Action/Alerts
96.8% of SF tenants paid rent in May, but June and beyond?
Who knows? According to a survey of San Francisco Apartment Association (SFAA) members, the vast majority of San Francisco residential tenants continued to pay their rent in May despite loss of income due to the coronavirus pandemic and the shelter-in-place order. The survey of 352 property owners or managers, which encompassed 13,961 San Francisco apartment units, found that 96.8% of tenants paid their rent in May. The percentage of tenants unable to afford rent amid the coronavirus epidemic declined to 3.2% in May compared to April, when a similar survey found 5.7% of tenants couldn't pay. This high percentage of rent payments may be due at least in part to the $1,200 stimulus checks many tenants received, as well as unemployment checks. But given that the survey included only a small fraction of the total number of rental units, the stated numbers may not be a true reflection of reality. As we go to press, the big worry is how June rent payments will look.
An April 30 article (now nearly a month old) in MissionLocal paints a very different picture: "If you talk to San Francisco tenants rights attorney Joe Tobener these days, you'll immediately be seized by a sense of impending rental market doom . . . "We are now getting flooded with calls from tenants who can't pay rent (residential and commercial). We have been giving everyone free consults so far, but we cannot handle the volume."
Whom to believe? As the pandemic and its fallout continues to hammer the economy and renters' pocketbooks, only time will determine the true extent of the impact on housing providers.