{"id":36879,"date":"2024-10-10T12:53:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T19:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36879"},"modified":"2024-10-10T12:53:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T19:53:06","slug":"supes-approve-rent-control-bill-after-safai-tries-a-delay-tactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/10\/10\/supes-approve-rent-control-bill-after-safai-tries-a-delay-tactic\/","title":{"rendered":"Supes approve rent control bill after Safai tries a delay tactic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News + Politics<\/a>Housing<\/a> Supes approve rent control bill after Safai tries a…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building trades unions try to derail measure, but fall short. What will Breed do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By TIM REDMOND<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCTOBER 8, 2024 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Board of Supes approved a measure Tuesday that could expand rent control to thousands of new units<\/a> after the author, Sup. Aaron Peskin, amended it to head off landlord opposition\u2014and defeated an attempt by Sup. Ahsha Safai to delay the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peskin\u2019s original bill would have expanded rent control to all buildings constructed between 1979 and November 2024 if Prop. 33 passes, and the Costa-Hawkins Act is repealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Board President Aaron Peskin got a major rent control bill approved after last-minute opposition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peskin clearly didn\u2019t have six votes for that proposal, in part because the landlord lobby was going to oppose it. So he made a particularly savvy move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In testimony at the Land Use and Transportation Committee, Corey Smith, director of the pro-landlord Housing Action Coalition, said his constituents might accept a plan to expand rent control to buildings that were more than 30 years old\u2014after the original financing was paid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was clearly a tactic to derail this bill\u2014but Peskin called their bluff:  He amended his bill to only expand rent control to buildings constructed before 1994\u2014that is, ones that are more than 30 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted it to go all the way, but the votes for that were not there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth noting, as Sup. Dean Preston pointed out, that the Costa Hawkins Act was passed in 1995, and it barred any future rent control from covering apartments built after that date. But it also forced cities that had existing rent control to exempt buildings all the way back to the date of the original rent control ordinance; in Los Angeles, that\u2019s 1978. In San Francisco, it\u2019s 1979.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So a city with no rent control that passed a rent-control ordinance today would be able to cover far more apartments than San Francisco can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still: All of the supervisors said they support expanding rent control to more units, and all of them said that Peskin\u2019s compromise made a lot of sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could have ended there\u2014but it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the last minute, the Building Trades Council, which often sides with landlords and developers, send a letter to the supes saying that the bill should include a provision to create a task force that would include labor, tenants, and landlords to decide how much property should be covered by rent control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safai asked that the measure be amended to include that\u2014which would mean it would have to go back to committee for another hearing, and at the very least would have delayed the matter for two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that matter? Yes: Prop. 33 is on the November ballot, and if the supes pass this resolution, it would tell the voters what the outcome might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s more here: Rent control could be a huge issue in the mayor\u2019s race. If the measure passed quickly, it would then go to the mayor\u2019s desk\u2014and Mayor London Breed, who has vowed to veto any \u201canti-housing\u201d legislation, would have to take a stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, it\u2019s important to make public officials vote on litmus-test issues. As Sup. Shamann Walton said, \u201ceither you are for rent control or you are against it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safai said he wanted \u201ca consensus vote.\u201d Sup. Hillary Ronen said that \u201cis a delay tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safai refused to withdraw his resolution, so Peskin called for a vote on the continuance\u2014that is, the delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sups. Safai, Joel Engardio, Catherine Stefani, and Matt Dorsey voted to delay the bill. The others, 7-4, killed that motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, the supes had no choice: They were for rent control, or against it, and the Peskin measure passed 11-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Breed has to decide which side she is on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full disclosure: Both of my kids work on the Peskin for Mayor campaign.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News + PoliticsHousing Supes approve rent control bill after Safai tries a… Building trades unions try to derail measure, but fall short. What will Breed do? By TIM REDMOND OCTOBER 8, 2024 (48hills.org) The Board of Supes approved a measure Tuesday that could expand rent control to thousands of new units after… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36881,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36879\/revisions\/36881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}