Regional Housing Legal Services History

Regional Housing Legal Services (RHLS) was created in 1973 to address landlord / tenant issues in what was then known as Lacey Park, a 110-acre development with 1200 homes established for World War II defense workers in Bucks County.

Due to lack of maintenance by the owner, conditions in the Park became so bad that the development was designated as the worst suburban slum in Pennsylvania by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), now the Department of Community & Economic Development.

Under the leadership of Lorry Post, who had been Executive Director of the Bucks County Legal Aid Society, RHLS helped create a non-profit housing coop within Lacey Park to address the slum conditions. The coop was operated by Warminster Heights Development Corporation (WHDC). WHDC, with its first Executive Director, Preston Luitweiler, who had previously been employed by RHLS, managed the properties as they were being redeveloped. RHLS worked with DCA and the Bucks Redevelopment Authority to have the property taken by eminent domain, redeveloped and converted to coop ownership. By the mid-1980s, the majority of the units had been turned over to the residents, who only had to pay $500 to join. Warminster Heights remains a successful coop to this day.

Since then, RHLS has continued to demonstrate a steadfast commitment to community control and neighborhood revitalization. In the past three decades, RHLS has acted as a leading force behind many key policy and systemic changes made in Pennsylvania on behalf of the disenfranchised, and has been involved in the development of thousands of units of affordable housing throughout the state.

During the past 30 years, RHLS has been led by Executive Director, Mark Schwartz, and Mark Levin, Chief Counsel, who represented the coop through the redevelopment and in the ultimate conversion of Warminster Heights to a coop.

With its main office in Glenside, just north of Philadelphia, RHLS established a Harrisburg office nearly 20 years ago where it also provides a home for the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project (PULP). Offices were opened in Pittsburgh in 1997 and in Gettysburg in 2007 where statewide support to other legal services programs is provided through the Housing Law Project (HLP). Direct representation and technical assistance services are provided primarily by RHLS' Glenside- and Pittsburgh-based attorneys to about 60 community-based organizations per year. All professional staff works collaboratively to engage in numerous efforts to change and promote policies in RHLS' areas of focus.

Click here for a glimpse into the project's early history (PDF file size is 6 MB).
Click here to download the original Lacey Park brochure (PDF file size is 7.7 MB).
Click here to read a letter from RHLS founder, Lorry Post.