A new law passed in a unanimous vote at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting and supported by Mayor Daniel Lurie bars evictions for renters who owe less than the fair-market value of one month’s rent. The change comes amid soaring rents and rising evictions in San Francisco.
Until now, the city’s rent ordinance allowed landlords to evict tenants for nonpayment of rent, regardless of the outstanding amount. The new law, introduced by Supervisor Jackie Fielder and co-sponsored by seven supervisors, will set a new threshold for nonpayment evictions: Landlords can only evict tenants who owe more than the equivalent of one month’s “fair-market rent.”
Currently, San Francisco’s fair-market rent is set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at $2,485 for a studio, $2,977 for a one-bedroom apartment and $3,604 for a two-bedroom apartment.
Many in the city pay far more than that, and high housing costs have been top-of-mind for San Francisco renters and politicians. In September, Mayor Lurie declared a rent emergency amid the city’s AI boom.
At a committee meeting last month, Fielder said that 25% of eviction cases in 2025 were for less than the fair-market value of a month’s rent. “This is a simple but very meaningful change to our rent ordinance that will help curb so many of the evictions we are seeing today,” she said.
Los Angeles, Oakland and Berkeley have passed similar laws. Los Angeles is in an ongoing legal battle after the Apartment Association of Los Angeles sued the city in 2023, claiming that the ordinance violated existing state laws.
In a letter to Board President Rafael Mandelman, the San Francisco Apartment Association referenced the L.A. lawsuit and said it believes the court will uphold the landlords’ position.
“By adopting the ordinance now, the Board would be inviting litigation over a policy whose validity will soon be resolved by the state’s highest court,” said the statement.
The San Francisco legislation could go into effect as early as December.
I think Mandelman is right. State law applies to eviction trials and allows a UD for failure to pay any amount of rent.
Try to rent an apartment at the rate they quote but that’s ok. Do away with rent control and there would no shorage of rentals because between 30000 to 60000 units are empty because the owners are afraid of the consequences of rent control.
BS statistic with 100% variance, thanks for playing the BS landlord game!
Agreed Sue, it is a stunning indictment of rent control that property owners would rather leave their housing units empty, collecting no rents, than risk the kind of “lifer” tenants who squat in the place for decades and whom you cannot.
If I still owned any housing units in SF I would only do short-term rentals to foreign tourists, academics and corporate short term lets.