San Francisco landlords can no longer evict tenants for non-payment who owe less than a month’s rent, after the Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously approved legislation that set a minimum amount of unpaid rent that can justify an eviction.
But the tenant victory could be short-lived: The California Supreme Count is expected to rule in the near future on whether a similar legislation enacted in Los Angeles violates state law.
San Francisco’s anti-eviction ordinance, sponsored by Supervisor Jackie Fielder, allows eviction only if a tenant falls behind by more than a month’s rent, as defined by the federal government. Currently, fair market rent in San Francisco is $2,485 for a studio, $2,977 for a one-bedroom and $3,604 for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which resets the levels every year.
“Rents are increasing to record high numbers while a slow and challenging job market for working class residents means that many tenants are living paycheck to paycheck with significant economic uncertainty,” Fielder said at a recent Land Use and Transportation committee hearing on the legislation.
Fielder said that 25% of so-called “unlawful detainer” cases – the technical term for an eviction process – in the last year have been against tenants who owed less than a month’s rent.
“Landlords can evict for being short any miniscule, one-time or accidental amount,” she said. “San Francisco will finally have a straight-forward way to prevent these evictions.”
The legislation comes as rents are up 26% year over year, according to Apartment LIst, with the median asking rent for a one-bedroom pegged at $3,920 as of September. The San Francisco Rent Board counts 1,488 eviction notices filed in the year period that ended in March, a 44% increase.
The number of eviction notices, however, is much higher as the rent board doesn’t track just cause evictions, which includes non-payment of rent. In December a report by the San Francisco Eviction Defense Collaborative found 2,477 notices filed through mid-September and 3,449 in the last 12 months.
“Landlords can move to evict tenants for as little as one dollar and we have reason to believe that they won’t do that more and more as the incentives to get rid of their tenants increases,” said Meg Heisler, policy director for the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition.
Both the Coalition for Better Housing and the San Francisco Apartment Association opposed the legislation.
“While we recognize that cities have the ability to make substantive defenses to eviction it is our opinion that the legislation before your is procedural regulation on process of eviction which is governed by the state level,” said Charley Goss of the San Francisco Apartment Association.
Goss unsuccessfully urged the board to delay the non-payment legislation until the court had weighed in on the Los Angeles case. Enacting the ordinance while the legal matter is still unsettled would “create confusion,” he said.
“We will know soon,” he said. “What we know is landlords and tenants each do better when there is a clear understanding of what the rules are and what the laws are.”
Tuesday Rose Thornton, an attorney with the Eviction Defense Collaborative, said the city could not afford to delay the changes to eviction law.
Thornton recounted recent clients who faced eviction proceedings over confusion over a $300 rent credit and a $650 shortfall that was the result of the landlord applying that amount to a utilities bill.
“We don’t have time to wait on this legislation – not one more day actually because of the level of evictions we are seeing in San Francisco,” she said. This legislation will make such a huge difference at a time it’s needed so sorely.”
But Griffin Lee, an organizer with the centrist group Connected SF, called the legislation “one-sided.”
“We hate to see people get evicted but there is a moral responsibility on the tenant just as much on the landlord to be held responsible and accountable,” he said.
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This article originally published at S.F. just made it harder to evict tenants over unpaid rent. But there’s a catch.