Brousseau noted the evictions through September amount to a 145 percent increase compared to the previous 12 months. The figure is likely much higher, he said, because it doesn’t account for tenants who accepted buyouts. The neighborhood with the highest number of Ellis Act evictions was the Mission, followed by the Castro.
The increased number of evictions is hitting a city where more and more residents are struggling to keep up with higher rents. Brousseau's report says 42 percent of San Francisco households are "rent burdened," meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their household income on rent. The number was highest in the Bayview, Excelsior and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods, where 57 percent of households are considered rent burdened.
“The fear is real and it’s based on facts that we now have,” said Supervisor Eric Mar.
Through a translator, Anna Gutierrez with the housing justice and immigrant rights nonprofit Just Cause, described in Spanish how she is facing an imminent eviction from her Mission home, where she has lived for 35 years.
“This injustice has to end now,” she said. “I have seen too many of my neighbors evicted and it doesn’t seem to stop.”
Beverly Upton, who has helped women find shelter and housing in her role as director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, said she and her neighbor are facing Ellis Act evictions from her building on Gough Street, where she has lived for 25 years.
"We've never been late on our rent. We've never asked for any big improvements," she said. "Once the advocates and the organizers and the artists are gone, who will be left to care about our city?"
The testimony included a lone landlord, Andrew Long, who argued that small property owners are also hurting.
"Your rent laws need to be more even-handed for landlords," he said. "You're driving landlords, especially small landlords, out of business."
Exploring ways to curb evictions
Campos said it's important for the city "to have a united front to tackle this crisis." He's exploring a number of measures to curb evictions, including a moratorium on all Ellis Act evictions. That would require state legislation, which Campos said he is working on with Assemblymember Tom Ammiano.
Campos has also introduced legislation to create a mechanism for tenants to file complaints when they are harassed by landlords. He's also asked the city attorney to draft a bill that would double the amount of relocation assistance landlords must provide to tenants under the Ellis Act, and is exploring a measure that would require landlords to report buyouts to the Rent Board.
Meantime, Mayor Ed Lee announced Thursday that he's formed a "broad coalition" of elected officials, tenants groups and other organizations "to help address the issue of affordability for working-class families in California’s major metropolitan areas."
“We have to protect our valuable housing stock and prevent Ellis Act evictions that displace longtime tenants and do nothing to add needed housing in our City,” Lee said in a statement.
Below: Report on evictions in San Francisco by budget and legislative analyst Fred Brousseau:
