ZBA Hearing - September 2, 2026

Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?

I did.

and this is a referral so do you waive the reading of the referral simply to its accuracy

yes i just want to correct one answer to my question we had just received the letter of

support from the rco and the tax clearance certificate so it may not have been within

five days but it has been acknowledged and accepted by the board okay all right thank

you you can share your screen and proceed with your case

thank you I'm hoping to be able to share the screen I'm really not here we go too can you

see that no okay I'm not really sure how I get to this okay so Mr. Yanoff good morning this is

executive director Hegarty you're going to have to open the documents up that you would like to

share on your computer first and then yep and then go back to the zoom window and you're going

to see a button at the bottom that says share with an arrow pointing up and when you click that

you will see a screen in which you select which uh documents or apps you will be showing to the board

okay your documents are coming up thank you

up excellent thank you so much for that guidance um i represent the owners of the property at 1212

south 50 51st street in philadelphia this is a 2655 square foot property which currently is a

single family zoning designation we are seeking a special exception to rezone the property for

the use as a personal care home for a similar to the to the last application but a little bit

different for homeless veterans who qualify for va funding and referrals from a philadelphia

corporation for the aging and the department of human services with whom my my client has been

in contact our my client's vision is to transform the five the five bedroom home into a safe and

comfortable and supportive environment for elderly individuals and those with disabilities who

require assistance with daily living but this is not a um this is not a medical facility it will

not provide any medical services medical services that would be required would be from the um

residents private physician or other source of medical care we are monitoring those things but

we do not provide specific medical care there be 24 7 supervised care with trained staff

ensuring the residents safety and well-being the maximum number of persons in this property will

be four the the staffing will be with a trained medical professional as well as a trained um

personal care administrator who i think is also on this call joshua stevens

um the there are private or semi-private rooms to accommodate residents while maintaining this

home-like atmosphere there's daily assistance services including meal preparation medication

management care hygiene care and mobility support and activities on a daily basis to permit to

to promote mental and physical well-being and of course with the licensing requirements of

promote mental and physical well-being and of course

the commonwealth of pennsylvania and the city of philadelphia to operate this kind of personal

care facility we believe that this facility provides a much needed opportunity for people

to remain in the neighborhood and to function independently and ambulatory within the

neighborhood and to become part of the neighborhood itself in fact and just

anticipating a question from a member of the board at the last application my

client spent a considerable amount of time in a community meeting which was

held actually directly across the street from the property a tour of the

facility was provided to the to the community and the representation has

always been that the the members of the the residents of this facility will become members

of the community and will not merely be housed in this location just essentially being warehouse

the intention is to have these these individuals who are capable of getting around but just need

some assistance to become active and vital members of the community in fact there is a public library

directly across the street and the intent is to utilize that facility as well there are

security systems in place and the uh my client c affiliate is a 30-year lpn working with health

care facilities throughout the city of philadelphia and as i indicated uh josh stevens

will it will be certified as a personal care administrative council why don't you

why don't you start showing us some of the inside of the property right i will do that thank you um

this is just some of the paperwork there's the deed uh the certificate of tax clearance is an

old one but we submitted a new one just the other day we got a new one so that that that is now

current there's the posting information there's a location map an indication of the system this is

a floor plan indicating or a site plan indicating the location of this particular property it's a

three-story property with an attic and there's another picture of the property and this is the

first floor plan indicating a common area and this is the this is the this is actually the

first floor plan which shows common area in the kitchen this is the second floor plan which shows

the the bedrooms and the baths there are four baths and this is the third floor plan for the

facility remembering only that there is there are only four proposed residents in this property and

there are more than adequate bedrooms to take care of it we have existing photographs you can

see the living space area the dining space area and the kitchen and the washing facilities some

more interior picture space some bedroom space

staircase uh the fire and just the certified fire hydrants and um that that essentially

uh there's a project narrative in there from which i'm actually testifying a little bit as

you're talking about just i'm sorry i'm sorry yeah where did i drop off where did i drop off

mr chair right around the fire extinguisher okay well and there wasn't much else there there are

just a project narrative from which i'm actually testifying and which actually explains what is

going on here and what the program really is all about and how about the people next door do you

know how they are apparently everybody is in agreement with respect that we've had we have

not received a single negative comment about this and in fact the the rco meeting was 100

percent positive about this property all right why don't you bring your client on okay miss philly

are you on is she on promoting john stevens the panelists i think miss philly is with her was with

what's your client's name see ya Philly f-i-l-l-i-e she's the owner of the property

see ya

Yeah, I'm trying to that's Mr. Stevens is her nephew who will be the personal care administrator

hold on

I'm trying to

for the property.

Are we trying to get the camera on?

Okay, we are.

So we want to hear from her.

Am I correct?

She's the owner.

She is the owner.

if i if i may mr chairman right you want to ask her i can answer a question about whether she

adopts a testing why don't i do this why don't i swear in first no that's a good idea could you

please state and spell your name for the stenographer please spell your name hello

you gotta speak spell your name my name is okay philly c-i-s-s-i-a

all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth

yes thank you mr chairman uh miss philly were you present during my presentation to the board

yes yeah did you hear what i represented to the board as the as to the program and to the request

yes and do you agree with what i what i testify to and do you adopt my

my recitation and my proffer as your testimony

yes thank you mr chairman um miss philly are you going to run this place on a day-to-day

operation

miss philly hold on one hold on one second we're trying to get the volume up the volume just went

down we can hear you josh

Oh, you can hear me? Okay.

Yep.

Okay, what was the question?

I'm talking to her.

Are you going to run this operation on a day-to-day yourself?

Hold on.

They can hear us, but original audio.

Ms. Philly, are you going to be on site running this operation?

Say that again?

I'm talking to her, right?

Ms. Philly, are you going to run this on a day-to-day?

Yes.

Are you going to run this on a day-to-day?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

Questions from the board.

Yeah, I have a question.

you mentioned that the uh the nephew was going to be the personal care administrator

and what does that mean and what is his background

josh can you answer that question please well wait wait a minute we have to have him sworn in

i'm sorry mr chairman why don't we um sir could you please state and spell your name for the

stenographer okay yeah can i jump on i just said could you please state and spell your name for

stenographer hi my name is uh joshua stevens j-o-s-h-u-a last name stevens s-t-e-v-e-n-s

do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth

yes i swear counsel will you have an answer to that question please yes josh the question is

whether or not you know what your qualifications are and what the what a personal care administrator

actually is. Can you repeat the question? I'm sorry, because we're using my phone and the volume

on you guys in are a little low. Well, let me try it again. Josh, you were asked a question about

what your qualifications were and what a personal care administrator actually is.

And I'll add to that, how do you obtain the licensure for that?

Okay.

So for to be an administration process is one second.

so to become an administrator

I would have to get

CPR trained

child abuse clearance

TB testing

past criminal background

FBI fingerprint training

and I would have to take

100 hours

on the Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

Excuse me, Pennsylvania State Board, you're talking about personal care.

a state board, a personal care home administrator.

Other questions?

Have you any experience in running a personal care home?

That's the real question.

So currently I work at Volunteers of America.

so part of my my day-to-day is I work with yeah elderly and I work with clients

that have TBA which is traumatic brain injury and what I do there is I operate

I run as far as the medication, scheduling, transportation, and also I work hand-in-hand

with the service coordinators and referrals.

Okay.

So let me go through these questions again.

You said that there's going to be four residents?

Is that what I heard?

Four ambulatory residents.

Four ambulatory residents.

okay and then you said you had five bedrooms yes is that what I heard okay

and four baths okay and where are you going to get the residents from you

said where yes where are you going to get the residents from oh so the

We partner up with Philadelphia Corporation of Agents, another one is Department of Human Services, and we work in hand-to-hand with the VA Affairs.

And you have those relationships now?

Yes.

Okay. All right. And okay. So what about meals? How is that going to be handled?

So we plan on having three full-time staff, two part-time staff. So each staff will be responsible for meal preparation and assisting with daily tasks.

I see. And you have a place, like a common area for the residents?

Correct.

Okay. And you said that these have to be ambulatory, i.e., I don't see that there's any.

We won't be accepting no bedridden or wheelchair residents at this time.

Gotcha. Because there's no accessibility really here, right? You have to go up steps to get into

the property. You have to go up steps to get to the bedrooms and what have you. Is that how the

layout is we will uh plan on adding uh non-slip mats and um some uh grab bars throughout the

property okay all right okay and uh you have some kind of um uh alarm systems and what have you

currently at the property is a ring cameras front back side of the property that's already in place

Okay. And you said you're going to have three full-time staff and two part-time or four residents?

So, three full-time staff, morning, afternoon, and evening, and the part-time staff will fill in for call-outs and holiday.

All right. Okay. Thank you.

Other questions?

Yeah, I have a question.

So, what's the average stay of a resident?

Do you know what the average stay will be?

The average stay will be roughly about three years.

But, yep, three years.

But our 10 is for the residents to stay as long as possible, as long as we able to meet their needs and care.

okay so you're not looking to like transition people over you know long um short term

no we're not looking uh no short term so we're looking for them to stay as long as possible

as long as their needs has been with our care and say if their cares are to decline we will reach

out to that particular resident service coordinator to outsource them for a higher level of care

okay and the qualifications that you were describing do you have them or is this something

that you intend to get um i'm currently working on them so i was currently um a caregiver so i'm

i was currently um a caregiver so i'm currently is uh working towards becoming an administrator

I'm currently

okay and my last question might be for the homeowner um but so the house has history of being

used as uh um like rooming houses or does it have any history of being used as what you're

applying for now that you know of do the house have any history of being a room and house no

no

so to your knowledge it's always been like a single family house this is pretty big

yes okay thank you you have questions speaking so low yes um the neighbors what did the neighbors

think of this i don't see that there was an rco meeting was there uh the letter of support from