Olivia Bennett Harris covers housing, real estate development, and neighborhood change across Philadelphia—from contested zoning fights in Fishtown to the affordable housing crisis reshaping corridors like North Broad Street and Kensington. Her reporting examines how policy decisions at City Hall ripple through communities, who benefits from Philadelphia’s development boom, and who gets displaced when a neighborhood starts to “revitalize.”
Notable Coverage
Her 2022 investigation into the city’s ten-year tax abatement program revealed that over 80% of abatement dollars flowed to projects in already-affluent zip codes while areas with the greatest housing needs saw minimal investment. The series sparked City Council hearings and contributed to subsequent reform discussions—work that earned her a Pennsylvania Press Association Award for investigative reporting.
She’s also known for her coverage of the 2019 Philadelphia Housing Authority leadership crisis, her reporting on landlord-tenant dynamics during the pandemic eviction moratorium, and an ongoing project tracking how institutional investors are reshaping Philadelphia’s rental market. Her approach combines public records analysis with the kind of shoe-leather reporting that means actually knocking on doors—something she learned matters when covering housing.
Background
Before joining News of Philadelphia in 2020, Olivia spent four years at Billy Penn covering City Hall and municipal politics, where she developed her expertise navigating complex budget documents and public records requests. She got her start at the Bucks County Courier Times straight out of Temple University, where she majored in journalism and minored in urban studies—a combination that continues to shape how she approaches her beat. She completed an Investigative Reporters and Editors data journalism workshop in 2021.
Philadelphia Connection
Olivia grew up in Delaware County and has lived in West Philadelphia for the past eight years. She knows the 34 trolley schedule by heart and has strong opinions about which SEPTA regional rail lines deserve more respect. When she’s not tracking permit applications or sitting through Zoning Board of Adjustment hearings, she’s usually exploring the city on long runs—a habit she credits with helping her understand Philadelphia block by block.
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Contact: 📧 [email protected]