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April 18, 2015April 22, 2015

Rent Board Publishes Annual Report on Eviction Notices

The San Francisco Rent Board recently prepared its Annual Report on Eviction Notices for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, detailing the number of eviction notices filed with the Rent Board from March 1, 2014 to February 28, 2015, indexed by the “just cause” used by the landlord.

The biggest change is a 117% increase in termination notices based on “illegal use of rental unit”. There was also a 48% drop in Ellis Act termination notices. Note: the San Francisco Rent Ordinance does not require landlords to file “non-payment of rent” notices with the Rent Board. While 145 notices were filed anyway, this is not believed to accurately reflect the number of notices for this period.

April 17, 2015April 26, 2015

California’s High Housing Costs: Causes and Consequences

The Legislative Analyst’s Office, the California Legislatures nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor, recently published a report on the causes of California’s high cost of housing and the effect that this has on the broader state economy.

April 14, 2015April 15, 2015

Senator Leno Gets Second Vote on Second Attempt to Curtail Ellis Act Evictions in San Francisco

Senator Mark Leno presented SB 364 to the Senate Housing Committee today – his second effort to impose “anti-speculator” restrictions on Ellis Act withdrawals in San Francisco. Busloads of San Franciscans, on both sides of the issue, headed to Sacramento to share their opinions. Ultimately, the 6-5 vote against SB 364 maintains the status quo in the City, pending reconsideration, where the housing committee will hold a second vote (so stay tuned).

Leno’s SB 364 would add provisions to the Ellis Act providing that, in order to invoke the Ellis Act to “go out of the rental business” an owner would need to own the property for “five continuous years or more”. It would also provide that an owner who even initiated an Ellis Act withdrawal for one building could not do so for a subsequently-acquired building for another ten years (forcing owners to really stand behind the statement, “I don’t want to be a landlord”).

April 14, 2015April 26, 2015

Curbed SF on SF Housing Construction Numbers

Check out Curbed SF for a “sad chart” that “confirms SF isn’t adding new housing fast enough”, and other depressing observations like, “San Francisco is very good at producing above-moderate income housing, and middling at producing very-low-income housing, but pretty much abysmal at the rest”.

April 7, 2015April 14, 2015

Could Rent Control Be Coming to Richmond?

BeyondChron reports on efforts of tenants in apartment complexes in Richmond to go on a “rent strike”, in an effort to urge the city of Richmond to pass rent control legislation.

March 31, 2015April 17, 2015

San Francisco Board of Supervisors Supports Senator Leno’s Ellis Act Restrictions

San Francisco Board of Supervisors passes legislation supporting SB 364 – Senator Mark Leno’s second effort to impose restrictions to the use of the Ellis Act to withdraw residential rental property from the rental market. (Among other things, the law would require that a landlord first own the property for five years before seeking to “go out of business” as an “anti-speculation” measure.)

March 27, 2015April 14, 2015

“SRO” Units as Housing Supply for Young Professionals?

SF Gate reports on single-room-occupancy hotels (“SROs”) in Chinatown as the next frontier for gentrification.

March 26, 2015May 31, 2015

East Bay Express with Interesting Take on Costa-Hawkins Reform

Robert Gammon proposed an interesting idea for Costa-Hawkins reform in his Op-Ed at the East Bay Express. Arguing that Costa-Hawkins has not had its desired effect in increasing production of new (rent-control exempt) construction, and that new construction in lower income neighborhoods leads to price increases even on the older housing supply, he proposes an amendment where new construction is decontrolled for ten years, before coming under rent control thereafter.