: you’ve worked tirelessly over the years to be able to purchase an older home. You’ve spent countless hours and thousands of dollars to improve it. That was my parents’ dream in Tamaqua in 1965 when they first purchased a 1917 “half a double” and my...
Politics and Civic Engagement
Asian American Studies Scholar and host Rob Buscher discusses AAPI involvement in local politics and civic engagement with panelists Nina Ahmad, Nikil Saval, and Helen Gym. Historically, Asian Americans have faced barriers in becoming politically active. What are the...
Workers at Philadelphia Museum of Art ramp up pressure for fair contract
Nearly two years ago, workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) made history by voting 89% in favor of forming the country’s first wall-to-wall museum union. A relatively new phenomenon in the cultural sector, a wall-to-wall union allows for all eligible...
It’s Time for Pennsylvania to Act on Environmental Justice
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has an open public comment period on proposed revisions to the DEP’s Environmental Justice Policy guidance (EJ Policy). The deadline for written comments is May 11 and the last of four public hearings is May 4 at...
A city initiative and a State Senate bill show promise for retrofitting homes, but not without big challenges
Philadelphia’s built environment is responsible for about 70% of its carbon footprint, making it a key sector to tackle in order to meet climate goals. Building new, efficient buildings is part of the solution, but experts say there’s a practical need to work with...
Pennsylvania nursing home buyers would face more scrutiny under state health proposal
In the most complete revision of its nursing home rules in at least 25 years, the Pennsylvania Department of Health last month proposed new regulations that would require more scrutiny of homes’ prospective owners. For the first time, regulators would analyze the...
William Way receives $2.5 million from Gov. Wolf to assist with renovations
Gov. Wolf recently awarded $32.85 million in Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) funding to support 13 community economic development and revitalization projects in Pennsylvania, including $2.5 million for William Way LGBT Community Center to assist with...
Rep. Dwight Evans unveils $51 billion proposal to fight gun violence in Philadelphia
Adressing gun violence in Philadelphia and other communities across the country requires an "all-hands" approach, Congressman Dwight Evans said on Thursday. Evans unveiled his $51 billion proposal to address the gun violence crisis in a press conference held at Temple...
Pennsylvania needs rental assistance and eviction diversion programs, activists and lawmakers say
Several state lawmakers, researchers and activists gathered in the state capital to call for an inclusive, permanent fund to help renters in the commonwealth. The action last week was fueled by a new study by the left-of-center Keystone Research Center and PA Budget...
How Repairing and Modernizing Aging Homes Can Contribute to Housing Affordability
“The nation’s affordable housing crisis has gotten some semblance of attention — with journalists writing stories on the rising cost of rent, the scarce supply of new housing, the looming threat of eviction — but one aspect of the crisis has gone consistently...
How to fight the affordable housing and climate crises at once
Alicia Cruz was homeless before she and her four daughters moved into a newly vacant apartment in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, about three years ago. As she stood in the kitchen and watched dirty water clog up the sink, the landlord promised he’d have it fixed before...
Report: Pandemic worsened Pennsylvania’s affordable rental housing crisis
A new report from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has found that the affordable rental housing problem Pennsylvania faced prior to the pandemic is only worse now. The report looked at who Pennsylvania renters are, who was burdened by housing costs prior to...
Senator Nikil Saval Hopes to Secure Funding for the Whole-Home Repairs Act
State Senator Nikil Saval, D-Philadelphia, launched the beginning of campaign week for the Whole-Home Repairs Act on Monday morning at Hawthorne Park in Philadelphia. The Whole-Home Repairs Act (Senate Bill 1135) is a bipartisan bill that creates a one-stop-shop for...
Experts examine Philadelphia’s Black-white homeownership gap
A group of experts and policymakers delved into ways to address racial disparities in homeownership during a virtual event held by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. “For decades Philadelphia has had a reputation as an affordable...
Councilmembers Gilmore Richardson and Parker introduce resolution in support of home repairs legislation
Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson (D-At-Large) and Councilmember Cherelle L. Parker (D-9th Dist.) introduced a resolution last week calling on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to adopt the “Whole Home Repairs Act,” sponsored by State Senator Nikil Saval...
Bill to ban spot appeals would eliminate the Pennsylvania ‘newcomer tax’
(The Center Square) – The practice of spot appeals to reassess property taxes after a sale may be coming to an end in Pennsylvania. While the state’s uniformity clause prevents individual properties from being singled out, that has not stopped some school districts in...
Legisladores proponen crear fondo estatal para reparaciones de viviendas de bajos ingresos
FILADELFIA, PA- Algunos propietarios de viviendas que se enfrentan a costosas reparaciones en el hogar podrían obtener algo de alivio en virtud de la Ley de reparaciones integrales del hogar, un esfuerzo bipartidista encabezado por el senador estatal Nikil Saval, que...
Pennsylvania lawmakers want to create a state fund for low-income home repairs
Some homeowners grappling with costly home repairs could get some relief under the Whole-Home Repairs Act, a bipartisan effort led by state Sen. Nikil Saval, who represents portions of Philadelphia. The bill would establish a state fund, which would distribute funding...
Republicans in Harrisburg are using Ukraine to promote a climate-denialist agenda | Editorial
Republican lawmakers are using Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine to advance their anti-climate agenda. With bills bearing jingoistic names such as “PA Energy Independence Act” and “Ending Pro-Putin Pipeline Bans,” Republicans in the state legislature have proposed a...
Senator Nikil Saval and Berks Stands Up call for passage of Whole-Home Repairs Act
State Senator Nikil Saval (D–Philadelphia) and Berks Stands Up brought together residents, community leaders, and elected officials Wednesday afternoon in Reading’s Centre Park in a united call for the passage of Pennsylvania’s Whole-Home Repairs Act (SB1135), a...
This week’s biggest Winners & Losers
Nikil Saval: A bipartisan group of state lawmakers wants it to be Tool Time here in the commonwealth. Say “hidey-ho, neighbor” to the Whole-Home Repairs Act, a home repair and weatherization assistance bill introduced by state Sen. Nikil Saval. With support from three...
Reading rally supports legislation to help homeowners make home repairs
Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians are living in homes that are unsafe because they can’t afford to make repairs, state Sen. Nikil Saval said. “Every person has the right to a home that is safe, a home that is healthy,” the Philadelphia Democrat said Wednesday in...
Pennsylvania Senate bill would help people pay for home repairs
LANCASTER, Pa. — A group in Lancaster is urging the Pennsylvania Senate to pass a bill that would help preserve existing homes and provide funding for basic repairs. Lancaster Stands Up hosted an event Tuesday to promote the Whole-Home Repairs Act (Senate Bill 1135)....
Touring Southeast Lancaster with Sen. Saval
Following Tuesday's news conference in support of his Whole-Home Repairs Act, state Sen. Nikil Saval joined Lancaster City Council President Ismail Smith-Wade-El and local advocates for a tour of the city's southeast. As the tour proceeded up North Duke Street,...
Senator Nikil Saval has a bill to pay for home repairs across PA
On Monday, March 21, PA State Senator Nikil Saval launched his campaign for Pennsylvania’s Whole-Home Repairs Act (Senate Bill 1135), a bipartisan legislation that would establish a one-stop shop for home repairs and weatherization while creating new jobs. Monday’s...
Rally in Lancaster raises awareness of Whole Home Repairs Act
LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM) — A rally in Lancaster brought many homeowners together to raise awareness about the Whole Home Repairs Act. This is a bipartisan bill highlighting the importance of home repairs and weatherization and will fight for homeowners who live in unsafe...
Homeowners could get up to $50,000 to make repairs under proposed bill
LANCASTER, Pa. — Newly proposed legislation is taking aim at blight and hundreds of thousands of homes in desperate need of repair and weatherization. The Whole-Home Repairs Act would create a program to assess home repair needs and find contractors and community...
Hidey-ho neighbor: GOP backs Dems’ home improvement bill in bipartisan effort to fight blight
This bipartisan home improvement bill, the Whole-Home Repairs Act, isn’t just for show. The legislation backed by progressive lawmakers and organizations in Philadelphia has already received support from three Republican state senators: Dan Laughlin of Erie County,...
GOP legislators are backing Philly Dems’ housing bill. Why? Blight is a statewide issue
A coalition of progressive Pennsylvania Democrats has begun pushing a bill that would use a chunk of the state’s budget surplus to help people pay for home repairs. But unlike many Democratic funding initiatives in Harrisburg, this one isn’t automatically doomed. Key...