the city then the trends we have reviewed today are going to continue. supervisor yee asked what are the reasons for this? it's because housing is for profit, because people can make an incredible amount of money on housing. it's not for people, it's not for families. until that changes in our city, until speculation and the market is regulated strongly, we're not going to see a difference. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon, my name is henry ostendorf and i've lived in san francisco for 25 years. the city has been really good to me, i earned a master's degree at san francisco state and i've been a counselor for many years mostly working with homeless and disabled people. i lived in a little studio on knob hill for many years on rent control and 5 years ago i moved into a below market rate unit in hayes valley just around the corner where these

two ladies live on goth street. i've been really lucky, my housing is secure, i can't be evicted, i don't plan on being evicted from that below market rate building. my concern is so many of my friends, so many of the people i have worked with over the years are so fearful right now that it seems like a state of emergency should be declared around housing. there seems like there have been so many give aways for developers. i'm a real fan of inclusive housing. when a developer builds a building, put some people in it who can't afford market rate but that isn't happening in many cases. the city is taking money, putting it into a fund, these buildings are going up like at 38 dolores street. insofar as i know they put money into a fund but that housing i don't believe is being built yet. i would love to see a time when developers give the money first to the city. if they don't want poor people living in their

building, give the money to the city, build that housing then go back and break ground on the market rate development. let them prove that they really give a shit because i don't think they do (applause). >> thank you, next speaker. >> hi, supervisor mar, supervisor campos and supervisor yee, there's no irony for me that this hearing is being held. i will just mention that i am with senior and disability action and i actually was introduced to supervisor campos as a result of an ellis act eviction. we both witnessed a man who had been living in his home near saint luke's hospital for 47 years, he had his mother and grand mother who had both lived in the same unit and he was the last remaining of his family and after 12 years of successfully so low fighting

through the court system, the investor brothers got two $400 an hour attorneys who ended up allowing the ellis act eviction to occur and this man at 82 was thrown to the street, literally. so this kind of unfairness obviously needs to be addressed and i do appreciate the work of mr. ammiano and mr. leno in this affair, but as i recall the legislation that was brought forth by mr. leno was vetoed and several other of them have been vetoed by jerry brown. so we need to increase the pressure on the governor of this state as well related to ellis act evictions and i certainly applaud everything you are doing here in the city. i will also tell you that i know two disabled persons and one senior who are all receiving in house pressure.

the senior is receiving pressure regularly and constantly and has for years from his land lord to move out of the building because he's been there over 30 years. my friend, who has been in her rent controlled apartment for 35 years, is disabled, as is another disabled woman that i know, have been long-term tenants and they are being pressured by inside forces. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is anna marie, i have lived in the mission district for 18 years and i am being offered a buyout for my apartment. i have been offered or told by the lawyer that if i find roommates in the future he must approve them and he will serve them with a 614. that tells me whoever i find as a roommate he will refuse because i won't be able to afford the rent. i said i would consider talking with a buyout

but i'm not going to be bought out of my 24th street apartment for less than $650,000 and i hope he knows that. anyone who has been a master tenant or anybody that has a master tenant relationship to go to the rent board and find out what the law is. i would really appreciate it if there was some way you guys could work the system to make it illegal, unconstitutional, the ellis act because it's unconstitutional. we deserve life, liberty and happiness and that's not happening. wet ellis act first went through i worked as a counselor for the tenants rights union and i am still in shock it could have ever gone through. if anything, if they are going to keep it they should add that anybody has kicked out by an ellis act that the people who are kicked out get 50 percent of the profit from those people for the next 20 years because they might hold on to it for 5 years but

then they're going to sell it for, like, 5 million later. and i invested for 18 years so how much investment, i could have put a down payment on a house. this is something, an addendum to the ellis act. if that's going to keep being constitutional they should allow 50 percent of the profit to go to the people who are being kicked out for the next 20 years. or they can make money somewhere else. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon, thank you very much, my name is jonathan stoker and i've lived at 1049 market street for the last 3 years. and on or around september 15th we received a memorandum email from our property management and they informed us that they were sad to inform us that they had lost their long protracted expensive battle with the city and that due to city hall's overly

restrictive policies that they were going to have to vacate the entire -- that we would have to vacate the building and they were sorry, nothing they could do about it. so we immediately came down to city hall with our torches to find out what was going on and we found out from dbi, very sensible, seemed like sensible people, that this absolutely was not the case and that it was the first they heard of it and so it was being completely misrepresented. so now about 65 units at 1049 market and subsequently it will be 1067 market are under threat of eviction and the deadlines are coming up a couple days before thanksgiving and subsequently a couple days before christmas will be my group. and i just hope there's something we can do about this, tommy and the hrc has been side by side with us and a lot of us, there are disabled people there, elderly people, school

teachers, unemployed people, under employed people, we really like being there and hopefully you can do something to help us. thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker. >> hi, my name is tommy meckum with the housing rights committee. i'd like to give a response to something you brought up, supervisor campos, about the numbers of cases we're seeing that are on record. i think they're as low as they seem in comparison to maybe what happened in the late 90's is because in the late 90's we weren't having the buyouts and the threats that are pushing people out. i think if we calculate in the buyouts and the threats we definitely have more evictions than we did back then because a buyout and a threat of an eviction that drives somebody out is an eviction as far as i'm concerned. i'd like to express my support for the legislation that's been

proposed, the repeals and reforms of the ellis act, the legislation being proposed by the antidisplacement group, i hope all these things happen and they have an effect on the speculation that's happening in our city. i know people have talked about the lack of affordable housing. it is avery real problem. i have an idea how we can address that too. i think when we are developing these community benefits packages with the developers and with the tech companies we need to think about charging them a fee for coming, for doing development and for coming in this city. that could then be paid to the san francisco land trust so that the land trust can acquire buildings and that those buildings will be affordable housing forever. the biggest obstacle the land trust faces is the lack of money to buy buildings. real estate is very expensive. if we made the developers and these tech companies pay, pay for the

privilege of being here and for developing here and we put into land trust we could make a lot of housing affordable forever for san franciscoans and for people being evicted. thank you. >> i'm going to read a few more names prrp (reading names). >> hi, my name is tom rapp, i moved in san francisco in 1988 with my band. this is where my roots are, this is where i have made so many great friend ships and had so many good times and this is where i want to continue living. i am living in a rent controlled building for 15 years, my roommate who is a disabled senior has been there

27 years and we are being ellis evicted. we were being offered a win-win situation and we are being harassed and threatened. the ellis act is being abused at the expense of the character of the city. you are the law makers and i can't help thinking there must be something you can do to not only stop future abuse of ellis but to help the people who are currently in the eviction process. thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker. >> thank you for having this hearing. my name is melissa brackero, i live at 1047 and looking at eviction the day before thanksgiving. i look at this as a state of emergency because the options are nil and to have to move out of the city or out of the state because that is going to be the option for some of us. it is

not affordable, oakland is no longer affordable, there have been people we have contacted us saying, hey, if you want to move to richmond and have a live-work space, i am an accountant and i am part of the people who have made it desirable for these developers to come in there. i hope this is treated as an emergency, all of us deserve to be here and i appreciate your time and your consideration. thank you. >> thank you, ma'am. next speaker, please. >> hithere, may name is chris baker and i've lived at 1049 market for 11 years, i want to thank our mayor and the dbi for their help in getting the demolition permit that was used as a justification for the evictions of half of the tenants in our building, to get that permit suspended. that was terrific but the day we lerbed

-- learned that that person mitt had i've heard people say that what our land lords, amy bogard and john gall, are doing with 1047 market would be the biggest mass eviction and i think we are really the canary in the coal mine for a lot of live work buildings, a lot of illegal buildings in the city. land lords who are perfectly happy to exploit the leeway, the blind eye to very fine eye legal points that the city used to create affordable housing now that they can sell these units as office space, again, are happy to use all of that gray area to their advantage and ignore their obligation to us, the tenants. so i thank you

for your help but, yeah, half of us still face eviction the day before thanksgiving, half of us still face eviction right before christmastime. please, whatever you can do to help us would be greatly appreciated. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hi there, my name is tony, i have been representing the

artists at 1040 artist street, i have lived there for 16 years, i have lived in the city for a little over 20 years. and i think, i keep hearing a lot of talk up about the legalities about the ellis act evictions and i think what we need to start having a discussion about is the illegalities of what seems to be a large scale human rights violation. i also wanted to say that by removing security from our buildings as part of the construction eviction process and allowing people that are dangerous to come up to our floor and threaten us as a way to constructively evict us is no different than if the land lord came up to my door himself with a knife or gun and threatened me. and i think that people need to start taking a look at that. also i wanted to address the issue of around this city i love and the city that we love and it's not just the prospectors coming in and wanting to change our homes but it's the attitudes that come along with the prospectors and the insensitivity towards the citizens of our city that we are all shocked and appalled by and i am really looking forward to you guys helping us get back to the san francisco that we all love. thank you very much. >> thank you, sir hp going it read a few more -- to read a

few more names. (calling names) go ahead. >> thank you, supervisor,, my name is james, i'm with senior and disability action and what i want to express to you today is a sense of outrage. i'm really angry. i'm angry and outraged about the way things are going now in san francisco. there's a sense of urgency i bring. there is an emergency. we are fighting for the soul of san francisco, i firmly believe that. that is true. what we need is aggressive regulations and limitations on the ability of these speculators to come in and wreck havoc. that's what we need, yesterday. i'd like to thank supervisors mar and campos and supervisor yee and all of you for holding this

hearing. it's greatly. frankly, it's not enough, it's a beginning. it's a very early start. i came to state's exhibit -- san francisco with $500. i got a job, got a below market rate condo, two kids, married, motorcycle, whatever. i'm still here. you know? it's not the town i came to. this is the only home i know. it's the only home i know. now there are options. we need aggressive regulation, we need things like, i don't know, one to one requirement for developers that they pay up front for every market rate unit they have to fund below market rate payable up front, something like market based rent caps on people, some way to prioritize long-term tenants, a moratorium on ellis act evictions. it goes on and

on. i work with seniors, i'm going to get evicted, i'm going to get ellis act evicted. did they give you any paperwork? no, just the same shit they've been doing the last 3 years, harassing me. that's abuse. well, when they write any letter, you come talk to us, you will get hooked up. there's no letter, it's degrading. you have to do something, let's do it. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, my name is alteras pearla and i have been living in the bayview district for 14 years. i have been there since 1999. somehow i could continue to make the mortgage payment but when the economy came down a lot it was even more difficult for me to make the mortgage payments so bank of america put the house in for closure and it was

bought in 2012 by speculators and i was finally evicted in august of this year. it was really tough for me to leave the house that i had been living for 14 years with my minor son and three tenants and now i am living in the living room of my brother's house, which is not really that comfortable for all of us and is really, the situation has really anguish and afflicted me because it's very emotional for me, all of us. >> thank you. read a few more names, (calling names). >> my name is grace martinez, i'm the lead organizer of san franciscoase and those who

speak, a really interesting case about who exactly is creating this crisis. we have had a lot of speculators take advantage of the foreclosure crisis that's hit the city. many of these speculators are also members of the realty association who have been actively fighting against any progressive legislation that would protect home owners and tenants. supervisor mar pointed out craig lip ton, who including dmg, were 1 of 35 speculators who pled guilty to auction riging at the steps of city hall right in the back. their reward was, they violated the law in 2010 and they got to continue, you know, flipping homes and subsidizing that so they could continue not just evicting people but also buying apartment buildings and doing he will ellis act evictions. there's no justice in that.

that's why you see so many protests because seniors have no other choice but to find ways of dealing with these things because there are no laws and no protections for them. we're seeing not just these cases of evictions and speculation but we also see a lot of unethical law firms. just last week a top law firm that specializes in evictions had a workshop to show other speculators how to evict people and how to flip homes. this is their business. this is what they do. in addition to that we need to make sure the leadership, not the people in this room, the supervisors have done amazing work even with the foreclosure crisis and now the tenants movement but we need to see the mayor stepping up focusing on homes for people who can afford $5 million condominiums, we need to make sure there's a priority for everybody.

>> thank you very much, next speaker, please. . >> i can't really express myself the way i would like to but i have worked hard all my life and who would think two years before i am supposed to retire that this would happen? but i'm one of those people that never wants to retire, i want to work hard all my life

like i always did. i am the oldest of 4 children, my father died in vietnam when i was 10 years old, i raised two of my siblings. i have worked my way through the university of georgia with two college degrees, i made sure that my sister, who i raised at the time i went to college got they are degree, my daughter got her degree, i come from a very hard-working family and the fact that my father's blood was shed in vietnam for the american way and here i am, 50 years later, i am not able to live in san francisco which would have been the first port of entry for my father coming back from vietnam, something is very wrong with that. i think there is an opportunity for there to be humanitarian answers to all of this. these ellis evictions are, ellis act evictions are affecting me because that means more

competition. there supposedly our bmr is below market rate, rentals or housing and when you go and ask people treat you like second class citizens when you ask for that, for help. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> thanking you for your attention. my name is ian haddo, i have long-term held a rental property which is also my home. i am at risk of being displaced. one of the most powerful questions i know is how did i or we set this up. so when i asked that question for my own benefit i shift my attention from other people and my desire for them to change their behavior where i wield no power, to recognizing how i have contributed to the

situation and how i might change my behavior to affect a change and influence others to do likewise. a question which i have not heard being asked in this hearing or in any other situation is why are an estimated 70,000 rental units being withheld from the market? nobody's been surveyed, i haven't been asked, i have been withholding two or three rental units at a time. i deem it important to investigate and determine seemingly to me rental property owners at a time when market values are high are withholding rental units from the market for a particular reason or reasons which it's appropriate be

determined in your continuing investigation. i thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker. >> hello, my name is sarah brant, i want to thank you supervisors for holding this and fighting for our city's soul or what's worth of it and i'm so sorry i'm in none of your districts. i appreciate you and i hope you will continue to create laws that catch up with our loopholes because i think that's what's happened in part. i was raised in san francisco, i went through the public schools here, then i taught in our public schools for 15 years. i have taught the children of some of the people in here, it turns out, and i have also for the last 15 years lived in a building that real estate vultures have now renamed the area safeway heights, which is very exciting sounding. i thought we were on the flats but whatever. our building was bought in december by a predatory

investment house flippers known as urban green. they bought many properties at once so i know they are not planning to move in and the day they bought it, i sent them an email, not knowing who they were, and the representative made it clear that changes were coming and the changes was that we would all be removed one way or another to make room for tic's because that was the business model. my building includes me, a senior with a disability, my 97-year-old neighbor who cannot be here but she sent her picture because she was really excited, she wished she could be here but she can't quite get down the stairs. so we are being evicted on the week of her 98th birthday. she asked that i tell you guys that although she has -- she's very funny -- she has an amazing long-term memory but her short term memorandumly is not so good so when i come home and i

check in on her she'll say i read this terrible story about how this elder and this is an epidemic and it is terrible and i have to continually tell her that she is one of those people. >> you can put her picture on the projector so we can see her? can we have the technical support from sfgtv here? >> do i do anything. >> there you go. >> isn't she cute? she wanted to make sure you got a nice picture of her. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors, members of the committee, you said we need to save the soul of san francisco. san francisco just sucked the soul out of me. 38 years ago, i wanted to

emigrate to the most famous city of the world, san francisco. i was seeking freedom and i was seeking equality as a gay woman and to escape political oppression. so 1987 after two decades of working as a program director of a nonprofit i finally bought my property in bayview and 4 years later, unfortunately, he only had 4 years to enjoy his house before he was killed by sfpd when we talk about the merits of the middle class i feel i want to tell you i'm one of the faces of collateral damage of the middle class at the hand of the greedy developers. i am now losing my fight against illegal foreclosure perpetrated by bank of america. i had it leave my house, which is now an empty

shell, devoid of any of the memories of me or my child. i was lucky enough to get into bridge housing but i came this close to dying on the street. please do the right thing. we need your support. thank you. >> thank you very much. i'm going to read a couple more names (reading names). >> hi, my name is lopez and we are being evicted. we live in 10 unit building in the mission district. i'm kind of representing everybody here. we are a lot of elder people, disabled, children, i am