Action/Alerts

There are two versions of the condo lottery bypass legislation. The Land Use Committee passed version one and forwarded it to the Board of Supervisors for a vote on Tuesday, June 11. Then on Tuesday, June 4, through a little used legal procedure, four Supervisors  pulled a second version of the legislation out of the Land Use Committee. Therefore, both versions of this legislation will be heard on June 11. Both versions are officially sponsored by Farrell, Wiener, Chiu, Yee and Kim; however the first version is called Chiu-Yee and the second is called Farrell-Wiener. Neither version is acceptable. Public comment will not be possible at this meeting.

This legislation was originally intended to help TIC owners by allowing owners to pay for the right to bypass the lottery, but it was hijacked by tenants groups and it makes substantial changes that will harm all property owners who either own TICs or who may want to sell their properties as TICs in the future. The proposed ordinance imposes a minimum 10 year moratorium on future conversions through the lottery, it increases the number of owners who must live in the property and doubles the time (from 3 to 6 years) that the owners must live there, it requires lifetime leases for all tenants (not just senior and disabled tenants), and it forever prohibits conversion of 5 and 6 unit buildings from future lotteries. All of which are unacceptable. Most disturbing, a poison pill has been added that would halt all condo conversions (whether by lottery or by payment) during the 2-3 years that it would take to resolve any lawsuit challenging the ordinance.

We encourage all of the members to contact their supervisors and urge them to vote no on both versions of this legislation. We believe that the five supervisors listed below are most likely to be influenced by our members. You can contact them in three ways: Write a letter, call and leave a message, or send an email.

Supervisor London Breed, Telephone (415) 554-7630, London.Breed@sfgov.org
Supervisor Malia Cohen, Telephone (415) 554-7670, Malia.Cohen@sfgov.org
Supervisor Mark Farrell, Telephone (415) 554-7752, Mark.Farrell@sfgov.org
Supervisor Katy Tang, Telephone (415) 554-7460, Katy.Tang@sfgov.org
Supervisor Scott Wiener, Telephone (415) 554-6968, Scott.Wiener@sfgov.org

The mailing address for all supervisors is City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244, San Francisco, CA 94102-4689.

It is vital that you let the five supervisors know that the legislation is bad policy for all residents of the City both owners and tenants. We oppose both versions of this legislation.