Related: Supes Meeting: Eviction Protections Passed, Pot Task Force, SF 8 Defense Reimbursement Proposed
Why can’t San Francisco be like San Diego? A few reasons spring to mind: there’s no gigantic Marine or Navy base in near proximity; former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney moved from Massachusetts to La Jolla, not Marin; and in San Diego, every renter enjoys just-cause eviction protection.
Not so much here.
Here in San Francisco, anyone living in a building built before 1979 can enjoy both rent control protection and can only be evicted from his or her place for one of 15 reasons — so-called “just-cause evictions”. These range from nonpayment or habitual late payment of rent, using your apartment for illegal purposes, cranking house music at any time at all or “owner-move in evictions” (i.e., you can be kicked out of your apartment if your landlord wants to live there, but there are other restrictions including due notice).
However, those rules do not apply to housing built after 1979, leaving those of us not lucky enough to live in a grand old Victorian or an earthquake shack in the lurch.
On Tuesday, legislation that would have extended “just-cause eviction protection” to all San Francisco rental units — another 16,000-23,000 units currently built, and the 10,000 or so units currently being built or soon to be built, according to the Board’s estimate — passed the full Board of Supervisors.
Victory for renters? Defeat for landlords? Not yet — Mayor Gavin Newsom has promised to veto the legislation, and the legislation passed with only seven votes on the Board. Eight are needed to overturn a mayoral veto; ergo the law seems dead.
Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who has kicked off his campaign for mayor, was one of the nay votes. He said condominium owners’ concerns were what moved him: condo-owners renting out their new (or new-er) units would have a harder time getting their tenants out in order to themselves move in under the new law. “They might end up having to go to the Superior Court (for an OMI eviction),” Dufty said. “My e-mail inbox was flooded (with complaints).”
John Avalos, the sponsor of the measure, said he dug up the factoid re: San Diego during a late-night Internet search.
“This legislation [was] about fairness,” Avalos said, “and extending rent protections equally” across the entire housing spectrum.
Apparently, if you want fairness, you must seek warmer climes.
