Board advances package to limit rent hikes, expand hardship relief and restrict banking of increases

Summary

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on June 2009 voted to pass, on first reading, a package of ordinances that expand tenant protections by limiting banked rent increases, enabling financial-hardship waivers when rent exceeds 33% of income, and narrowing occupancy-based eviction rules; the measures include language requiring multilingual notice.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on June 2009 voted on a set of ordinances intended to provide relief to renters hit by the economic downturn, approving multiple measures on first reading and advancing amendments aimed at targeting assistance to tenants affected by job loss or income reduction.

The package, led by Supervisor Gavin Daly, seeks to curb several practices that supervisors said have worsened housing instability: it limits the ability of landlords to “bank” rent increases, allows the Rent Board to waive future increases for households spending more than 33 percent of gross income on rent in specified hardship circumstances, and narrows rules about evictions tied to additional occupants so that normal Housing Code occupancy limits do not trigger evictions.

Supervisor Daly said the proposals were crafted after multiple committee hearings and neighborhood testimony and that the final package includes amendments intended to focus benefits on tenants harmed by the recession. “The legislation that’s in front of you and that, will be further…

Board advances package to limit rent hikes, expand hardship relief and restrict banking of increases

Summary

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