April, 2006 -- It's election year. So, Supervisor Aaron Peskin and his allies on the extreme left are energizing their base by fabricating a frenzy around Ellis Act evictions. Welcome to "Eviction-year" politics in San Francisco. As part of his campaign, Peskin has introduced one of the most restrictive and dangerous anti-TIC bills in years. Peskin's bill would prohibit any building where at least one no-fault eviction occurred to be prohibited from entering the condo-conversion lottery. Here’s the dangerous part that affects many TIC owners: the bill is retroactive to all buildings with evictions that occurred after January 1999.

No fault-evictions include Ellis Act evictions, owner move-in evictions, and demolition or capital improvement-related evictions. Peskin’s bill would affect buildings where an eviction impacted two or more people or at least one senior or disabled person.

Peskin's bill will seriously affect the lives of many TIC homeonwers. Under this bill, many buildings will not be able to condo-convert while considerably eroding property values. This bill is a carefully choreographed ploy (along with Proposition B) by Peskin to put pressure on moderate Supervisors and Mayor Newsom. It’s unfortunate that Peskin resorted to playing "eviction-year" politics with our homes and livelihood – all for political gain. Perhaps Peskin wants to put a dent in the Mayor’s high approval ratings (at 77 percent) during an election-year and stop the negative approval ratings of his Board of Supervisors (at 39 percent). Perhaps Peskin is concerned that homeowners are starting to fight back and shut down anti--homeownership legislation at the Board of Supervisors.

In any case, here are four reasons why this bill is detrimental and unfair to TIC homeowners and why the "eviction issue" isn't what Peskin is making it out to be:

1. Ex post facto: The most outrageous – and potentially illegal – part of this bill is its 7-year retroactive clause. Peskin is attempting to change the rules of the game for TIC owners in mid-stream. Imagine if you purchased a TIC unit 3 years ago and were aware of an eviction on the property. Back then, you bought the property knowing you would be able to convert your unit into a condo one day. Three years later, you are now being punished and will not be able to convert – all after the fact. In the process, your property loses 10-20% of market value.

2. The sky is not falling: Contrary to Supervisors Peskin and Daly, and the Tennants Union, the eviction problem isn't reaching epidemic proportions to warrant such extreme legislation. Consider the following: According to the SF Rent Board's Annual Report for Eviction Notices to the Mayor and Supervisors, there were 282 Ellis eviction petitions filed with the rent board for fiscal year 2004 and 276 for the year 2005. To put that into perspective, there are 340,000 housing units in SF, of which 230,000 are rental units. That equals 1/10 of 1 percent of the rental units.

3. Flawed legislative logic: Peskin's legislation penalizes Owner Move In Evictions (OMI) and evictions for capital improvements. If you own a building and want to move into a unit through a legal Owner Move In Eviction (OMI), why should you be punished? After all, it's your building.

In addition, landlords often use capital improvement evictions as a means for removing illegal units from the market. Under Peskin's bill, if a landlord attempts to comply with the law by evicting a tenant that is living in a unit that doesn't have a certificate of occupancy, no future condo-conversions will be allowed in the other units of the building.  This would penalize landlords who attempt to comply with the law and encourages the renting of illegal and uninhabitable units.

4. Peskin's bill does nothing to discourage Ellis Act evictions: Renters want to own property in San Francisco. The market has responded to this demand. In recent years, buying, financing and re-selling a TIC has become commonplace. Banks are now offering fractional TIC loans. Even if Peskin's bill becomes law or San Francisco bans condo-conversions alltogether, first-time homeowners will continue to legally buy TICs, gain equity, and easily sell them -- without having to go through the SF condo-conversion process.

Please tell the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor to stop playing politics with our livelihood and our homes. Playing "Eviction-year" politics to pander for votes at the expense of TIC homeowners is just plain wrong.

Randy Brasche
President, San Francisco TIC Coalition