News: Ellis Act
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In the next seven days, a major threat to the Ellis Act is expected to either win Senate approval or die on the Senate floor.
We’re counting on you, our members, to help ensure the latter.
Here’s the urgency: Friday, May 30, is the deadline for bills to pass out of their house of origin. Those that do will then go to the other house for consideration.
So any day now, Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is expected to push for a Senate vote on SB 1439, an assault on property rights that would weaken a landlord’s ability to quit… Read More
The California Apartment Association is calling on its members to help defeat a bill that threatens the Ellis Act and could come to a vote on the Senate floor next week.
The bill, 1439 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, could strip San Francisco landlords of their freedom to leave the rental housing business.
SB 1439 is a direct assault on the Ellis Act, a law passed in 1985 that bars local governments from making property owners stay in the rental housing industry.
Ellis especially protects owners of rental properties in rent controlled cities, where landlords can find themselves operating… Read More
Tagged: Ellis Act
As expected, a bill that would hinder a landlord’s right to take rental units off the market in San Francisco advanced from the Judiciary Committee this week. It next goes to the Senate floor.
SB 1439 by state Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would undermine the Ellis Act, a 1985 law that bars local governments from making landlords stay in the rental housing business.
The Ellis Act especially protects owners of rental properties in rent controlled cities, where landlords can find themselves operating at a loss.
On Monday, Leno’s bill passed the Judiciary Committee by a 5 to 2 vote… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyEllis ActLegislation
An anti-Ellis Act bill is dead after its author refused to eliminate wording that would have encouraged tenants to wage court battles as a tactic to stay in rent-controlled apartments already removed from the market.
The California Apartment Association on Tuesday derailed AB 2405 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.
The bill received four votes but needed six to survive its hearing in the Judiciary Committee.
Last week, after CAA persuaded lawmakers to gut the most problematic aspects of the bill, AB 2405 advanced from the Assembly Committee on Local Government.
On Tuesday, however, Ammiano would not agree to remove… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyEllis ActLegislation
The California Apartment Association has written a letter to Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, detailing several defects in his anti-Ellis Act bill before he presents it to an Assembly committee next week.
Passed by the state Legislature in 1985, California’s Ellis Act says no local government can require that a rental property owner continue to offer his or her housing for rent. Ammiano’s bill, which would gut the act, goes before the Assembly Committee on Local Government on Wednesday, April 23.
At its core, Assembly Bill 2405 would keep contested Ellis Act evictions stuck in the court system for years on end… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyEllis ActLegislation
State Sen. Mark Leno needs to address apartment industry concerns about his anti-Ellis Act bill, which could lock San Francisco landlords into the rental housing business for years on end, even if they’re losing money.
Those instructions came from the Transportation and Housing Committee, which narrowly approved Leno’s SB 1439 on Tuesday by a 6 to 4 vote with one abstention.
The close decision came after the California Apartment Association, a San Francisco landlord and others offered compelling testimony against the legislation. About 150 opponents of the bill crowded the committee hearing room.
“The comments by legislators today and the… Read More
Tagged: Ellis ActLegislation
A bill that could strip San Francisco landlords of their freedom to leave the rental housing business heads to a key senate committee next month.
On Tuesday, April 8, state Sen. Mark Leno’s SB 1439 goes before the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing.
SB 1439 is a direct assault on the Ellis Act, a law passed in 1985 that bars local governments from making landlords stay in the rental housing business.
Ellis especially protects owners of rental properties in rent controlled cities, where landlords can find themselves operating at a loss.
Under Leno’s bill, San Francisco would be authorized… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyEllis ActLegislation
AB 2405 (Ammiano, D-San Francisco)
This bill would convert all Ellis Act court filings to general civil actions; they would not fall under the usual expedited unlawful detainer eviction process as they now do. This means that Ellis Act proceedings if challenged by a tenant in court would take years to finalize. The clerk of the court would be prohibited from allowing the general public to access the court records filed in the Ellis Act civil case. The bill will also allow a city or county to completely prohibit use of the Ellis Act by owners if the city or… Read More
Tagged: Ellis Act
Jerry Jacoby is a fourth-generation San Franciscan who lives on Filbert Street in the Russian Hill neighborhood. He was born and raised off of San Bruno Avenue and attended Lowell High School.
Aside from serving two years in the Army in the Vietnam War, Jerry has spent his entire life in The City. He raised his four children in San Francisco and spent his working life at a number of jobs as an engineer, consultant and analyst for local firms from Levi’s to Fibreboard Paper to Matson. Jerry now survives on $12,000 each year in Social Security payments.
As a… Read More
Mellie Malcolmson was born in New Mexico and came to San Francisco at the end of the Second World War. She met her husband soon after arriving in The City, and they were married in 1962.
In 1965, Mellie and her husband bought a small, four-unit property on the 1100 block of Filbert Street in the Russian Hill neighborhood and planted roots. The Malcolmsons raised their son, James, on the third floor of their building on Filbert Street, where Mellie continues to live, and relied on the rent from the other apartments for their mortgage. James has lived his entire… Read More