Recently, San Francisco leaders changed the Ellis relocation payments law: speculators who buy a building to “go out of the rental business” will have to pay tenants the difference between their current rent and the market rent – times 24! Naturally, landlords have filed a lawsuit.

Now, SF activists are fighting the Ellis crisis with a ballot measure they call an “Anti-Speculation Tax.” The tax was first proposed by activist Supervisor Harvey Milk around the time that San Francisco got rent control – over 30 years ago! Today, SF’s Prop G is sponsored by four members of the Board of Supervisors and would impose a tax on buildings sold in the first five years after purchase, but exempt owner-occupied homes.

“Prop G would tax the entire value of the building, beginning at 24 percent if sold within one year of purchase. The rate would be less after each successive year, falling to 14 percent if sold five years out. It would not apply to owner-occupied buildings, so as long as the buyer moved into the property they could sell it within five years and not face the tax.”
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=69972

“…Additional Transfer Tax on Residential Property Sold Within 5 Years of Purchase seeks to discourage real estate speculators from buying up properties with the aim of flipping them, a process that tends to involve bringing down the hammer of the Ellis Act to evict long-term tenants.”
http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2014/08/12/who-will-san-francisco-dems-back-november

 “The anti-speculation tax — which would be 24 percent of the sale price if resold within the first year of purchase and drop to 14 percent if resold within five years — was the among the final pieces of legislation that Supervisor Harvey Milk pushed before he was assassinated in 1978.”
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/sf-tenants-rally-for-support-of-proposition-g/Content?oid=2879961

“The law, which went into effect June 1, requires landlords to give tenants in Ellis Act evictions a relocation assistance payment equal to two years’ worth of the difference between the tenant’s current rent and the cost of comparable housing in the city.”
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2014/08/22/judge-refuses-to-block-sf-law-increasing-relocation-payments-to-evicted-tenants-trial-put-on-fast-track/

Like her husband Mayor Bates, Berkeley’s representative in the California Senate is starting to vote against tenants. BTU needs you to stand with us, and tenants across the state, to stop a very real threat.

We are asking you to take two actions:

  1. Call Loni Hancock right now, and tell her you are ashamed of her vote on AB1513.
    Call (510) 286-1333
  2. Sign Tenants Together’s message to our Senator and ask your friends to do so too!
    http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5247/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=17893

The proposed law Hancock voted in favor of at the Senate Rules Committee is sponsored by the Association of Realtors. The wording allows any owner to ask the police to evict a tenant without going to court if the landlord claims the tenant is trespassing. That means any renter who can’t produce a written lease when the cops come to the door is at risk.

Banks claim they want this extra- judicial eviction option because there are squatters, but banks have a long history of trying to evict legitimate tenants. Even though the bill has been amended to impact “only” three cities, it sets a dangerous precedent, it could be expanded and it leaves tenants in Palmdale, Lancaster and Ukiah at risk of being thrown on the street without having their day in court. Regular eviction proceedings are already fast tracked. There are laws against trespassers, too. This law is unnecessary!

Additionally, the bill has no penalties for landlords who lie. So if the tenant later shows they were legit, they would have to convince the District Attorney to prosecute the owner for perjury, or nothing at all will happen to those who try to harass renters this way. This is what the Berkeley Rent Board was told by the legislative advocate the Board has instructed to try to stop the bill.

This bill just is not fair! Let the judge decide!

Update:

Current law allows police to arrest trespassers, and when it isn’t clear if someone’s a trespasser, the matter gets resolved in court where a tenant has the right to trial in an expedited proceeding. The bill’s author and its sponsor, the California Association of Realtors, have not explained why existing law is not sufficient to deal with trespassers. Legislators have not even asked the author or sponsors to come forward with a single case in which a new “eviction by declaration” law is needed. Yet the bill continues to advance. This contrasts sharply with how tenant protection bills are treated in the Capitol.” http://beyondchron.org/eviction-by-declaration-bill-advances-exposing-sacramento-double-standard-on-tenants/

Analysis:

Not simply a bill to address tenants living in foreclosed homes, AB 1513 could seriously jeopardize tenants who have no protection of a written lease agreement. AB 1513 could allow slumlords to evict their tenants simply by stating to the police department of their local jurisdiction that their tenant was an “unlawful occupant,” nullifying the tenant’s constitutionally protected due process.” http://sandiegofreepress.org/2014/04/california-state-assembly-bill-ab-1513-will-take-away-tenants-rights/#.U7NwCGS9Kc0

“AB 1513 is also unclear regarding a resident’s rights if a property owner improperly evicts. It appears that the property owner’s only liability is based upon perjury. Accordingly, even a resident improperly evicted by a property owner making a false statement would have no recourse if the property owner’s false statement was made due to a mistake, lack of knowledge, or even lack of understanding regarding the law. Because of this, AB 1513 places a premium on the ignorance of property owners who can evict residents at will as long as they subjectively believe they have the right to do so.” http://oaklandwiki.org/AB-1513

 

IMG_5216-300hSB1439 was amended so only San Francisco tenants would be protected, but it failed in committee at the California State Assembly because many Democrats joined Republicans in voting against the eviction protections.

This from Tenants Together:

Despite our best efforts and a broad-based coalition of support from tenants and allies, our bill for Ellis Act reform, SB1439 (Leno), failed to pass out of the California Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee. Democratic Assembly Members Sharon Quirk-Silva (D – Fullerton) and Cheryl Brown (D- San Bernardino) teamed up with Republicans Brian Maienschein (R – San Diego) and Beth Gaines (R – Roseville) to defeat SB 1439 (Leno), a modest bill to stop speculators from misusing California’s Ellis Act to evict long-term tenants. The bill failed on a 3-4 vote, with Assembly Members Ed Chau (D – Monterey Park), Tom Ammiano (D – San Francisco) and Mariko Yamada (D –Davis) voting to support the bill. The bill would have plugged a loophole that has allowed speculators to purchase apartment buildings and immediately evict long-term San Francisco tenants who are disproportionately elderly and disabled. With no real arguments against the bill, the real estate lobby relied on a strategy of misrepresentations and campaign donations to prevail.

billEllis Act Update

Mark Leno’s Ellis Act reform bill (SB1439) was amended so only San Francisco tenants will be protected if the law passes. Yet tenants all over California are rallying to support long-time renters who face a dire situation in San Francisco, so the bill passed the state Senate and is now in the Assembly. It goes to the Housing and Community Development Committee on Wednesday.

The Berkeley Rent Board voted in March to ask Loni Hancock and Nancy Skinner to work to amend the bill so it  protects East Bay renters. The Board will get an update from the legislative advocates on Monday June 16 on this and other state legislation.

There were no Ellis evictions filed in Berkeley from 2011 through 2013. The Rent Board gives a report once a year, but tenant advocates have told the Tenants Union that there are many renters in Berkeley threatened with Ellis evictions. When tenants leave without an official eviction, there is no statistical record.

http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/S-F-Ellis-Act-reform-bill-passes-in-state-Senate-5514880.php

http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/5123-woohoo-ellis-act-reform-bill-passes-in-state-senate

Amended “Squatters Bill” Remains Threat to Renters

A bill in the state assembly intended to allow cities to evict squatters without going through a full eviction process in court could put any tenant without a written lease at risk of losing her or his access to the justice system. BTU worked to discourage our representatives in Sacramento to support the bill.

Recently, AB1513 was amended to only cover a couple places in Southern California, but if it is made law, it could set a dangerous precedent to allow the police to remove renters without the owner going to court. 

http://beyondchron.org/szetso-piece-ab-1513-update/

Berkeley Supports Renters Tax Assistance 

On June 3, Berkeley City Council approved a recommendation from the Housing Advisory Commission to support AB 2175 (Daly). The bill calls for restoration and expansion of State Tax Assistance to Renters, particularly seniors, the disabled, and low-income folks. Council voted to send letters to State Senator Hancock, Assembly member Skinner, and Governor Brown to communicate the City of Berkeley’s support for AB 2175. 

The Rent Board also voted in March to go on record supporting the bill, and will get an update on Monday June 16 from the legislative advocate.

Expanding Seismic Retrofit Requirements to Other Types of Buildings

In March, the Rent Board also voted to advise the City Council to review AB 2181, which would authorize cities to implement retrofit requirements on non-ductile concrete residential buildings by adding those structures to existing law regarding soft story buildings.

Image courtesy of Tenants Together
Image courtesy of Tenants Together

The Berkeley Rent Board voted at their March meeting to ask Senator Hancock and Representative Skinner to work on our behalf to allow cities like Berkeley to be a part of the statewide Ellis Reform. Meanwhile, the current bill from Mark Leno (SB 1439) – which will only protect San Francisco – narrowly passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee. Now it heads to the Judiciary. Although BTU wants protections against these speculative evictions to be open to Berkeley renters, we are still excited to see help for San Francisco may be on the way!

Tenants Together has published a fascinating report called The Speculator Loophole with help from the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project. The report shows that more than half of the owners who want to “go out of the rental business” bought the property within one year of deciding to evict everyone. The Leno bill calls for owners to hold rental property for five years before they can “go out of business” with the Ellis Act – San Francisco hopes this will stop speculative evictions.

http://tenantstogether.org/downloads/Ellis%20Act%20Report.pdf

San Francisco also voted this week to increase relocation assistance for Ellis evictions: “On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 to approve legislation that requires property owners in such eviction situations to pay the difference between the tenant’s current rent and what the tenant would have to pay for a similar apartment under current market conditions for two years…a tenant who moved into a two-bedroom apartment in the Mission district in 1987 at a monthly rent of $909, a relocation payment of $44,832 would be required.”
http://www.sfexaminer.com/PoliticsBlog/archives/2014/04/09/sf-boosts-compensation-for-ellis-act-evictees

SF Gate on Relocation Payment Increase:
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/S-F-supervisors-OK-bigger-Ellis-Act-payouts-5386872.php

San Francisco Starts Pilot Program to Legitimize In-Law Apartments:
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=69627

SF Tech Companies Support Ellis Reform:
http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/SF_Tech_Companies_Formally_Back_Ellis_Act_Reform_12534.html

Photo courtesy of Tenants Together.
Photo courtesy of Tenants Together.

Berkeley is one of 14 cities in California that enjoys strong protections for tenants. San Francisco has decent protections, but has seen a huge wave of evictions that use a state law, the Ellis Act, to get around local rules.

Now there is a statewide effort to reform the Ellis Act. The law was intended to allow long-term owners to “go out of the rental business” but instead allows investment companies and other speculators to buy rent controlled buildings, evict all the tenants, and sell the units as condos or tenancies-in-common at huge profits.

Activists from San Diego to Redding are hoping a reformed law might require an owner to hold the building for at least five years before they could “go out of business” – this would eliminate speculators who buy rental properties only to flip them after evictions. However, in 2007 a bill in the California legislature which called for a five-year delay failed miserably. If a broad coalition from many cities – including Berkeley – doesn’t support the current reform, we could end up with a state exemption to the law that will only protect San Francisco.

And you know what they say – “When San Francisco sneezes, Berkeley get a cold!” If SF was able to curb their epidemic of evictions, speculators will quickly turn to Berkeley. This is why the Berkeley Tenants Union wants you to join with us in supporting broad statewide reform of the Ellis Act now!

Our friends at Tenants Together have put together a petition as a first step:

A state law, The Ellis Act, is responsible for the unfair eviction of thousands of seniors and families in California. In the past few years Ellis Act evictions have surged, with thousands of long-term tenants displaced from their homes.

Send the message that we will stand up for our communities against speculation.
http://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5247/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15820

San Francisco is taking other steps to end their eviction crisis – Berkeley should also increase Ellis relocation payments, restrict unit mergers, and give evicted residents priority for local affordable housing – join BTU to fight for this today! Right now, the revisions to the Berkeley Demolition Ordinance proposed by Mayor Bates will make it easier to eliminate rent controlled units by merging them to create big houses for the wealthy — the exact opposite of how San Francisco is changing their law!
http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2013-12/supervisors-approve-plan-to-protect-tenants-against-displacement

Hundreds of seniors, families and long-term renters evicted in San Francisco
http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/Stopping_Ellis_Act_s_Economic_Terrorism_12134.html

The Ellis reform bill would allow local governments more say in preventing evictions:
http://m.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/tenant-advocates-seek-support-for-reforming-ellis-act/Content?oid=2665435