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May NewsSFTU Endorsements For June 5 ElectionThe Tenants Union has made its endorsements for the June 5 election: Tom Ammiano-Assembly District 17 San Francisco Ballot Measures Democratic Central Committee District 17 Democratic Central Committee District 19 Sup. David Chiu Introduces Legislation To End Illegal Conversion of Apartments to HotelsBolstered by web sites which make it easy to rent out apartments as hotel rooms and a lagging market for "tenancies in common." tenants are now facing a new and serious threat: the conversion of rent controlled apartments to hotel rooms. Web sites like Vacation Rental By Owner are currently listing hundreds, maybe thousands, of these conversions. Tenants are paying a steep price too: research found that tenants had been evicted (most commonly by the Ellis Act) so the landlord could convert the apartments to these lucrative short-term rentals. North Beach has been particularly hard hit, with blocks near the cable car line typically containing at least one or two such buildings. Tenants are also suffering because the conversion of so many apartments has further dwindled the supply of available rental units in an already extremely tight rental market, which has caused rents to increase significantly. The irony is that these conversions are illegal: the city's APartment Conversion law (Chapter 41 A of the Administrative Code and the the city's Planning Code both prohibit such conversions). But a lack of enforcement by city agencies has resulted in landlords blatantly ignoring these laws. Chiu's legislation will make it easier to enforce these laws by giving non-profits (e.g. the SF Tenants Union) the right to sue violators. It also closes a loophole which has enable corporations to rent blocks of rooms to use as hotel rooms for their employees (e.g. airlines needing to house pilots and flight attendants overnight in SF). Occupy Wells Fargo Shareholder Meeting Tuesday, April 24, 11 AMWhen Citi Apartments embarked on its plan to buy up San Francisco apartment buildings and then evict rent controlled tenants (and replace them with market rent paying tenants), it teamed up with Wells Fargo Bank as its partner, in a common bank-landlord collaboration known as "predatory equity." Predatory equity schemes like the one Wells and Citi did in SF typically involve a financial institution investing in the acquisition of apartment buildings where the landlord plans to increase profits by driving out rent controlled tenants (or in some cases in New York City trying to remove rent controlled protections from the buildings); the idea is both parties will profit hugely from the displacement of low income renters. Wells is also quite active in financing Ellis evictions and facilitating the evictions of tenants for condo conversions—again predatory equity schemes where they make a lot of money off the misery of the 99%. Then there;s their foreclosure evictions... On April 24, Wells Fargo will hold its annual shareholder meeting in San Francisco and the Tenants Union, other housing organizations and Occupy SF Housing coalition will join with Occupy SF To occupy and shut down the shareholder meeting. Join us–meet at Justin Herman Plaza (foot of Market Street) at 11 AM on April 24 to then march to the shareholder meeting a few blocks away.
Occupy SF Housing Joins Occupy Wall St. West & Shuts Down Banks Which Evict Tenants & Homeowners On January 20 Day of Actions
SFTU & Occupy Shut Down Banks In Excelsior & the Mission
Hundreds Come Out For Occupy SF Housing Day of Actions |
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