SF considers eviction protection for non-rent-controlled homes

Although Sacramento passed “just cause” eviction protections for all California renters this year, some SF lawmakers say it’s not enough. A supervisor and city committee now want to push those safeguards even further, in response to an apparent spike in eviction attempts ahead of the new rules.

In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SF-based Assemblymember David Chiu’s AB 1482 into law. The bill capped rent hikes on countless California homes not protected by rent control, and it also included new rules about when and why landlords can oust tenants.

But the bill only applies to units built prior to the last 15 years. Supervisor Matt Haney and SF’s Rules Committee want to expand the new protections with a vote by the three-person committee on Monday.

“Community members and tenant advocates have seen a sudden increase in no-cause eviction notices” in recent months, according to the ordinance up for consideration on Monday.

Haney proposed this expansion for fear that some landlords want to beat the clock and push tenants out before new protections are in place.

Haney touted his plan as a way to ensure “one standard across the city” and called it “the biggest expansion of local SF eviction protections in decades.”

Since all three members of the Rules Committee are cosponsors on the measure, it’s certain to pass. The full Board of Supervisors will take it up later this month.

Under the law, “just cause” for eviction includes instances like missing rent, lease violations, “refusal, by the tenant to sign a new lease that is identical to the previous lease,” damage to the unit, and “illegal conduct,” among other things.

Earlier this year, the San Francisco Rent Board reported that attempts to evict SF renters dropped for the third year in a row, down to 1,592 since 2018, compared to 1,657 the year before and 1,881 a year before that.

However, that was before the new legislation in Sacramento. And prior to 2017, eviction attempts rose every year starting in 2010.