Latest / Best of: Features / Lurie wants to solve SF's rent crisis. It could be impossible.

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Lurie wants to solve SF's rent crisis. It could be impossible. · Best of: Features

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  Lurie wants to solve SF's rent crisis. It could be impossible. This
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  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. Last
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  month, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced on a sunny Thursday morning in San
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  Francisco that he was going to fight the city’s AI-driven housing crisis.
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  As he stood in Alamo Square Park with the downtown skyline and
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  Salesforce Tower, the iconic symbol of the city's shift to being a
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  tech hub, looming in the distance, he declared that San Francisco is
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  in a rent emergency, and his new package of laws would help
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  fight it. Rising rents are making it harder for the people who
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  built their lives here to stay There he said, mentioning teachers, nurses,
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  artists, and restaurant workers, all of whom he said are the fabric
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  of the city the people who make San Francisco what it is.
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  There is no recovery without them. Larry made it clear that the
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  city also must build more housing to truly fight the rising rents,
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  but he still doubled down on his positive message. There is no
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  doubt, no doubt, that our city is headed in the right direction.
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  Lurie's news conference was covered by outlets across the country, as a
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  sign the widely liked mayor was taking the crisis seriously. But a
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  housing expert, tenant advocates, city supervisors, and the city's landlord lobby all
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  told SF Gate Lurie's emergency package will leave the core problem untouched,
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  apartments will still remain unaffordable. This does nothing to lower rents at
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  all. Jason Ward, an economist and the director of Rand Housing Centre,
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  a non profit that finds housing policy solutions, said of the mayor
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  rent emergency in a phone call with S F. Gate. This is
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  really about keeping people from being evicted from housing or keeping some
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  very vulnerable people housed. Lurie declined S. F. Gate's interview request for
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  this story. Shelby Weiss, a spokesperson for Lurie, did not directly answer
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  whether or not the Mayor is going to lower rents and instead
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  referred S F Gate to the September news release from the Mayor's
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  office, and quoted Lurie saying at the news conference We are protecting
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  renters from sudden spikes in housing costs. Astronomical rent spikes, Lurry's
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  rent emergency comes as the AI boom and fifty years of anti
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  density housing policies in San Francisco have combined to spike rents for
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  the few housing units available. The AI boom is bringing an influx
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  of new renters, and prospective renters are waiting in lines outside for
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  apartment showings, outbidding each other with their tech salaries and leaving many
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  renters scrambling to find housing. And despite the city's strong rent control
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  protections on some units, thousands of units are left unprotected, and landlords
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  are still finding ways to either astronomically bump up rent or kick
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  tenants out. The median one bedroom now costs four thousand four hundred
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  dollars in the city, according to Zumper, a figure that is up
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  twenty-five percent since last year. The number of vacant apartments in the
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  city has dropped to two percent as of August, according to Apartment
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  List, an online marketplace for rentals. Rent eviction notices are up forty
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  four percent this year, totaling more than one thousand notices so far,
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  according to Lurie, who said the city is on pace for the
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  highest number in a decade, and that about a quarter of those
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  eviction notices were filed because of late rent payment. Many of those
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  evicted are seniors or vulnerable tenants. Some other reasons for evictions can
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  be because there was a breach of rental agreement, or the tenant
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  causes a nuisance, or the owner moves in, according to the Residential
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  Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board. Lurry's big plan released in September to
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  fight this rent emergency that's become existential for many in the city
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  includes a mix of proposed ordinances, most borrowed from other lawmakers, and
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  spending previously allocated money. Spending twenty seven million dollars in housing vouchers
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  for six hundred and fifty extremely low income households that Lurie said
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  are about to lose federally funded rental assistance due to Congress's cuts.
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  Raising Ellis Act eviction payments which help tenants relocate by twenty five
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  percent to nearly three thousand dollars per tenants adding an additional three
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  million dollars to pay for tenant right to counsel, to provide legal
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  help for four hundred households. Supporting a bill proposed by Supervisor Danny
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  Sauter that would cap delayed rent increases for rent controlled tenants at
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  ten percent annually. Property owners currently can accrue annual increases and impose
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  them years later, which Lurie said can mean a devastatingly large rent
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  increase for renters. Supporting a bill proposed by Supervisor Jackie Fielder that
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  would protect renters from being evicted if the fall behind by less
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  than one month of fair market rent. Supporting a bill proposed by
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  Supervisor Matt Dorsey that guarantees tenants an annual reminder of rent increase
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  limits and just cause eviction rules. Lurry also pledged to spend fifty
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  four million dollars in already available money for emergency rental assistance, rental
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  subsidies and legal defense and compensation for tenants who are evicted. The
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  mayor is also planning to roll out 1 million for a know
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  your rights campaign. Lurie has received glowing reviews since he took office
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  in january twenty twenty five. He deftly navigated issues like President Donald
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  Trump's vow to send in National Guard troops last year while still
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  retaining an approval rating of seventy four percent. The Chronicle and SF
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  Gate are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms. But the
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  rent crisis and his apparent inability to quickly solve it, could be
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  the one that finally ends his honeymoon with the city. Leaders say
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  Lurie's actions are insufficient. Lurie's news conference received plenty of press, but
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  so far it hasn't impressed the people closest to fighting the crisis.
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  Maria Zamudio, the Executive Director of
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  the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, who fields hundreds of calls
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  weekly from tenants facing eviction, told SF Gate by phone that she
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  appreciates the mayor has publicly acknowledged a problem, but is skeptical about
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  the package. It's very splashy for the mayor to say I can
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  do all of these things. I'm going to fix this. I'm going
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  to call a state of emergency, or call a crisis a moment
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  for something that he actually has been ignoring, she said Supervisor Bilal
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  Memoud told SF Gate in a phone call that announcing an emergency
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  is a step in the right direction, but it's insufficient. It will
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  help a lot of people stay in their homes, said Mahmoud, but
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  to reduce the cost of rent we have to be doing more.
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  Fielder, a frequent critic of the mayor whose bill is included in
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  the package, told S F Gate in an email that the package
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  does not go far enough. The rent emergency package is not enough
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  to resolve the affordability issue. We need vacancy control so that landlords
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  can't evict or buy out tenants and jack up the rent on
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  empty units, Fielder said, referring to a limit that a landlord can
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  raise a rent once a tenant moves out and before another moves
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  in. Fielder also urged voters to pass two ballot measures on november
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  third, Proposition B and Proposition I, which she said would help fund
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  affordable housing. Prop. B would create a public bank, and supporters say
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  it would let the city use low interest loans for affordable housing
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  projects. Some critics argue that there is no direct affordable housing tied
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  to the proposal. Prop. I would reallocate one hundred twenty million dollars
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  in annual city funds that come from property sales tax on properties
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  of ten million dollars or more, which is currently used for an
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  array of purposes, and instead restrict its use to only subsidized housing,
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  homelessness prevention, and eviction legal defense. Lurry is backing a no on
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  prop. I campaign along with local firefighter and police unions, because the
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  say it would hamstring the city’s move to hire more first responders
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  and create a massive permanent hole in the city, general fund. The
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  mayor's endorsement carries weight, which is why Zamudio, who, along with Fielder,
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  is a proponent of the measure, questioned his move to influence the
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  vote. Why would he want to do that if he wants to
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  ensure tenants have a fair chance in this city? She said Charlie
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  Goss, the Government and Community Affairs Manager of the San Francisco Apartment
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  Association, has his own solution to the problem. He told SF Gate
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  in a call that the mayor package is treating symptoms of a
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  problem instead of the actual problem itself. The problem is, San Francisco
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  hasn't built enough housing for decades and decades decades and decades to
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  accommodate the people that want to live here, he said. The effect
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  of that is we have a housing shortage. There is not enough
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  housing isn't to meet demand. What that results in is higher prices.
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  There's growing consensus that the city needs more housing. Lurie is already
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  trying to work on the city's housing supply problem. Last year he
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  pushed for a new zoning density across the city, the first update
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  to the zoning map in half a century, to allow more homes
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  to be built across San Francisco, especially on the city's west side,
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  which has historically been shielded from dense housing. Lurie's plan is an
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  attempt to meet new state housing mandates. Even Sodder, whose bill is
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  part of the package, said it falls short. It's a good start,
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  but it's not enough, he told S F Gate in a call,
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  adding that renters should have high standards. I think we should hold
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  the mayor accountable for doing more.