>> 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 -- for me it is terrible to hear all the testimonies here but at the same time it's like feeling the strength of these people and also want to ask you for more

support and also thank you for your support and that no giving up on us in the city. one thing is clear for us in our building, we don't want money, we don't want compensation, we want our homes. no money can buy, my childrens were born in the house and we've been living and investing in our buildings and we don't want to leave. i am -- one of the persons who spoke said what are we going to do with our children. we also teachers, what are we going to do without teachers who can afford here to live? who can live without all the people who work with the youth in different levels? so i want to put this thought in your minds and be thankful for this hearing and just keep helping us. we are not giving up.

thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker. >> hello, my name is jennifer jamesison, i am a third generation san franciscoan, i run a dog rescue and i am on commissioner on the welfare commission. i am here to talk about costa hawkins, it's a state act, if you are not familiar with it, it allows a land lord of a home with an in law unit to petition the board to redesignate the house back to a single family dwelling thereby breaking the rent control and raising the rent exponentially. we moved in two years ago to the rate of $2,000 a month, our land lord has raised the rate to $4,000 which

he knows he can't afford. costa hawkins is legal but we can't be the only people this is happening to. the evil stepchild related to ellis. because of the status of the rental market i am now faced with being forced to leave my home and my xhuept. community. i'm not a part of a protected class, i'm probably one of the members of the middle class we've been talking about but i've also been unemployed for two years. i'm someone who believes in this city and bleefrs in the community, i believe i am a part of the people who are being squeezed and i hope with all of my heart that you will continue the work of keeping san francisco a place for everyone to live not just rich people. thank you. >> thank you. thank you for sharing your story. next

speaker, please. >> linda chap man from knob hill. first of all, my family has been 4 generations in san francisco but not the fifth, it's impossible. i would suggest that you do pay attention to that first gentleman who spoke, you know, about the on site home owner in the building with tenants because a lot of my family members had that and still do. i don't. in many cases they really are looking after the tenants and the problem is when the speculators take it instead. of course there is a problem of people who move in and another and you have to think about that. a generation ago a knob hill buildings were being emptied out, huge buildings, many, and i worked with henry britt and others to create the rent control laws and others that provide protection. now the same type of thing is happening then. in fact i lost my aeplt i apartment because one of the

developers got together with the owner on that. i was asked by one of the small chinese property owner families who were involved with this to meet with each of you, she gave me your names, you three and a few other names, and i wasn't able to get appointments last week. our supervisor arranged for $60,000 to be paid to a neighborhood group that doesn't want that, that wants to have market rate housing only because that's what they want in their neighborhood in order to eliminate that possibility. methodist still wants it and i would like to talk with you. >> thank you. i know that our offices are available, staff to make sure we can do that. next speaker please. >> good afternoon, my name is lotta garrity, i came here in

the summer of love, 1967, met my husband and got married here. i'm a registered nurse and he's an artist. we have loved this town ever since and i feel like we have contributed to it. i've been working in the health profession for all those years and my husband has worked with san francisco relief map to turn people on to the town and what it really

means geographically. we were evicted or we were threatened with an eviction a year ago, we live in a 6-unit building in the mission, we've been there 32 years. this whole year has really been a miserable year because it's been a lot of intimidation and we didn't get ellis yet but that's the threat. i'm asking you, these stories have been heart breaking to me. i mean some, golly, it just takes your breath away. i am asking you you to form a moratorium on evictions for 6 months. i don't know how you do that and i'm sure dennis herrera knows how you do that, but it really must be until we come up with some kind of solutions because i'm a nurse and i've worked in emergency rooms. this is really an emergency. this is a serious, serious emergency. so if you could do that for us and then we could come up with some solutions, there have been some good solutions raised today. thanks a lot. >> thank you very much and thank you for your service to san francisco. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, my name is doug woods. my parents were, met -- well, they didn't meet but they were married here in san francisco in 1947, i lived in the bay area my entire life, i lived in san francisco in my current apartment for 35 years in the lower haight and although i'm not currently threatened with eviction, that is always hanging over your head these days. you never know. and a lot of my friends like beverly and jackie and

over here are or have been evicted and i'm seeing the people who are and were my friends being kicked out of the city, essentially, because as many people have testifid, there really isn't any alternative. there's no place to go except to move to fresno or alaska or something. i just wanted to advocate for all of them and myself. i have been a musician in this town for 20 years and feel like i have contributed to the cultural -- the culture that made the city the place that all these speculators are capitalizing on. so thank you very much. i think we deserve our place here too. thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, i am mary johnson. >> if