i cannot wait until the next tech bust. i can't wait until we see the end of this. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> [speaking foreign language] >> translator: good afternoon. my name is -- and i'm the president of community tenant association. we're the largest tenant

based -- organization in the city and our 1,000 members are all low income mono lingual renters. we have 50 present and some are in the overflow room and we're here regarding our concerns on the proposed legislation.

if t.i.c.s are allowed to buy back the condo conversion process these units will be taken out of rent control stock and will open the flood gate and incentivize the speculators. a lot of the tenants are low income and will not afford other places. i have also experienced ellis act eviction process and i do not wish this upon anyone to go through.

also speculators will be motivated into the t.i.c. market. -- the waiting list, we're concerned more speculators will jump into the market and -- to get into the condo conversion while empty. this will not create new housing, let alone affordable. we need to protect rent control housing so families will not be forced to move away.

i -- the housing market. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm going to be brief with my comment. let's not fool ourselves here. this legislation is not going to do anything to increase the affordable housing stock here in the city. nor will it put a dent in it, nor will it protect rent control. according to state law the -- cycle of rent control is 1979. henceforth any building that is built beyond 1979 is therefore not qualified for rent control and -- under the state rent control laws. therefore we need to go and -- our laws here and get it clearer because there are -- costa hawkins and ellis act, all state laws. this is not going to increase our housing stock. it's diagnose to decrease it. millionaires and billionaires don't need financial assistance. they already have it.

so what are we going to have. we're going to increase the poverty level in our city, decrease the housing stock that we have, and have more foreclosures, more ellis act evictions, and nowhere to house people. this is not the right direction to go and therefore this legislation must be voted down. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is stacy, and i'm here to tell you what this condo bypass means to me and my family. eight years ago i scraped together everything i had and purchased my first apartment. it was a tenancy in common. it was an exciting time and as a single woman i was proud to be a san francisco homeowner. i've had a baby and this is blake, eight weeks old. he currently sleeps in our closet because we have a one bedroom with no room for a nursery. when i look to the future and

he's a toddler i don't see many options for us. we can't count on the severely backlogged lottery and if our -- we could go into foreclosure. because our home value is depressed we would lose our nest egg. i have no idea what we are going to do. when i bought my place the city estimated the lottery would take five years. today that estimate is roughly 20 years. my family is suffering. i represent a voice in san francisco that needs to be heard. t.i.c. owners are not the evil people that the tenants union paints us to be. i'm not a million ai. i am not a millionaire. we are middle class families that want to stay in the city. please help us do that in passing this one time bypass. if we lose everything we will have to start again and it won't be and can't be in san francisco. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you.

again, i'll remind -- i know that there are passionses on both sides. i remind people to refrain from applauding, booing, et cetera. next speaker. >> i'd like to reiterate everything my wife just said. we both love living in the city of san francisco. it's the best place i've ever lived. and we'd like to stay here, but our son and our growing family is forcing us to cram ourselves -- we're force to do cram our family into a one bedroom apartment. that's not tenable. and our options are pretty much we either lose much of our nest egg, or we try and cram into a one bedroom apartment. so my wife pretty much touched on everything that i have to say. i just have one point that i'd like to bring up to supervisor kim, and that is, one of the first speakers you mentioned --

you asked her if she owned a t.i.c. and implying that she didn't have a skin in the game and maybe didn't have a right to talk. i wonder if it that same question might be asked of people who are renters presenting today. not everybody here is renting a t.i.c. so wouldn't that same logic apply? >> chair wiener: thank you. public comment. thank you very much. next speaker. >> my name is jake block, i live in noe valley. i want to congratulate mark and scott for having the courage of their convictions to stand up for young families and homeowners in this city. the issue i wanted to address today is when i bought my house in 2007 i think the city was somewhat complicit in working with predatory lenders who lend to young families, buying tenancy in common, and promising

assumption provisions and other rights of transfer, that they now backed off of. in my particular case, our house was appraised -- our three unit building was appraised for 3.2 million and issued a loan by waw cove yeah. wachovia sold our loan to thornberg and sold it to the third servicer in the last five years. we tried to act on our assumption provision within our loan, and the assumption provision was denied by the servicer and they told us, they dared us to sue them. they said they would outlast us until we hit our balloon payment. as a result, we've tried to refinance, and our building that was valued at 2.1 million over the summer was valued at 1.3 million. and the reason it was valued is because as part of this mortgage fraud that i believe occurred -- or is still occurring, they want

to deflate the value of our building so we can't refinance because we're good on our 6% payment so why would they want us to refinance down to 3 and a quarter percent. the the issue we've run into a three unit with two unit occupied, we have no options. we can't refinance. we can't rent or run the risk of falling on tenancy, and the lotto conversion process, and then our third option is to declare bankruptcy and let the banks win. i would ask you to stand up for homeowners and fight the banks. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> thank you, supervisors, for introducing this legislation. my name is tina, i am a t.i.c. homeowner, i have been a renter, i've moved 11 times in my marriage, raising two children,

cities like washington, d.c., london, silicon, valley, san francisco, and i think i'm a reasonable, pretty collaborative person. and no one has ever been removed from -- we moved here six years ago and no one has ever been ellis acted. we may our taxes. and we're not going anywhere. we're here for the long haul. but we see people in our building who have sold, and our building renovated sold in 10 minutes to us, and other people who bought. but it's taken over a year to sell them because of the hoops the banks make the new buyers go through. and i just think it's the next right thing to do. and i love to see $20 million go into affordable housing. thank you very much. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> i want to -- mike muylan that

was my wife. i agree and support what she said because it's better off for me. we live in a t.i.c., it's very diverse, and the occupants in both jobs and ethnicity, we have chinese, vietnamese, people in marketing, we have a landscaper, and some that are semiretired. i looked up data from 2010 and it looked like at the time they said there's 65% of the units in san francisco are rented. that's 220,000 units and 35% are owned. that's 123,000. so this legislation, which is about a one-time -- roughly might be 2,000 units, is less than 1% of the available rental units at the time. i'm a little concerned about people talk about the speculators. well that's more down the road. we're talking just a one time conversion. i do think needs to be some reform done to the condo

conversion anyway, as well as, you know, enforce the rental thing. our son rents in the city. he's rented one unit for 10 years. he's a chef. he's not going to be able to get kicked out of that unit, he's not going to be able to get someplace somewhere else. looking at the paper, the concourse, they're going to put up 850 parnlts there, mission bay will have apartments. so i see the apartment thing is growing. i don't see the t.i.c.s growing nor a lot of help and support for those that are currently there. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am bill hanon, president of the golden gate tenants association in district 3. i'm very happy to be living in rent controlled housing and very happy to have david chiu as my supervisor. my neighbors, i believe, support

rent control. they oppose any step that would lead to a significant decrease in the supply of affordable rental housing in san francisco. and i'd like to ask you to vote against in proposal. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i will keep this short since it's been a long meeting, there's a lot of people behind me. i want to thank supervisors farrell and wiener for proposing this modest legislation to help t.i.c. owners while at the same time protecting renters. a little bit about me. i've lived in san francisco 35 years. i am not a speculator. i've been in my building for more than 20 of those years. i am not wealthy. i gave up a more lucrative career to work for a nonprofit so i don't make the money i used to. my co-owners of the t.i.c. are a young family with a newborn baby. they want to stay in san francisco. city hall talks a lot about keeping families in

san francisco. but there's rarely legislation to do anything about that. this is legislation that will actually help families stay in san francisco. and i urge you to support it. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> howdy. my name is ian -- of some disclosures. i own a two unit property in san francisco which is both my home and a rental property. a previous owner of the property i know created a covenant with san francisco which disallows division of the property into condominiums. the wiener-farrell proposal does not potentially benefit me. i regard the rent control ordinance as the cause of, although not the sole cause of, and not the antidote for high rental cost in san francisco. supervisors wiener and farrell, i'm supportive of your proposal to allow condominium conversions. it is refreshing for san francisco to offer a carrot

to rental property owners, a mient group, providing an essential service which since the imposition of rent control in 1979 has no -- more the stick. the other supervisors, my 6th grade teacher said democracy is not ruled by the majority but rather ruled by the majority with respect for the minority. ruled by the majority with respect for the minority. my 6th grade study occurred in canada. maybe democracy is defined differently in america. previous city administrations created ordinances pertaining to rental properties which benefit the majority tenants, when rental property owners fled to the exit previous administration blocked the way by imposing restriction on condominium converse. again tenants ruled. most tenants have never owned rental property, they've never owned their own homes. san francisco has been allowing

lunatics to manage the asylum. in the loancy vein is my own story. i was returning to home at 1 am when i encountered a neighbor on the street weeping. i asked what was wrong. he told me his mother ousted him from his home. i invited him to stay in my vacant garage -- thank you. registering my support. >> chair wiener: next speaker please. let me call some more cards before we start your clock. chang ying, brian bassinger, charles minister, cazu anzel, transis ca, andrea danger, steve wu, rine tha thanker, margaret ,

sandra, julie, dan, andrea, and june. you can proceed. >> the line got mixed up so most of the people in line didn't get called. out in the hall they told us -- >> chair wiener: if there's been any confusion just go ahead and speak. that's fine. >> my name is sarah, i moved back to san francisco 10 years ago to take care of my -- partially to take care of my father who had gone on disability and lives in a represent controlle -- rent cond apartment. people talk about home ownership. most of us would love to own a home in san francisco. we would be happy to stay here. in 1980, they were having a

debate about condo conversion in san francisco, actually, at the supervisors hearing. and the debate then was if something became a condo, did 40% of the existing tenants have to be able to buy in, or did 80% of the existing tenants have to buy in. right now, none of the existing tenants have to buy in, for it to become a condo. it can go to a t.i.c. first and flip that process. we're not talking about tenants and buildings being able to buy their units. renters being able to buy their units. you're asking people who are a higher income group being able to kick out people, often with a middle man, a speculator, doing it. if folks here wanted to live in a unit they would be asking you to pass this with a 10 year ban on renting or selling the unit. before it could be sold. but many people are going to condo convert and then flip it.

my friend actually owns a t.i.c. he bought it for 260,000. his t.i.c. owner upstairs just sold their unit for 450. that was five years ago. so clearly you can sell your t.i.c. unit for some money. they knew what they were getting into when they bought the unit. there's a lottery. the lottery didn't start last week. my dad pays two-thirds of his income in rent. his building just sold. i'm really scared. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> i have my card here. my name's jennifer grant, i've lived in san francisco for 25 years. i've worked at nonprofits that entire time, nonprofits funded by the san francisco. i ran two of the battered women's shelter for 17 years.

currently i work at one of the family resource centers. as a single woman i saved for many years, i borrowed from my family, and was able to purchase my own home after renting for many years through the san francisco first time home buyers program. my wife and i have two children who have been in public schools their entire lives. they're 6th graders at roosevelt. my kids go to the beacon program and qualify for scholarships at summer camp, qualify for muni. we're 4,000 shy of qualifying for free lunches. we are not high income people. over the past three to four years our income has gone down, my partner has lost work, and our mortgage continues to go up. we're unable to refinance. we're about to be housed out of the market -- i mean priced out of san francisco and out of the market. this is affordable housing. that is the only -- i could not

afford the rental market right now. i could maybe leave the city, and rent for much more than my mortgage is. but -- and my house is not part of the rental market so nobody is losing anything by me being able to stay in my house except that you would lose a family who's very much a part of san francisco and has been for a long time. >> chair wiener: thank you very much. next speaker please. >> >> my name is -- ingles, i've lived in the city as a renter and now as a t.i.c. owner and prior to that my parents lived here. we take great pride in having been part of san francisco from the early 60's. i think this is such critical legislation for those of us who are trying to stay in the city. middle income people are really looking for the stability of

staking our claim as part of this great city and want to stay here for the long-term. certainly from our building's standpoint there were no ellis act, no one's been evicted in terms of the t.i.c. i think that our -- one of my greatest challenges and the things that keep me up at night are whether we're going to be able to continue our mortgage. we have tried numerous times to refinance. there is no loan product available for us. i know that's something that's been echoed throughout the chamber today. but i think the really critical piece here is this is a very real problem for a lot of real people who are really just trying to make their way in san francisco, and give back to the community considerably. the pressure that would be taken off of me by having essentially financial stability would be huge. and on top of that, as i've told many of my friends and colleagues, i would much rather, instead of paying the high

interest rates that i'm paying to city bank right now i would like to return that money to san francisco instead. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> jim ingles, i'm her husband, and am in the t.i.c. partnership. i'm a disabled veteran and a government employee, but not a millionaire, not a multi-millionaire. and conversion to condos are important to us individual people, as normal taxpayers, and as moderate income individuals. we see this legislation as not damaging the rental market. maybe a few units, 15% of t.i.c.s are rented, 85 or people -- 85% of those t.i.c.s are occupied by the owners. the people who convert are going

to stay in those houses and continue to pay taxes, and continue to volunteer, like my wife and i, and continue to be part of the society. if we can't condo convert the odds are that we can't stay in the city. we love it here and we'd love to stay. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you very much. next speaker. >> hi. thank you. so my name is lance wilson, i'm in district 10, i live in potrero hill. i was a rent control renter for the the first seven years i was in san francisco. i have been a t.i.c. owner now for five years. we adopted our 18-month-old baby daughter from san francisco, a year and a half ago, obviously, and we're raising her on the hill and we intend to stay there. we didn't displace anybody when we moved into the building when we became t.i.c. owners. we also have a renter in our building who we support, respect, and want to continue to support in the building. he is fully protected under this

piece of legislation. we want to support that and contribute back to low income housing in san francisco. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you. next speaker. >> my name is fran taylor. the definition of chutzpah is you kill your parents and then you throw yourself on the mercy of the court because you're an orphan. i'd like to modernize that definition. you support t.i.c.s, you push t.i.c.s, you shove t.i.c.s down our throat, you displace people right and left and 10 years later you say t.i.c.s are horrible, they're victims. the victims are the the people who were kicked out in the first purge and we're facing a second purge. it's class warfare. call it what it is. for the t.i.c. people who have a difficult situation, i'm not your enemy. i go to occupy the banks actions

and i see single families and tenants being evicted. i haven't seen t.i.c. owners. get yourself down there. all those people that -- not people, those banksters you've named. don't kick us out because of what the banks are doing to you. >> chair wiener: next speaker. >> my name's andy, i've lived in the city for 18 years. my first 12 years i was a renter. six years ago, i got into a six unit building with my fellow neighbors. all of us, except for myself, have lived in the city for over 18 years. the only person who has lived there less than me is because she's younger than us. if you've lived in the city for a while everybody knows who city apartments is. i had a problem with city apartments and i'd like to

acknowledge aaron peskin. he showed me how to fight city apartments and referred me to the tenants union, which i know opposes this legislation but i can't thank the tenants union enough because they really helped me to get city apartments off my back and i think they've gone out of business now. my point is that i would never, in a million years, move into a building with a ellis eviction act. my building is completely clean, and i'm middle class, recently married. we hope to have a family. and it seems like automatic clock work, if you have a child in san francisco, more than likely you have to leave. we'd like to raise our family in san francisco. and i know the tenants union is opposed to this but i was with a tenants union. i was a member of the tenants union, and i can promise you this legislation does not harm

people. we would never do anything to hurt anybody. now i'm a t.i.c. owner and i still love san francisco as much as i did when i was a owner and i would like to stay here and this legislation would provide relief. thank you. >> chair wiener: thank you. before we get to the next speaker i think there was some confusion when people came in from the overflow room. if i have not called your name, if you could please take a seat. we're doing it in the order -- or roughly in the order of names being called. so if you are in line, if your name hasn't been called, take a seat. >> my name is brian bassinger, director of the aids alliance. jane thank you for your leadership on this and supervisor chiu i appreciate your help. i fell in love with you for a little bit, jane. anyway, in my hand here is the documentation of the legal condo conversion of the building i lived in at 65 and 67 pearl