Come join us Dec. 16th at 2pm, San Francisco City Hall to support strong, enforceable tenant protections.

Let’s make sure that Hassle Free Housing legislation makes it out of the Land Use Committee and to the Full Board of Supervisors.

While San Francisco has some of the strongest protections for tenants, including protections against harassment, landlords in our city are still using harassment tactics to illegally evict tenants.

Just a few examples of the harassment tenants face include: calling them at all hours of the day; sitting outside their homes or coming by their building everyday;  having construction take place   Monday through Saturday beginning at 7am; sending invalid 3-Day Notices that tenants have to respond to; not accepting rent, as well as verbal aggression and intimidation.  

Harassment is an incredibly effective and cheap way to evict a tenant because a landlord is making their housing situation so unbearable that tenants self-evict, leaving behind a vacant unit that does not trigger any of the restriction on re-renting at market value that would follow a legal Ellis Act or Owner Move-In eviction or the requirement to give relocation payments after any No-Fault Eviction.  

The Hassle Free Housing Legislation is our attempt to ensure that the harassment protections that currently exist in San Francisco are enforceable.

Currently tenants facing these and other types of evictions only have the option of holding their landlords or master tenants accountable for their actions by suing them at Superior Court.

While it is important that tenants have that avenue to enforce the right they have, there must be another, more accessible option for tenants who do not have the resources to hire a lawyer and sue their landlord or master tenants.

If Hassle Free Housing is approved by the SF Board of Supervisors, tenants would have an option to take their harassment claims to the SF Rent Board have a mediation session with the Landlord or Master Tenant and try and resolve the issue.

If there is no resolution, but it is clear that tenant harassment is taking place, the Rent Board’s Administrative Law Judges would send their findings the SF City Attorney who could pursue the case.

So… don’t forget Dec. 16th at 2pm, San Francisco City Hall — to send a strong message to the Land Use Committee and Full Board of Supervisors that Hassle Free Housing legislation makes sense.