Anti-Demolition Ordinance/Housing Preservation Initiative

With rent prices and property values in San Francisco at chronic sky-high rates, it is crucial that tenants receive all the protections possible to keep their rent at affordable levels.

With this in mind, the Board passed District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly's Anti-Demolition Ordinance in February of 2004. The ordinance outlawed the demolition of residential buildings containing 20 or more units unless the buildings were found to be truly unsafe.

This legislation was a key step in protecting the rights of tenants since rent control laws do not apply to residential units constructed after 1979. Thus, any new buildings that are erected on the site of older residential units are exempt from rent control. So demolitions of rent controlled buildings which are safe to live in are nothing more than demolitions for profit.

Since approximately 22 percent of San Francisco's tenants (who comprise two thirds of this city's population) live in rent controlled buildings of 20 units or more, Our City stood wholeheartedly in support of Supervisor Daly's ordinance.

But on March 5, 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed this legislation, giving a victory to his wealthy contributors. An effort to override the veto later that month failed by one vote – the vote of District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who originally backed the legislation, but later changed his mind.

Still, the effort to preserve affordable housing in San Francisco was not over. Supervisor Daly decided to go directly to the voters in November of that year and let them, instead of developers, decide if the city would protect tenants from such demolitions for profit.

The measure was renamed The Housing Preservation Initiative, and Our City helped in the gathering of nearly 20,000 signatures – almost double the amount required – to get it placed on the ballot.

But one large property owner (who would be prevented by the measure from tearing down his 377 unit rent controlled complex named Trinity Plaza) successfully challenged it's ballot eligibility on a technicality regarding outdated Department of Elections petition forms. (These older forms did not include a new statement to the effect that a signer's personal information would not be used for any other purpose. Thus, the judge decided to "protect" the twenty thousand San Franciscans who expressly wanted this legislation up for a vote, by ruling to remove it from the ballot…)

Frustrated but undaunted, proponents prepared to again gather the requisite signatures. Realizing the game was nearly up for him, the interceding property owner came forward in December 2004 with a proposal that might soon serve the best interests of all concerned in the particular case of the Trinity Plaza apartments.

However, resolving a single housing dispute does little to protect other San Francisco tenants from similar assaults in the future, and Our City stands ready to aid proposed new efforts to return this item to the ballot, and strengthen tenant protections permanently.