move to the downstairs and rent the upstairs and then even if they do, a home, for instance, this is an extreme example, but the lady across the street was 96-years-old when she passed away, there were three siblings, they did not want to sell the home and they chose to rent t it was the first time in 58 years it had been open to any other person in their family. but they chose to rent that. what worries me about this conversation when it pertains to single-family homes, a lot of family chose not to participate in the rental market. single-family home in my district rents for $3500 to $4,000 a month, still extremely high. but comparable to a one bedroom in other starts of the city. so it is an affordable for families and multitude of people. i worry that option would be taken off the table. i worry that people would not and do not formalize the in-laws in the district because of the

worry of rent control being applied on a single family home. for all those reasons, i have not taken a position on proposition 10 and i think this resolution is premature and so i will not be voting in support of it today. >> supervisor peskin. >> i'm sorry -- peskin you already spoken. >> i just wanted to add my voice to this discussion and i appreciate the way that supervisor peskin framed the discussion in the beginning because while i am a big proponent of rent control and believe some form of vacancy control needs to happen if prop 10 passes, come costa hawkins gs above and beyond a vacancy

control. i want to add a couple of examples that i've dealt with while i've been on the board as a supervisor, when the former supervisor compost tried to increase relocation payments for tenants that were evicted under the ellis act, one of the issues that came up in that case and a law was overturned in the courts, was that they didn't allow the board to set in a appropriate relocation assistance amount so that people could have a chance to continue living in san francisco after being evicted, often times when their apartment of decades. another example is another piece of legislation before us right now that would prevent landlords from grossly increasing rents sometimes 100, 200, 300% in

single-family homes because costa hawkins would prevent that. we're going ahead with that law but in a much milder form because of costa hawkins. the way it impacts our ability to protect tenants in the city is endless. i think we pushed it in ever creative direction that we can as a city because we have so many renters that are being pushed out and it is such a crisis ever single week. i kid you not, every week i have tons of e-mails right now about it. when units or buildings are put up for sale in my district, the tenants are terrified because they know that that's just the first step from them being kicked out and displaced from their home in the neighborhood and city they love. we have to be able to do more to

protect our residents. we should have that ability. what proposition will do, is it will allow us to start that conversation. to strike that right balance between protecting tenants and protect landlords. we can have that robust discussion, which will happen here. it will be one of those discussions where we're battling it out to the very end. we need to have that. we can't have it until proposition 10 passes. so i appreciate you sponsoring this resolution, supervisor, peskin and i'm proud to be a co sponsor. >> supervisor brown. >> thank you. i signed on to proposition 10 because when i first came on and i was looking at it and study it. i fell it was the right thing to do. over my 10 years of being on some sort of aid, i can't tell

you how many times i have thought to try to keep people in their places to keep renters from being evicted, wrongly evicted, or their rents going up or going into a unit that was previously a decent price and they knew that, because they were their friends' unit and coming in and having a having ia price they would not be able to afford. what this does, as supervisor peskin had said, it unties our hands. we can sit down with people, with property owners, small property owners, with the tenants and really try to find what we can do. it's not always a stick. we can also look at things that are carrots that will bring people to be able to rent out their units for fair value. where people can afford to live in this city. i just think it's really important that we look at

securing people that are renting and are vulnerable. i feel it's so important. i feel like this gives us a pathway to do that. it doesn't say we're going to come down hard with a stick to ever landlord. it means it gives us a pathway to have these discussions. we have not been able to in the last 23 years without getting sued. everything we've done we've been sued. this way, it gives us a chance. i just want to reiterate my support for this. >> supervisor mandelman. >> i come as a former local government lawyer. i remember a number of years where costa hawkins made it impossible for local governments to enable inclusionary housing ordinances to regulate the rents of a portion of market rate developments. which is something that most of us in this room think of course local government should be able to do it and took an act of the

state legislature and signature of the governor to allow the local governments to do that. if proposition 10 passes, we'll have a difficult conference about a difficult conversationabout ar to costa hawkins, city was not able to enact vacancy control. i don't know whether there's a former havin vacancy. i do know that sack ra mean toet tell us we can't protected the spouses of people whose spouses have died and has no business telling us what kind of inclusionary housing we can adopt. this is a relatively easy question for a local government official and i think that we should be supporting the repeal of costa hawkins. >> supervisor fewer. >> yes, thank you very much. as supervisor tang said, at the district she represents, well in my district, 65% of my

constituents are renters. i have the second most evictions in san francisco. i want to say also, i joined the ranks of supervisor peskin, i also am a landlord and a small property owner. so i under there is attention between the small property owners, as we heard today, but there is also a very big difference between large property owners that own 250 apartment buildings and those that own two. i think with proposition 10 if it were to pass, we would have those types of conversations. which we are not even able to have today. when they talk about, when the small property owners come forward and they speak, i understand their fear of it and i understand their frustration, however, there is no remedy that

we can even discuss if we still have costa hawkins. our hands are tied. and i just think that with every municipality we have a different issue around affordability and the housing crisis and it just so happens that san francisco is suffering under a huge, huge crisis. and so, you have bylaws that are situations different from someone that owns two or three buildings, such as supervisor peskin and myself i am in support of this resolution and proud to be a co sponsor with supervisor peskin because i do believe that it's time san francisco had control over our policies and the state doesn't dictate and how we can have this conversation between landlords and small property owners and

also the tenants. this is a town where the majority of people are tenants. and i do think that housing is a human right. i do think that it's been too long that our hands have been tied and we have not been able to even have a conversation about this and to remedy some of the housing crisis issues and acknowledge that what we're doing isn't working right now. we need to actually have a conversation and how we can fix it. so i want to thank supervisor peskin for bringing this forward and i am a proud co sponsor and i ask my colleagues to join me in this vote because i actually think, as legislators, of san francisco, it is our job to legislate. it is our job to legislate locally. with something finds our hands that we cannot do that, then we need to fight that. we are responsible to the constituents of san francisco.

>> president cohen: before you get acknowledged, i wanted to step off and ask supervisor yee and come and ask you some questions. is that ok? you will be able to speak. >> good afternoon. first i wants to point out this is the reason why items like this need to go to committee. we have this debate in a thoughtful way. we're coming off and we're just starting to get into this -- this is a first time we've actually had a long conversation about it and i just have some more clarifying questions. let me just give you a profile. i represent the southeastern part of san francisco as you know. you may not know but it's the

highest african american home ownership. this is a community that also aging and aging in place and i hear real concerns about their foundation changing, about can they afford to live in san francisco. how the city is changing all around them. the other fact that i want to help put out there for the profile is that the second largest -- the district 10 has the second largest home ownership in san francisco, over 65%. 60% of home ownership. so for me, it's a matter of clarity. i am trying to understand how this impacts homeowners. i have a clear understanding of how it helps apartment and rent control apartments. i am hesitant to be -- i'm frustrated because i'm in a position to have to make a decision and frankly it's just a resolution, it's just a statement saying we're supporting or opposed to something. really, is there any analysis or study how this impacts

vulnerable communities. you've been in san francisco a long time on this body, know the state of the african american community, vulnerable communities that are just barely holding on trying to survive. as well as new community members, largely chinese and spanish speakers. i am not clear how a supportive vote for proposition 10 positively effects my constituents. so i will put it backout there. supervisor kim, i know maybe it's clear for you but it's just not that clear for me. i understand how it changes the dynamic and the conversations with large property owners, but again, i'm coming from a community where there are small propertproperty owners whose ret

plan is contingent on their home ownership and love to better understand it. anyone can speak to it. >> supervisor peskin. >> thank you if i made it through the acting present to supervisor cohen attempt to respond. let me preface it by acknowledging the work of former supervisor david chu who repealed the state ledge tuesday of costa hawkins. due to the lobbying powers of the real estate industry, he did not succeed. as happens, when legislators failed to legislate and there are a need, people went to the court of last resort and that was the initiative process and that's how prop 10 ended up on the ballot. to put it in local san francisco historical terms, and i don't

say this, but the late angelo sanjackomo who in the 197 '50's, ends thousandowned thousands ofa large rent hike across the board, it was the classic displaced people of all colors and of all ages and the san francisco board of supervisors and even mayor diane feinstine supported a rent control law in the city of san francisco. as that was popular, the real estate industry went to sacramento and passed costa hawkins, which was sweeping in its pre 'emion of local government's ability to the exact question you are asking to a single-family homeowner, none of this means anything, right. because if you live in your

home, you are really not effected by costa hawkins or by rent control but relative to the community and the stability of the community and surrounding neighborhoods that have a mix of tenants and rental properties, having rent control is a lifeline to the most vulnerable communities and communities of more means. particularly in a time when i have to say as a small landlord, it is, when i see what you can rent a unit for, i mean, it's almost embarrassing. these are windfalls that are being made by small property owners, large property owners. if costa hawkins was repealed the kind of internet stance that supervisor kim addressed we could be deal with by unanimous vote of this board that the spouse, the widow would not be

able to have a massive rent increase. we've had to do costa hawkins work around and supervisor tang is very familiar with this, in order to do excess ore units. the bred of what costa hawkins does is uncon schenn able. uncon schenn able.i put it on te i thought it would be like proposition 6. i thought it would be easy. i mean, if san francisco can't stand up for it, i don't know what city can. and i guess if we don't have the votes here today, i guess we'll send it to committee and bring it back and vote on it again, i guess. >> supervisor kim. >> i just wanted to add my words

as well. first of all, i think most of us are very familiar with the state law because we grapple with it several times a year in this board chamber. one of the reasons why i also thought this was appropriate as a co sponsor to bring adoption is this is a state law we're all familiar with that we discussed and debate because we often have our hands tied behind our backs as we try to work around this state law to keep tenants in place in their homes and also to make housing more affordable. we've also had several months to review this state proposition. it is one that i know tenant activists had started beginning to campaign for in january. they brought it to the democratic party convention a couple months ago where the delegates voted to support over turning rent control which became the state proposition. and i know that since july, prop 10 committee campaign members have been contacting me to ask

me to sign onto the initiatives, gave me the legislation to read it and so it other appeared that many of us have months to consider. given all the discussions we've have on eviction 2.0 we understand how costa hawkins has tied our hands. very specifically, repeeling costa hawkins is repeeling the state's able to manage the power of california cities to regulate our own markets. nothing magical happens the day after the passage or proposition 10, it allows this board of supervisors to pass ordinances that we've been talking about for years, including legislation that would protect tenants like my friend, whose wife passed away last month and it would certainly ease a lot of our negotiations around mandating or

even increasing voluntary contributions to our markets if we didn't have to create automatic of these elaborate contracts to get developers, who actually want to build affordable housing as part of they projects developments here in san francisco. i just think on balance, it's important for us to state our support as one of the most progressive cities in the state of california for the repeal of this measure. it's very important to distinguish homeowners and landlords. if you are a home own living in your home, costa hawkins doesn't havdoesn'thave an impact on you. i'm reading this book late but my summer reading was "evicted" which say book based on evictions in the city of milwaukee. while the narrative is focused on the city of milwaukee, it's the story of america. evictions which, you know, 50,

60 years ago would cause entire neighborhoods to come up in uproar when one of their neighbors would get evicted is so common place. it happens on a regular basis in cities across the country. the most evicted group, of any group in this country are african american women. it is said that african american women are evicted at rates similar to or higher than african men are incarcerated in prison. i just think that as we talk about evictions and tenant rights, this is a national narrative. it is deeply impacting the city and part of the reason why we have not been able to address the eviction crisis in san francisco is because the state law. it's over reaching in its protection. it doesn't mean that all of these things fall away. it means city legislatorses can protect their tenants and i

think we should have faith in this body that we would pass legislation that is fair to both sides. and if we don't see the repeal of proposition 10, we will not be able to do that. >> eddie: do w >> do we have any comments? >> i have one follow-up. >> supervisor kim, how would the repeal of costa hawkins, if it were not in existence or we amended it, how would it have a positive effect on the recipient of the letter you received? >> our hands are tied protecting a tenant who lost a family member who is the main lease holder of a unit. and so, currently, we can't pass any legislation. let's say we thought the appropriate amount of time -- this is very appropriate for

discussion. should we permit six month or one year moratorium on rent when a member of a family or household passes away to restrict a landlord's ability to raise their rent because their name was not on the lease. it's something i could introduce next tuesday if costa hawkins wasn't in effect. costa hawkins ties our hands from introduction that legislation and having a debate on that. landlords and tenants would come to us at that point, expressing their thoughts, their feedback, this is what works and it's the role of this body to sal evaluaa fair balance. whatever that might be at the end of the day. costa hawkins prevents us from even having that dialogue at the city level. and so it is the pre descriptiveness of costa hawkins in tying the hands of city legislate to bees and protecting our constituents. i think there are many elements

we would want to keep. i don't want a state where landlords don't feel comfortable wenting their units on the market. that does not work for us either. and second, we need certainty. in any business that you want to go into, we know that business owners need certainty and how they're going to make money from the business they run. so it makes a lot of sense in terms of the criticisms of prop 10 that we're sharing today but that's the role of the city to provide that for our constituents, our tenants and our landlords. >> thank you. i'm going to pivot to supervisor tang quickly. can you articulate the small property owners perspective of what they're fearful of? >> through the chair. i think supervisor kim mentioned it earlier, we don't want to hit the other extreme which is what i think i experienced representing the district. a lot of people, the number one

reason for why they don't even put current units out on the market or don't engage in building a.d.u.s is because of the fear whether it's substantiate the or not, their home would be subject to rent control. i think that over the years, what i've heard is that just that potential of the repeal alone has been such a deterrent for so many people to want to rent. i think that we talk about all these potentially thousands and thousands of units that are available that are not being rented out to tenants and it's the case in the district. we have a lot of people who are fearful and it's all they talk to me about. these small property owners. and so that is a challenge. no matter how much i work on trying to remove barriers to permitting for a.d.u.s, for example, i don't know we're going to see that uptick in creation because of this idea of the repeal. as i mentioned earlier, without

knowing the details of what local law and how that will change as the result of a potential repeal, it's hard for me to even talk about what those impacts might be but there's a huge fear right now. this fear is grounded in a fact or any data or is it just fear? a perception of not understanding how the system works? >> through the chair to president cohen, so, right now there is a reality that people in my district, small single-family homes, they're not renting out. they're currently not renting out units that could be available to tenants. they're not create being new inlaw units, own though they have an illegal one, they're afraid to legalize or they don't have one and would have the space to create a new one, they're not because they don't want tosh subject to rent control. >> i understand they don't want to be subject to rent control.

we kept pivot being back to fear. i'm trying to understand this fear. there's an example or a a behavior. i'm using this as an opportunity to understand. i hear small property owners don't like -- they would rather keep their units vacant that bring it to the market. i don't understand why? what are they fearful of? a tenant from hell coming? >> we all w deal with situations with a landlord or tenant behavior badly. maybe they have had tenants that haven't behaved well in their roles. again, we see situations from all sides. i think some have experienced bad situations with tenants and they feel that they have to pay thousand and thousands of dollars to reoccupy the units.

whether it's an owner move in or what have you, right. so i mean those are the laws that exist right now. unfortunately, again, the number one reason that is cited to me is that they don't want to subject their units to rent control. >> thank you. >> ok, supervisor ronen. >> yes, president cohen, i just wanted to also comment on that question because it doesn't make sense to me that they're fearful of being subject to rent control because they're a single-family home so they're not representativing. they're fearful if they add an a.d.u. that will cause eviction. whether you are a single-family home or two unit, it applies. so i don't really understand. to me it feels like there's confusion over this fear of rent control.

what i have heard many times is if a tenant turns out to be irresponsible or isn't paying their rent that it's so costly to evict someone. but that's about just cause eviction that applies not rent control. i want to make sure we're talking about the right law. >> through the chair, thank you. i agree with you. that's my understanding. supervisor tang represents a large handful of small property owners that have articulated their displeasure in the refill of costa hawkins and i'm trying to understand. otheother than i'm a small propy owners and i don't want the repeal, i don't understand the fear. >> supervisor kim. >> first, i just want to point that these property owners are not renting today, not the passage of proposition 10. second, what i would articulate is the fear is that the board of supervisors would go crazy and implement all this legislation

that would only protect tenants and not landlords. that is conceivable. however, in my 18 years following this board of supervisors, i think given our vote count and the fact that we need housing on the market. i mean my guess would be this would pass legislation that is balancedment we're one of the more progressive cities in the state of california. so i would think that we would be on the cutting edge of any type of tenant protection ordinances beyond any other cities. that is the real fear is that we'll go crazy and establish all these laws that i don't know, ensure that tenants can stay in their units no matter what they do. i just doubt that this body would do that and my experience at least through my 18 years watching this board, is that we are moderated how we move forward because we represent stakeholders and it would not benefit us to pass legislation

because we would lose housing on the market. developers would stop building if we extend rent control to new units. there has to be a certain period of time -- i agree there should be a period of time new construction is not limited by rent control, for example. because we want to make sure that those that are investing in these new developments make their money back before we bring them in under rent control. it would be a rolling rent control year to allow owners and developers to kind of see the investment of their money come back to them. there has to be a level of faith in the legislative and democratic process and of course the public would come out and explain to us, how things would benefit or hurt them. repeeling hos ta hawkins allows us to have that dialogue, which we cannot have today. >> i appreciate that.

>> i will allow supervisor safai. >> i'm going to add on i want to tell you what is happening in real time. there's a lot that talked about african american homeowners we have the second highest amount of african american homeowners and the second highest aging in place. you have multiple family members that some family want to return to the city. there's more of a flexible understanding. you have a rental agreement with a tenant, the tenant might live there. i bump into people that have lived in these homes for a number of years and they have a good relationship with the tenants. what i have also heard and the homeowners, what i have also heard is if it were a situation where rent control were imposed on a single family home, they would no longer want to participate in that. but what is also happening because they want to have the option of having a family member or a child to come back into

that home and as supervisor ronen said there's different legal remedies and processes to go through but the idea of imposing a single family home, that's where the consternation lies in my district. the other thing i wanted to say through the chair, i wanted to ask deputy city attorney, i don't at this there's as much apprehension about this body but there could be apprehension ta taking it to the ballot. if we pass proposition 10, is it conceivable that people could take it to the ballot and circumvent through the board and impose whatever version of new rent control rules they could if costa hawkins were repealed. >> the voters can adopt any ordinance the board of supervisors is empowered to adopt. so the voters could adopt an amendment to the rent ordinance and a petition circulated. the vote voters have adopted

different ballot measures over the years and the rent ordinance which limits this body's ability to amend the rent ordinance. >> i agree with supervisor kim and her presentation that we tend to be more balanced in our conversations here. i think the fear i have heard in the last couple of months is i've gotten feedback is the idea of this going to the ballot and causing the level of consternation to our district and single-family homes. >> thank you, chair. >> president cohen. >> president cohen: thank you, very much. this conversation has been really enlightening. for the record, to the best of my knowledge, no tenant advocate has reached out to my office to educate us. it's only been years of serving on the land use committee that i have rudimentary understanding. it's interesting because i feel like the tenants advocate committee go to this go-to people which is why you heard from them. that's also an example of what

concerns me about a little bit to the point that what ashia was making. people go to their friends first and if you are not friends and you have a tepid relationship you don't get firsthand information. i don't know if it's true or accurate and for me that is where the uneasiness lies is i don't have total faith and confidence. i have faith in this body on the thought process and how we just have processes put in place besides as you know, an item can get on the ballot. we have seen in recent past, i think some legislation that passed for housing for teachers that was a voter initiative that got on the ballot and it's tied up in court because of, from what i understand, i don't if this is a fact or not, because of writing. when you put an initiative on the ballot, there's no

flexibility to make changes or tweaks unless it's written in. so that is a little bit where my uneasiness is. however, i like the idea to have the conversation. if we can't have the conversation if costa hawkins is in place. i think also this uneasiness what we're seeing playing out is speaking to how the politics place in san francisco. where people just don't trust each other. and that has to deal with bad relationships and burnt relationships. as an elected official, i live in a rent control unit but never have earned support within the tenant's community because they just don't identify with me and they think i don't identify with them and that is really hampered the conversations in this city, this level of fear that is ratcheted up only because you

don't play for my team and i don't play for your team and i think it's hurting us. i can see both sides to the benefits of costa hawkins. i want to be able to restart this conversation. we restart the conversation and then next thing you know, perhaps it goes too far and over sell us advocates start putting measures on the ballot. i don't know that would hurt the constituents i care for. i don't know the right answer. i'm sure you are nodding and understand what the dilemma of where i am. i just use my own experience on how proposition 10 came to the ballot, who came to speak to me and who didn't come to speak to me. up until today, supervisor peskin has been thoughtful in his approach but all through august i didn't hear from

anything. christine pelosi did reach out by i wasn't in a position to articulate questions at this time. that is where we are today. the executive board and the democratic party took public positions on it but i believe the folks that were in favor of it did a due diligence of educating, connecting and reaching out to people and they didn't do that with me. so here we are, i don't know if i am a swing vote in this but now i have been forced to make a decision on the fly when i've had a limited amount of information and understanding given to the details. i want toe know detail wise. supervisor kim, thank you for being so knowledgeable and sharing your knowledge and supervisor peskin thank you for meeting with me and to ronan and tang for sharing your request perspective on what you are seek on the ground. everything that you just all described is a culmination of

what i see on the ground every day rail time for my district 10. what's interesting is i have not heard from a number of constituents one way or the other. so, mr. supervisor over there, acting chair, acting president. >> would you like me to act like the president right now. i could ask for a vote. >> absolutely. >> roll call, please. >> item 30, supervisor peskin. >> aye. >> peskin aye. >> ronen. >> aye. >> satisfy a. >> no. >> stefani. >> tang. >> no. >> yee. >> aye. >> brown. >> aye. >> cohen. >> no. >> supervisor fewer. >> aye. >> supervisor kim. >> aye. >> mandelman. >> aye. >> there are seven ayes and four nos, with supervisor

safai. >> madam president, i'd like to defer -- >> the resolution has failed. supervisor peskin. >> what i'd like to do is make a motion to rescind the vote and send it to committee or radio introduce it and send it to committee but it would be easier if we vote to send it to committee. >> supervisor peskin has made a motion to rescind. seconded by ronen. motion has been rescinded. madam clerk. >> motion made to ascend to committee. i don't believe that it needs a second. >> it does. >> ronan has sent it to committee and we will take out the matter further in committee. can we take that without objection. >> without objection. thank you. democracy at its finest real time. good job, everyone. madam clerk, what's next.

>> >> today's meeting will be adjourned in memory of the follow beloved individuals on a motion made by supervisor safai for zelma wills. a motion made by supervisor yee for william yonge. supervisor peskin for the late mary gallagher and linda peterson and a motion made by supervisor kim on behalf of the entire board of supervisors for dr. don mabalone. >> president cohen: thank you. madam clerk that brings us to the end of our agenda. >> yes, madam president. >> thank you. is there any further business before us? >> it concludes our business for today. >> we're adjourned. thank you.

>> i have been living in san francisco since 1957. i live in this area for 42 years. my name is shirley jackson, and i am a retirement teacher for san francisco unified school district, and i work with early childhood education and after school programs. i have light upstairs and down stairs. it's been remodelled and i like it. some of my floors upstairs was there from the time i built the place, so they were very horrible and dark. but we've got lighting. the room seems lighter.

they painted the place, they cemented my back yard, so i won't be worried about landscaping too much. we have central heating, and i like the new countertops they put in. up to date -- oh, and we have venetian blinds. we never had venetian blinds before, and it's just cozy for me. it meant a lot to me because i didn't drive, and i wanted to be in the area where i can do my shopping, go to work, take the kids to school. i like the way they introduced the move-in. i went to quite a bit of the meetings. they showed us blueprints of the materials that they were going to use in here, and they gave us the opportunity to

choose where we would like to stay while they was renovating. it means a lot. it's just that i've been here so long. most people that enjoyed their life would love to always retain that life and keep that lifestyle, so it was a peaceful neighborhood. the park was always peaceful, and -- i don't know. i just loved it. i wanted to be here, and i stayed. >> self-planning works to preserve and enhance the city what kind hispanic the environment in a variety of ways

overhead plans to fwied other departments to open space and land use an urban design and a variety of other matters related to the physical urban environment planning projects include implementing code change or designing plaza or parks projects can be broad as proipd on overhead neighborhood planning effort typically include public involvement depending on the subject a new lot or effect or be active in the final process lots of people are troubled by they're moving loss of they're of what we preserve to be they're moving mid block or rear yard open space. >> one way to be involved

attend a meeting to go it gives us and the neighbors to learn and participate dribble in future improvements meetings often take the form of open houses or focus groups or other stinks that allows you or your neighbors to provide feedback and ask questions the best way to insure you'll be alerted the community meetings sign up for the notification on the website by signing up using you'll receive the notifications of existing request the specific neighborhood or project type if you're language is a disability accomodation please call us 72 hours before the event over the events staff will receive the input and publish the results on the website the notifications bans feedback from the public

for example, the feedback you provide may change how a street corridors looks at or the web policy the get started in planning for our neighborhood or learner more mr. the upcoming visit the plans and programs package of our we are talking about with our feedback and participation that is important to us not everyone takes this so be proud of taking ann >> hello, everyone! good morning. my name is london breed. i tam mayor of the city and county of san francisco and i'm happy to be here today for a really important announcement. sthau -- thank you all so much for joining us. today we are announcing additional funding to fight unlawful evictions and prevent displacement of tenants in san francisco.

many of you know i've been a renter all my life and i personally know what it feels like to face housing insecurity. in fact, a couple of years ago, when i was on the board of supervisors, my building was sold and i didn't know what would happen to me and the other folks who lived in the building. we know that one of the best ways to prevent homelessness is to make sure that we keep people housed in the first place. some of us may be familiar with the fact that almost 70% of the people who sadly live on our streets that are homeless were actually housed in san francisco. before they became homeless. that's why as president of the board of supervisors, i pushed hard to establish the right to council so that people don't have to face eviction alone. and we did not go through the process of that particular legislation since we know that

proposition f was put on the ballot and overwhelmingly passed by voter and we know that proposition f did not have a funding source attached to it, i as mayor have made a commitment -- [shouting] that we would fund that -- [shouting] that we would fund that -- [shouting] and people would not have to face eviction. [chanting] the reality is our housing shortage is driving up the prices of citizens across the city. which can incentivize evictions. you know what's really unfortunate about this situation is we're all fighting for the same thing. and today what i want to announce is that we're providing $5.8 million here in the city and county of san francisco for the right to council for residents facing eviction. in the vast majority of these

proceedings, land lords have legal reasons and representation antenanlts do not. we know sadly that most tenants can't afford a lawyer and don't know where to go in the first place when they are served with an eviction notice from their landlord. as a result, too many san franciscans face eviction without knowing what their full rights are. it's not a housing policy that we want to advance in the city and currently the mayor's office of community development spends over $7.5 million annually on eviction protection tenant outreach and education and short-term rental assistance. but these programs do not provide the full level of scope that so many people need stay in their homes. as i said earlier today, assignment proud to announce

that we're investing $5.8 million to fund this program over the next two years to support legal representation for tenants facing eviction. [applause] one of the first things i did as mayor was to work to rebalance our budget to include funding for this very important program. starting in june of 2019, tenants will now have access to full scope legal representation and be better able to prevent evictions and stay in their home. we are the first city in california and the second in the nation to institute a right to civil council for tenants. and as we work to create more housing and increase affordability for all of our residents and invest in critical tools to prevent displacement, we have to make

sure that we're paying attention to everything that's going on and making the right investments. i want to thank the board of supervisors for their collaboration in securing this funding and even though he is not able to attend today, i wanted to recognize asommably member david chu who created the pilot program for legal counsel for san franciscans for civil proceedings in 2011 when he was a member of the board of supervise source and i appreciate his advocate siz on this i believer ewe over the years. i want to thank the legal service organizations who are here with us today and will assist us in developmenting and implementing this very important program. so now with that, i'd like to turn it over to the district five supervisor, someone who has been on the front lines and an advocate for residents of district five for so many years , ladies and gentlemen,

district valley supervisor brown. [applause] >> thank you and good morning. i'm valley brown, supervisor of district five. today is a good day for renters and the city. in june, of this year, the voters of san francisco asked and received right to legal council when fighting evictions. assembly member chu introduced the idea when he was on the board of supervise source. today we celebrate this work put into place and the funding which is an absolutely important tool. thank you to the hard work and strong partnership between the mayor and board of supervisors, we were able to fund this in less than two months. [shouting] funding is very important. [shouting] it is naornlts we have a great stride to protect renters facing eviction. with the recent passed budge, we now have the necessary

resources to fund eviction defense for the residents of san francisco. thank you, mayor breed, for working with the board of supervisors to ensure this critical first step in its funding. going forward, i would -- i am planning on working with my colleagues on the board of supervisors and mayor breed to invest in programs that will help people stay in their homes. and create more opportunities for affordable homeownership so the need for eviction defense becomes a last resort. when we look at funding for rental subsidy programs that help working families and low-income residents, keeping roof over their heads, existing programs and partnerships are helping folks, but we must explore expansion funding and strengthening of existing rental subsidy programs. while also looking for new opportunities to help san

francisco -- san franciscans stailz in their homes. so >> so, the next speaker we have here today, the executive director from eviction defense collaborative, martina -- are you here? >> yes. >> thank you. come on up. [applause] >> good morning. my name is martina and i'm the executive director of eviction defense collaborative. on behalf of san franciscan tenants, we thank mayor for prioritizing keeping people in their homes. we also thank the collective advocacy of the homeless emergency services providers for their tireless efforts in securing these funds. we also thank san francisco tenants union antenanlzes togethers for their work surrounding prop f and the voters of san francisco who ensured that prop f became the law of the land. we are pleased the mayor is acting diligently to provide an immediate influx of $1.9

million to help keep san francisco tenants in their homes. we haven't seen the devastating impact the housing crisis is having in our communities for years. and we as a community have been failing to keep people in their homes. we know that evictions have been rising at a dramatic rate over the past five years. we know that land lords have been represented by attorneys at a rate of 6-to-1 compared to tenants. we know that having an attorney increases a family's chance of being evicted by over 70%. we know that being evicted from your home in san francisco means being evicted from san francisco. our family, friends and our neighbors are being pushed out of this city. we also know that protecting tenants preserves affordable housing. unfortunately, the united states of today is a place where is how much money you have dictates your access to basic human rights, including your rights to a home. san francisco residents are saying no more. they are saying this is our city. these are our homes.

and we will defend our rights. and with these funds -- [applause] >> whew! that ok right! and with these funds, mayor breed is pushing this agenda forward. she is stepping up as a leader for this movement. she is acknowledging that housing is a human right and she is commited to leveling the playing field for this city's tenants. this combined $5.8 million is a start. while we have a ways to go, i know that i speak on behalf of all the tenant services providers when i say that we're excited to work with the mayor and city staff. we are ready and up for the task of bringing tenant right to council to san francisco. thank you. [applause] i'd like to now introduce tom drohand, supervising attorney for legal assistance to the

elderly. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. i work at legal assistance to the elderly. one of the many community organizations that provide direct boots on the ground, full scope legal representation for tenants in san francisco. we've been providing free legal services for seniors for nearly 40 years. we help seniors who are victims of elder abuse. we help seniors with their social security benefits. we help seniors preserve their health care. we help seniors with debt relief. but san francisco's current severe housing crisis now over 60% of our calls, are seniors calling for help because they're in distress because they received eviction notices. each year we receive hundreds of calls from desperate seniors threatened wtih eviction. many are low-income, long-term tenants paying low below market

rents and they're falsely accused of minor lease infractions or wholly made up alleged nuisances. for them, having an opportunity represent the scouter a difference between keeping their home or being on the street. i worked in l.a. for over 25 years. for a long time i was the only housing attorney there and the hardest part of my job was telling a desperate senior that i couldn't take their case because i was already overloaded with too many cases. with this increased funding from the city, the number of cases we are able to take has increased greatly. but there's stille a need. no one, and especially not our city's most vulnerable citizens, should lose their home because they can't afford a lawyer. [applause] when we take a case of legal assistance to the elderly, we take it to win. we aggressively litigate eviction case on behof