Tenants say soft-story retrofit notices lead to eviction threats; commission asks DBI for tenant-notice policy

Public commenters at the March 21 meeting of the San Francisco Building Inspection Commission told commissioners that landlords are using the city's mandatory soft-story seismic retrofit program to displace long-term tenants.

"They have to vacate," said Tommy Avakoli Mecha of the Housing Rights Committee, recounting instances where a 40-year tenant was told to leave while newer, market-rate tenants were not. Kathy Lipscomb of the San Francisco Anti Eviction Coalition and Senior and Disability Action said about "90% of tenants do not have to, to leave their buildings for seismic work to happen" and proposed DBI provide landlords with a short form letter to notify tenants of project timelines and tenant resources.

The commission responded by asking DBI staff to work with tenant-outreach organizations and the commission's code-enforcement and outreach programs to develop a noticing policy that would give tenants clearer information and connections to assistance. "I'd like to request that staff and our tenant outreach organizations ' come up with some ideas for making sure that tenants aren't inadvertently affected," said a commissioner during the discussion requesting the item be placed on a future agenda.

Commissioners described the retrofit program as important for safety but said the department should reduce unintended tenant hardship, for example by providing standardized notification language at the time of permit application or improving the start-work inspection process. Witnesses and speakers urged DBI to post tenant-rights materials at job sites and provide guidance on temporary parking or other impacts when displacement is unavoidable.

Next steps: commissioners asked staff to return with proposals and suggested placing the topic on an upcoming agenda for further review and possible formal recommendations to DBI about tenant notification and outreach.