San Francisco city supervisors unanimously passed a law on Tuesday afternoon that would give “lower income” tenants three and a half years of rental aid if they are displaced, a bid to ensure the city is minding the impacts of its housing growth after it passed a citywide upzoning earlier this month.
The bill increases the rental assistance provided by developers for lower income tenants — those making up to 80 percent of the area median income, or $87,300 for a single person — displaced by building demolition, fires and renovations. It also requires developers meet more criteria if they want to demolish part or all of a building.
Rents in San Francisco remain high and are heading back towards pre-pandemic levels amidst an AI-induced boom. The average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is nearly $3,300.
“Over the last year, so many of our housing policy discussions in this committee have been focused on streamlining and rezoning,” Supervisor Chyanne Chen, who sponsored the ordinance, said at a committee meeting Monday, before the bill advanced to the full board on Tuesday. “This legislation attempts to center the conversation to address the impacts to existing tenants and residents.”
The Planning Department and Board of Supervisors have been working since February with advocates from tenant advocacy groups, including the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition and the Race and Equity in all Planning Coalition, to write the legislation.
Under the new law, developers would be required to meet at least six of the following eight criteria if they want to demolish existing housing that has been occupied by tenants in the past ten years:
The new project must be a rental project
The owner must have lived there for at least three years if there was an owner-move-in eviction
The number of units in the new building must be more than before
The new project must have more rent-controlled units than before
No affordable housing must be demolished
The new project must have more two-bedroom units than the original project
The property must have no violations with the Planning Department or Building Inspection Department
The new project must not significantly change a historic landmark
If the landlord has harassed tenants or conducted an illegal buyout in the past five years, the Planning Commission can refuse to grant the demolition permits.
In the past, the Commission had full discretion over whether or not to grant such permits, but now state law requires them to use “objective criteria,” like the list above, to do so.
Once redevelopment is under way, any lower income tenants would receive 42 months of relocation assistance from the developer.
The new building is required to build back any rent controlled apartments and below market rate condos, and, once it’s been built, lower income tenants must be offered a unit.
The new ordinance, Chen said, was drafted in response to state legislation that has weakened tenants rights in San Francisco, like SB 330, a law that prevents local jurisdictions from banning demolition of existing housing as long as at least one additional housing unit is added.
She also called out the state-mandated upzoning plan to allow taller buildings, which critics say incentivizes the redevelopment of existing housing.
Because “most of the projects that involve demolitions … are generally vacant” when they go before the city for review, if buyouts or evictions were misused, the last tenant to live in the units would be eligible to receive aid even if they do not live there now, said Joseph Smooke, an organizer with the Race and Equity coalition.
Tenant advocates said that, with this law, the city of San Francisco had taken tenant protections just about as far as it legally can. But they have their sights on SB 330, which they say constrained some of the protections they wanted to provide.
On Dec. 2, Supervisor Myrna Melgar introduced a resolution expressing her intent to work with state legislators to reform that bill.
There are a few changes Melgar and tenant advocates have in mind. For one, developers can demolish a rental building and build it back as condos for sale, which may not suit the needs or desires of the previous tenants hoping to return to the building.
Another issue: building owners can hold properties vacant for five years and a day to get around the requirement that they replace rent controlled or below market rate units.
Also, enhanced relocation assistance is also only available to those making less than 80 percent of the area’s median income, but tenant advocates think everyone should be able access the help.
For now, though, advocates are onto the next battle: spreading the word.
“Tenant rights rely on tenants enforcing their rights,” Meg Heisler, a policy director at the Anti-Displacement Coalition, said. “And they can only enforce their rights if they know about them.”