By Calvin Welch, HANC Housing and Land Use Board Member

Facing the most broad scale pressure in recent years as a result of Mayor Ed Lee's constant boosterism for the high rolling tech industry -from an increasing rate of state mandated Ellis Act evictions to historically rapid increases in rents- San Francisco tenants are “pushing back” and making some real headway in addressing their concerns. 

Propelled by the overwhelming vote against the 8 Washington project last November, tenant leaders have taken the offensive in defining that victory not as some sterile anti-height vote aimed narrowly at the waterfront but instead as a cry of opposition to the assault on San Francisco’s large majority of low and middle income tenants as a result of the tech boom.

At the February 4th Supervisors meeting Supervisor David Campos introduced an ordinance that would require landlords who want to file Ellis Act evictions pay their tenants the difference between the rent on that unit and market rent for a comparable unit in the same neighborhood, for two years. This follows Supervisors Mar's proposed legislation introduced last month which would raise the bar locally on tenants-in-common conversions by requiring that the Planning Department review conversions to make sure the units are up to code and require a finding of “extraordinary circumstances” before approval of the conversion.

The breadth of the opposition to the new wave of rent increases and evictions can be seen in a series of “neighborhood conventions” organized by newly formed San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition made up of the SF Tenants Union, Chinatown Community Development Center, Housing Rights Committee of SF, Eviction Defense Collaborative, Causa Justa/ Just Cause, Affordable Housing Alliance, AIDS Housing Alliance and the Council of Community Housing Organizations. 

In a series of 4 neighborhood conventions (Chinatown, the Castro, the Haight/Richmond, and SOMA/Tenderloin) hundreds of tenants testified to the displacement pressures they faced, called for unity and laid out scores of policies and proposals for corrective action. At each hearing tenants voted to select three or four of the best ideas to be recommended to the “Citywide Tenants Convention” to be held Saturday, February 8 (Lunch at noon, convention 1-4 pm) at the Tenderloin Elementary School, 627 Turk Street (at Van Ness).

HANC devoted its January meeting to tenants issues here in the Haight-Ashbury in preparation of the “Haight/Richmond neighborhood convention” held January 18 at Park Branch library. HANC members voted to send recommendations to that convention including a call to fund rebuilding public housing, requiring registration and the payment of the Hotel Tax on airbnb rentals and requiring that all “in-law units” created by new legislation being pushed by Supervisor Wiener remain rental and not allowed to be converted to condos. For a full account of the convention go to Tim Redmond’s “48 Hills” site http://48hillsonline.org/2014/01/19/speculation-tax-leads-ideas-at-haight-tenant-convention.

What is clear to those working with tenants, their organizations or simply attending the conventions is that at the heart of the current housing crisis is the decisive role of real estate speculation. What is happening is that rent-controlled units are being bought and “flipped” into TIC’s for sky-high profits. As recently reported by the Controllers Office, the number of rent controlled apartments in San Francesco fell by 1,000 units between 2010 and 2013. Moreover, recent data indicates that nearly half of all real estate transactions are being done in cash, indicating that what the Chronicle likes to call “investors” i.e., speculators) being a huge part of the current boom in real estate that is driving up both rents and evictions.

Mayor Lee and his allies on the Board like Scott Werner prefer to “change the subject” and urge polices that “reduce regulation” and stimulate “new construction” claiming that we can “build our way” out of the current crisis by building more market rate housing and allowing more TICs and condo conversions, a position no longer commanding a majority at the Board of Supervisors. 

The real test will be what tenants decide to place on the ballot and campaign for this November. If the measure is an effective attack on real estate speculation such as an anti-speculation transfer tax, taxing the actual “speculator profit” on these transfers making them less profitable, then the pressure will be on Lee and Wiener to either support or oppose these measures. Supervisor Wiener is up for election in D8 this November and it would be very interesting to see his position on an anti-speculation tax proposal.

An anti-speculation tax, coupled with Board-initiated ordinances such as Supervisors Mar and Campos are sponsoring ,would importantly change the “market” in San Francisco real estate. And changing the market, which serves no one but speculators, is a good and decent thing to do,

Watch this space for more news on this critical topic.