Second Chance Apartments in Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia is one of the more protective jurisdictions in the country. The Renters' Access Act limits how landlords may use eviction records — filings that did not end in a judgment against the tenant, and older judgments, are restricted from consideration, and landlords are required to assess applicants individually rather than by automated cutoff. The city's Fair Criminal Record Screening ordinance separately requires a conditional offer before criminal history can be considered. Enforcement, though, depends on the tenant knowing the rules and being willing to challenge a denial, and most denials are simply never explained.

That is the gap this program is built for. Nothing about your record changes — instead, your record stops being the thing under review. When the applicant on the lease is a company with its own credit file and lease references, the automated screen that would have rejected you never runs against your name.

We do not screen your credit or your rental record. We do verify income, because the property still needs the rent to be payable. The threshold is 2.5× the monthly rent, documented — and in Philadelphia that works out roughly as follows.

Rent figures above are typical Philadelphia asking rents used to illustrate the calculation, not quotes for a specific unit — your specialist works from live pricing in the communities you are actually considering. Income can be evidenced with pay stubs, bank statements, tax returns, offer letters or 1099 contracts, so contract, gig and self-employed earnings all count. You will also need a government-issued photo ID.

What we do not require

No minimum credit score. No clean rental history. No cosigner or guarantor. No proof that a prior balance has been settled. If you clear the income requirement, you are eligible to apply.

Philadelphia's mix of institutional high-rise management and small private landlords matters here: the institutional operators are the ones equipped to process a corporate lease, and they are also the ones whose automated screening is hardest for an individual applicant to pass.

The list above reflects where placements cluster, not a boundary. If a community anywhere in the Philadelphia metro accepts a corporate lease, we can apply to it — including communities that have already declined you as an individual applicant, because the file they receive from us is a different file.

There are no monthly fees payable to us — after move-in you pay rent to the property. Fees are non-refundable once submitted, under the signed service agreement; the full terms are on our refund policy page. If a company asks you for money before you have seen a property, that is worth questioning — ours is the reason the application stage costs nothing.