Stop Vilifying Small Prop Owners for Political Gain! By Jeremiah Casey, Vice President of SPOSFI
When our local politicians continually pay lip service to the plight of small businesspeople, just who are they talking about? Isn’t it time they recognized that small property owners are among themost vulnerable small business owners in San Francisco? We have an unyielding and ever-changing set of regulations to contend with; numerous restrictions as to how we can manage our property and our rental relationships; and many of us are seniors who depend on our rental income to survive.
It is in this difficult environment that we attempt to provide safe, clean shelter to people of all income brackets. We are the mom-and-pop operations that maintain our own buildings, keep our own books, and struggle to understand the increasingly complicated rent ordinance.What makes us particularly vulnerable is the fact that we are the only small businesses that are required by law to do what is the job of government, i.e., subsidize low income renters.
If our newly elected supervisors are serious about fostering a fresh spirit of cooperation, many of them will need to stop vilifying small property owners for political advantage and realize that we provide a greater service to the city’s residents than most other small businesses: We provide people with homes! Surely the new Board President, David Chiu, a successful businessman himself, understands that.
Instead of hostility we need support. Instead of bullying and bickering we need solutions to the lack of real affordable housing for ourmiddle and working class residents. In the past two months, we’ve heard a lot of talk about the need to support small business. Well, Supervisors, now’s the time to follow your words with acton. Here is what we as San Francisco small businesspeople need to remain viable
A. Means testing for rent control tenants
San Francisco must take a lesson from New York City and institute means testing. Why should San Francisco small property owners (many of whom struggle to hold onto their buildings in this difficult economic climate) be forced to subsidize the lifestyle of wealthy renters who are capable of purchasing a home in the city, but choose not to? We have heard too many stories of small property owners, particularly elderly owners who depend on their rental income, being forced to cut back on basic necessities, forego needed maintenance, and even sell their property and leave the city. When a tenant makes $150,000 or more a year, but only because he has been in the same apartment for many years, pays far below market rent, is it fair that his land lord should suffer? Honest people can certainly argue about rent control, but everyone should agree that rent control without means testing is a corruption of its original intent.
B. Rent-controlled rent increases equal to 100% of the Consumer Price Index
In the last few years, the rise in real estate values has created a misconception that a property’s capital gains can offset its lack of rental income. Well, real estate values are down and not expected to go up any time soon, yet we are expected to pay our property taxes, mortgage, insurance, maintenance, and a host of other expenses, no matter what.
Even if we start out a new renter at market rent, the extremists in this city have so gerrymandered our current Rent Ordinance that our annual allowable rent increase, 60% of CPI, is already below government inflation rates, and San Francisco costs always exceed statewide and national inflation figures. No business can or should be expected to operate under such economic constraints—and no other business in San Francisco is. Small property owners must be allowed to increase their rents in keeping with inflation, i.e., rent increases equal to 100% of the CPI. Like means testing, this too is a simple matter of fairness.
Our website makes it easy to let our supervisors know how you feel. Please take advantage of it!
With the addition of a new feature on our website, it has never been easier to contact our city supervisors to express your opinion on these and other important issues. Sending them an e-mail is now just two clicks away. Go to www.smallprop.org, click on “CONTACT YOUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES,” then on the picture of the supervisor you wish to e-mail (or if you want to e-mail ALL the supervisors, click on their group picture). This opens up an e-mail page. Just fill in the subject field, type in your message, and hit SEND; it’s that simple. When you see our action alerts in the newsletter, please do take advantage of our user-friendly website to make your views known. When many of us contact the Supervisors, they take notice.
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