Media contact:
Joshua Stickney, Asian Law Caucus | joshuas@asianlawcaucus.org | (405) 315-4151
Meg Heisler, San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition | meg@sfadc.org | (973) 768-6436
Jennifer Fieber, Office of Supervisor Melgar | jennifer.fieber@sfgov.org | (917) 407-9859
Supervisor Melgar Introduces Legislation to Curb “Nuisance” Evictions in San Francisco
Proposal developed with Asian Law Caucus and the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition comes as “nuisance” eviction notices rise sharply across the city
SAN FRANCISCO — Supervisor Myrna Melgar (District 7) today introduced legislation at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors aimed at curbing the use of fabricated “nuisance” eviction notices to push longtime tenants out of their homes.
The proposal, named Low Fault Eviction Reform, was developed with tenant advocates and eviction defense experts, including the Asian Law Caucus (ALC), Eviction Defense Collaborative, Legal Assistance to the Elderly, and members of the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC), as San Francisco faces a broader surge in evictions and rapidly rising rents. The coalition and Supervisors Melgar and Jackie Fielder (District 9) highlighted those pressures at a tenant rally Monday, where they called for tenant-led responses to the city’s rent and eviction crisis.
"With monthly rents up more than $1,000 in the last year, there is a target on the backs of long-term renters across the City. Right now, landlords stand to profit greatly from their tenants' displacement and are abusing local statutes to force them out, including via nuisance evictions,” said Meg Heisler, Policy Director of the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition.
According to the most recent data from the San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board, landlords filed 405 eviction notices alleging nuisance, a 41% increase in one year and more than the 348 filed during the height of the previous tech boom in 2015-16.
Under San Francisco’s existing rent ordinances, “nuisance” can be grounds for eviction when a tenant’s conduct substantially interferes with the comfort, safety or enjoyment of a landlord or other tenants and is severe, continuing or recurring. Landlords generally must provide a written warning and an opportunity to cure before serving a notice to vacate.
But tenant advocates say the inherently subjective nature of nuisance allegations can leave renters vulnerable to exaggerated or unsubstantiated claims, particularly when removing a longtime rent-controlled tenant could allow an apartment to return to the market at a substantially higher rent.
“Tenant protections mean very little if a landlord can get around them with a vague or manufactured complaint,” said Aarti Kohli, executive director of Asian Law Caucus. “When San Francisco seniors, like our client Sue Yeng Yan who has lived in her home for decades, can suddenly be threatened with eviction because she has ‘too many’ belongings, something is wrong. Nuisance laws should protect people from real harm, not serve as a loophole for landlords to force longtime tenants out of their homes. This legislation helps close that loophole.”
That concern emerged into sharp focus this year at 1120 Jackson Street, where six units received nuisance eviction notices after the building changed ownership. The notices alleged that tenants’ accumulated belongings constituted a nuisance even though nearly all of the tenants had lived in the building for decades.
“No one who has made a home in San Francisco for decades should lose it over a manufactured complaint,” said Supervisor Myrna Melgar. “Both Supervisor Fielder and I worked with tenants and eviction defense experts to come up with real solutions we hope will protect tenants. We can’t just celebrate the new wealth flowing into our city. We have to make sure the people who helped the City through the hard times get to stay for the good ones.”
Melgar’s legislation tightens the definition of nuisance to more concretely describe the nature and severity of conduct that one can be evicted for. It also allows tenants who have caused damage through an honest mistake the chance to pay reasonable costs for the damage rather than face an eviction claim.
The legislation is part of a broader push by Supervisors Melgar and Fielder and the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition to address displacement as rents and eviction activity rise across the city. SFADC and its members asserted several tenant-led solutions in an open letter, released last week.
###
About the Organizations
Asian Law Caucus (ALC) was founded in 1972 as the nation's first legal and civil rights organization focusing on the needs of low-income, immigrant and underserved Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Recognizing that social, economic, political, and racial inequalities continue to exist in the United States, ALC is committed to the pursuit of equality and justice for all sectors of our society. Learn more at www.asianlawcaucus.org.
The San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC) is a group of tenant organizations who organize against the soaring evictions and rent increases in our city. Formed in 2013 to address a wave of displacement forcing thousands from their homes and neighborhoods, SFADC and its members continue to serve tenants via counseling, direct outreach, and organizing, and eviction defense. Learn more at www.sfadc.org.