S.F. supervisor introduces bill to protect tenants displaced by new housing

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Right now, the prevailing ethos around land use in San Francisco and California can be summed up in a word: “streamlining.”

Look through the housing bills going through Sacramento and City Hall, and most involve slashing regulations that slow down housing production. 

But on Tuesday, District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen introduced legislation with a different focus: protecting tenants displaced by new development.

The bill introduces new processes for developers who displace tenants by demolishing their buildings and is cosponsored by Supervisors Jackie Fielder, Shamann Walton, Connie Chan and Matt Dorsey.

The bill would cover all tenants in all kinds of buildings, but advocates are particularly concerned about the destruction of rent-controlled buildings.

At the board meeting today, Mayor Daniel Lurie indicated that he may support the bill. “I agree that preserving our rent control housing stock is essential to maintaining affordability in San Francisco,” he said. “I look forward to working with you on your forthcoming tenant protection proposals.”

He did add a clarification, though: “Demolition of rent-controlled housing is extraordinarily rare.”

Under the proposed bill, landlords have to give tenants six months’ notice before an eviction and lay out their rights in the language they speak. Then, landlords have to hire “relocation specialists” to work with tenants to find new places to live, and pay a relocation fee to tenants. 

Low-income tenants also get right of first refusal: They must be invited to move into the newly built housing — or back into the old building if construction is canceled or delayed — at their old rent or an affordable rent, whatever is lower. 

Jane Natoli of YIMBY Action affirmed the group supports tenant protections, saying the city should protect tenants while building more housing. She emphasized that building does not need to occur on sites where tenants are already living. “There’s plenty of opportunity for us to develop new homes for San Franciscans that don’t involve displacement,” she said.

The ordinance, she acknowledged, bucks the trend of recent streamlining legislation — and that’s fine. “I think that it’s okay to have a little friction when it comes to making sure we’re keeping people in place,” Natoli said. 

If developers fail to follow the guidelines laid out by the ordinance, or try to informally pressure tenants to move out, they can be hauled before the Rent Board, and the city’s Planning Commission can refuse to grant demolition permits for up to three years. 

“This legislation creates common sense rules for developers and common sense protections for tenants,” Chen said. 

As Chen’s office sees it, this bill is necessary, given all the legislative changes making it easier and faster to build housing, even if that housing isn’t yet being built en masse because interest rates and labor costs remain high. 

“The impact to existing tenants and residents has been lost in the conversation,” said Charlie Sciammas, Chen’s legislative aide. “How are we considering the needs of people who live here now at the same time that we’re putting in place these policies to plan for future generations and for increasing housing production overall?” 

The bill comes after months of advocacy about tenant protections from groups including the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition and Race and Equity in All Planning Coalition. They spoke before the Planning Commission this in February and began working with Chen’s office and the Planning Department’s Citywide Planning Division afterwards. 

Joseph Smooke, who does organizing and policy work with the Race and Equity coalition, says he’s grateful to Chen’s office and the planning department for “rolling up their sleeves to work with us to push this tenant protection ordinance as far as it can be pushed.” 

Smooke particularly emphasized the requirement for landlords to tell tenants if their building is being redeveloped, and the hiring of relocation specialists. That was modeled after how affordable housing developers manage their own tenants when there are renovations, he said. 

But Smooke said state laws endanger rent-controlled housing stock, and this is just a Band-Aid. For instance, if a developer decides to demolish a rent-controlled building and erect condos on-site, the rent-controlled units aren’t replaced. 

Instead, under state law, former tenants get the option to buy a unit at below-market-rate prices, but that unit can bump up to market rate once that tenant leaves.

Smoke also worries that demolitions could accelerate if San Francisco’s upzoning plan passes. The plan largely affects the Westside and lets developers build taller buildings — usually between four and six stories — with more units. Smooke fear this will incentivize developers to buy land and displace tenants. 

Meg Heisler, a policy director at the Anti-Displacement Coalition, agrees that the bill is good step, but not enough to protect tenants.

“I don’t think we’re under any illusion that, in its current form, it does everything that tenants need,” she said. “We should be protecting rent-controlled housing from demolition, full stop.”