By Joe Picozzi
In Pennsylvania, hundreds of thousands of blighted or abandoned properties drive down home values, undermine neighborhood stability and hinder community development. Combating blight is about more than improving appearances; improves public safety, preserves household wealth, encourages investment and reduces the burden on local governments.
When properties decay, overgrown lots and structural neglect are left unchecked, they create a cycle of decline. Abandoned and neglected properties contribute to crime and public health concerns, deter investment and make it harder for surrounding homeowners and businesses to thrive.
For many residents, however, addressing a blighted or abandoned property can be an incredibly frustrating experience. Too often, the first step toward solving the problem is simply figuring out who owns the property and how to contact them. When ownership is obscured behind an out-of-state company or a post office box, residents and municipal officials can find themselves with nowhere to turn.
Philadelphia alone has more than 130,000 vacant properties. (really?!?!?!)
Pennsylvania has taken important steps over the past several decades to give municipalities more tools to combat blight. Act 90 of 2010, known as the Neighborhood Blight Reclamation and Revitalization Act, provided municipalities with additional tools to address properties in serious code violation. Act 79 subsequently sought to simplify and improve the enforcement of laws against blight.
But the challenges facing our communities continue to evolve, and our laws must evolve with them.
This summer, as chair of the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee, I was pleased to help shepherd bipartisan anti-blight legislation through the General Assembly. House Bill 858, sponsored by Rep. Jared Solomon, D-Philadelphia, addresses a critical problem: identifying and holding accountable absentee owners of blighted properties.
I was proud to work alongside Rep. Solomon on this important initiative, and I appreciate his continued dedication to Northeast Philadelphia. Together, we advanced legislation that will give residents and local officials a much-needed tool to address problem properties.
I’m pleased to report that the bill was signed into law on July 20 as Act 29 of 2026 and will take effect on Sept. 20.
Under the new law, owners must provide contact information to the county chief assessor within 30 days of purchasing a property or when a municipality cites a property owner for violating a code or ordinance. The law also helps counties identify properties owned by out-of-state limited liability companies whose ownership information may otherwise be difficult to trace, including properties listed only with a post office box.
For far too long, residents and municipal officials have been stonewalled when trying to reach absentee property owners about blighted properties, uncollected trash, code violations and other problems. Local governments cannot effectively address blight if they cannot determine who is responsible for a property. Act 29 helps close that gap and puts real solutions in place to ensure property owners can be held accountable.
This law builds on the work I have done since becoming a state senator and reflects the work I will continue to do to fight blight and strengthen our neighborhoods.
Last year, I joined Mayor Cherelle Parker in implementing a new 20-year tax abatement designed to encourage investment, reduce blight and support neighborhood growth across the city. The program temporarily reduces taxes on the value of newly added or improved property on formerly blighted lots, making it more affordable to build new housing or convert existing buildings into homes. By encouraging investment and increasing the housing supply, we can help address Philadelphia’s housing shortage while revitalizing neighborhoods.
While the challenges of blight, disinvestment and aging infrastructure have no one-size-fits-all solution, Philadelphia needs strong cooperation between city and state government, along with residents, community organizations and responsible property owners, to make lasting progress.
My parents always taught me to leave a place better than I found it. That simple lesson has stayed with me throughout my life and my career in public service. I pledge to keep working every day to do just that: to make Northeast Philadelphia and communities across our city cleaner, healthier and safer places to live, work and raise a family. ••
Sen. Joe Picozzi represents the 5th District in Northeast Philadelphia.
