harvey milk lgtb democratic club here. as you know, he started our club 40 years ago and since that time we've worked tirelessly to carry on his political legacy. that's why standing before you today is such an honor. he was elected to the boss in 1977 when he saw lgtb, people of color, elderly people and sick people falling pray to an epidemic of skyrocketing rents and unaffordable housing. he was assassinated before it came to pru wigs. the parallels between that time and today are striking. rents are again skyrocketing and low and middle income people are being priced out of our city. the need for the anti speculation tax is even more

obvious today. i urge you to see those parallels between today and the late 1970s and honor the legacy of harvey milk bypassing this piece of legislation. today we begin to finish the work that harvey milk started. the clear community in our community is afraid. around the world are leave anything droves because they cannot afford to stay. and as you'll hear from the many community members who will follow me, the lgtb community is not alone. the harvey milk help san francisco remain affordable for those of us here to appreciate it and it will make it accessible to those who want to move here and enjoy our riches. it will bring sanity back to our city and eliminate the

overwhelming anxiety fell by so many people here. i urge you to support this measure that's been 40 years in the making. >> thank you. >> hi. can we get this up on the screen please? >> a $900 rent increase on his cam tra store forced harvey himming to move. >> [inaudible]

>> you pay so much for your rents or you own a home and your mortgage payments are so high you have a piece of the pie. it takes our economy [inaudible]

>> thank you. >> wow, it's hard to follow supervisor harvey milk and it is certainly auspicious to have his voice here today speak to us about this important issue for our present. my name's [inaudible]. i'm here on behalf of a coalition, san francisco citizens against real estate

speculation, which has worked on legislation with the supervisor. . we thank supervisor mar and campos and the others who have signed on to this measure. i want to emphasize and make a few points about the nature of the crisis and the scope and scale and the impact of speculation on our neighborhoods. a bit of data perhaps. that is far exceeding the ability for people to pay rent and to be able to afford ford. in just the last two years we did some research with the mayor's office and we found that in 2012 the average price of a multiunit apartment

building between five and 30 units, the average per unit price is between 200 and $2,000. that price has gone up to 323 per unit. that's a 60% increase. . i have a document here with a two unit apartment that was put on the market in february. that kind of price escalation is driving instability in communities and we need this tax to slow that market down and bring some sanity back to san francisco. thank you. >> hello, my name is terrance jones. i'm the unintended bicatch of this legislation.

my wife, daughter and i in 2012 invested our retirement in her education fund in an apartment building. as this legislation is written, we haven't evicted anyone, we don't intend to, we're good landlords. we chose to invest in rent control apartments in san francisco. hoping to grow that at a reasonable incremental investment so we could use it for our daughter's education and my wife and my retirement. as this is written, we can't sell until 2017 without having this retroactive punitive tax that -- it was never part of our business, it's not fair you're going to hear a lot of voices about people being evicted. there are lots of people that get evicted in san francisco, it's terrible, but this is bad law, this is too big a net and gets people like us and there won't be a lot of us that stands up in speak buzz in san

francisco to be an investor -- not a speculator -- is to be the devil and no one else is going to stand up here to get a bullet, but i got to stand up for my family here . please recon consider the way you've written this. you're getting unintended bicatch. >> [inaudible]good afternoon,

my name is wayne and i'm the president of the community ten's association and we are here today to express our support [inaudible]. san francisco is becoming city where obl the rich can afford to stay and speculators and their practice of flipping are like tumors plaguing our housing market. we see hundreds of evictions by speculators across different neighbors and these tumors will slowly evolve into untreatable cancer if we don't act now. meesh sure today discourages

short term real estate speculation in cities by imposing [inaudible] multiunit buildings within the five years of ownership. we don't need people who have no inteks intention of becoming long term landlords to buy apartment buildings and jeopardize the stability of our neighborhoods and communities. we can't wait. we need to prevent a loss of affordable housing sog families can continue to stay in the city. thank you very much. >> good afternoon, my name is kathy and i'm here today representing ace alliances californians for community empowerment. ace has spent several of the past years working with homeowners in san francisco who are being foreclosed on so we canvas neighborhood and knock on doors of people for whom we had lists of up coming

foreclosures. many of the people who answered the doors were tenants, who had no idea that their landlord were in trouble. some did, most didn't. we feel it's not permissible that the majority tenants in the city be placed in such a precarious situation. many are concluding that the city administration irresponsibly encouraging the tech companies to come in with tax breaks without realizing or thinking ahead that thousands of well paid workers would be in need of housing and the speculators would have their tongues hanging out. additionally too many affordable units have been lost over the years to tics, condos and now hotels. . the chronicles written recently of section 8 vouchers being turned away by landlords.

this situation is intolerable. we're grateful for the supervisors who helped us get the measure on ballot and we're sure there are other supervisors who support it. thank you again. >> my name is [inaudible] i'm a staff attorney with the [inaudible] and i thank you for -- i'm so glad this is happening, that we are having a chance to talk about speculation and the effect it's having on housing in san francisco. when we talk about unintended consequences we think about the consequences stem from not doing anything, for not addressing the issue. right now speculators are awarded for fip flipping their buildings as quickly as possible. when we imagined this maesh sure we thought about something bigger, a higher tax than this, and we lowered that amount and we created exceptions in order to deal with the kind of crises

that people might face. unfortunately property owners who don't even have plans to sell their buildings right now are not thinking about the tenants so we urge you to let the voters decide on this one. thanks. >> my name is theresa, i'm from the [inaudible] housing program of veterans equity center and our office is mainly located inside of market. we're seeing a lot of soma residents, which is close to downtown that are going throughout buy outs, displacements and evictions and we're seeing, mainly [inaudible] has also been displaced, first in [inaudible] and throughout that time that [inaudible] community has been reducing during these times.

i have -- here is our -- it's a soma resident [inaudible] >> good afternoon, my name is caramelita perez. until now are still searching for a new home. >> in what i've been hearing about building and units for sale none of it are from sew that. i see the fear from those who receive notice that their building is going to be sold

and those that are already sold. those who are displaced [inaudible] their own vehicles and very expensive and dirty sros. i hope that everyone will support this anti speck tax, especially for those who are struggling to have a new home just like me. thank you. >> good afternoon, my name is christina dang, i'm on behalf of the advancing justice asian law caucus. our organization is the first [inaudible] civil rights organization representing the

asian american [inaudible] islander community. today i'm here to stand before you to talk about the tenant convention that happened in february. during this convention as you all may know is ten tants from district -- of the folks you're representing, sunset, richmond, bay view and other districts involved and these tenants were the ones who voted for this tax. this was the number one majority vote and within this tax i just want to urge you to understand that this tax is a surtax on buildings where owners are owning for less than five years. it's only applied to those and it's for buildings where units are 30 units or less. so what i want to say today is

that from my office i have seen since 2011 since i started at the caucus i have seen significant increase in our con stiff wents coming to our office telling us and giving us notices where their landlords are new and it's not the previous landlord giving these e veks viction notice and i see this is something that has happened over these past couple years since i've been at caucus and i want you to understand that i'm here to give you the information and urge you to understand and for november for the voters to get this informationing, understand this is not the legislation that is going to affect the mom and pop property owners. thank you. >> good afternoon, i'm [inaudible]. i represent the north beach

tenant's committee. we formed in january of this year because we were seeing so many of our neighbors were being evicted after their buildings were sold to speculators. these speculators are making wind fall profits and often without any value added to the properties. it has come to a point really, where not only low income people, but middle income people cannot afford to rent, let alone buy the properties because the prices have been super officially inflated. my great grandparents survived the quake and fire. i would really like to see people survive this housing crisis. it's real.

it's very intense and you can go around and count that has bought the property. i believe this surtax will really help to stem this flipping of properties. thank you.

basically the mercy of the many. what we're finding is in 2013, 79% of disproves the myth of the small mom and pop landlord who needs to speculate or act. it's the most vulnerable people in our community being affected by evictions right now. we found that 72% in 2012 affected seniors and people with disabilities. people [inaudible] who can't afford 3,000, 4,000, $10,000 a month as we're seeing some units go for in the mission right now.

add some stability, it will flow the process and enable some people to remain in their homes by reducing profit. we see people everyday who are worried evictions might happen to them and panic people who have been serve wd eviction papers. the speculation tide must be turned if we're to maintain the diverse san francisco that we all love thashgs's why we're here. and the anti speculation tax is a good start. senior and disability actions supports this measure and will work to pass it. thank you. >> hello, i'm with eviction free san francisco. yesterday we went to the office of real estate speculators urban green invegsments. urban is green is evicting a 98-year-old woman at her apartment. they're also evicting her

neighbor who is a primary caregiver. they evicting here solely to make a profit. flipping units is their business model and they don't need her unit to survive and this is not the first time urban green has evicted entire buildings. we need to stop this type of speculation and keep our housing stable for mary and our other most vulnerable residents. they do direct actions because it seems there are so many tenants facing evictions have very few options to stay in their homes. most is nowhere else to go. this tax will curve speculation and the eviction crisis that is plaguing our city. >> good afsh supervisors, my name is jesus perez. i'm from [inaudible] and we express our support for the

ordinance of aka, the [inaudible] tax because we need to the real estate companies which [inaudible] is addressed. number two, we need to make sure the city is meeting its housing goals by directing how the city approves the planning in the neighborhoods and san francisco, which is what the city housing [inaudible]

legislation will address. again, we support the legislation because we have addressed the money making interest of real estates which we need to stop. thank you. think the issue is speculation is the xhodification of housing and housing is essential, it's essential for area sos small like san francisco where everyone's just fighting to

live a healthy life. this speculation affects poor, affecting the rich, affecting some of the most important people, the seniors in the san francisco people who lived here and hold our history for 40 years, 60 years generations. and i really -- i'm urging you to look at this not as unintended consequences but the intention of what this is. you've written something we can -- well, put it this way. i prefer a moratorium on speculation, i prefer you not to allow comodification of any complex. this is something that's very thoughtful and creative and i put my full support behind this and i hope the voters of san francisco do as well.

thank you. >> i'm here on behalf o of our members who had to leave. larry is the caretaker for his two sisters. he's their primary health caretaker and has to go and ensure they were okay because he has been here all day and he wanted to share his story with you all. he has lived in his apartment for eight years, a year ago a new property owner took over his building and in less than a week from taking over his building larry was facing a level of harassment that he's never faced in his 50 years of being a tenant of san francisco. he had a landlord knocking on his door, telling him to leave, coming in the middle of the

night, aggressive text messages. like i said, hairy is the primary caretaker for his two sfrs and if he loses home here in san francisco and is unable to find other places to live, what would his sisters do? they're not in the position to be able to hire anyone, and if larry isn't able to take care of them, who would be? in addition to larry there are thousands of other families, the whole building at 24th and harrison, where nine multigenerational families had been living up until about a year ago when a new property owner came in, sent them threats, harassed them and engaged in a campaign of harassment that was so successful that now have all been bought out. they're now being rented for over $8,000 a month.

because that kind of rent increase in so we're really excited about this measure and vote on it in november. thank you. my name's jay, i'm here with san francisco association of realtors. i'm here as a tenant and a young family of color that's trying to live and stay in san francisco. this ballot measure hurts everyday homeowners. as realtors our only job is to find everyday homeowners a new place to live. the exemptions have huge gaps and don't mitigate any of the real life circumstances that come up. the legislation tells us if you lose your job you'll be expected to sell your home at a loss. the legislation tells us if there's a death in the family, if your mother dies, your

father falls ill, you'll have to wait five years to move closer to be with them. if there's a job transfer that you're not expected to go for the job. or there's a change in the family and you have an unexpected birt that you won't be able to move and adjust your family lifestyle. we're concerned about the retroactive timeline. it's unfair. the homeowners that bought in 2010, 2012, not knowing this would come down the pipes. it's a housing tax and it doesn't make sense to use a housing tax in one of the most housing markets in the nation. it should be noted that this provision has no protection for tenants, very few protections for young families and