Newsom shoots down another Daly eviction law

Supervisor's 2nd recent bid to slow city trend is vetoed

By Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer
February 4, 2006

Mayor Gavin Newsom on Friday issued a second veto in as many weeks of legislation intended to reduce the number of evictions in the city, but which he says won't help solve San Francisco's affordable housing shortage.

In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, Newsom said the ordinance he vetoed Friday -- requiring a Planning Commission hearing whenever a multiunit building is to be converted into condominiums -- would hurt "well-meaning families and individuals who are committed to making a life in our community through homeownership."

The legislation, sponsored by Supervisor Chris Daly, was meant to slow a trend in San Francisco in which landlords empty their buildings of tenants and sell to groups of people who pool their resources to buy the property and live in separate units.

These tenancy-in-common, or TIC, buyers -- who jointly own their buildings -- usually then seek to convert units into separately owned condominiums.

Tenant-rights groups had hailed Daly's legislation requiring Planning Commission hearings for all condo conversions because it would bring more public scrutiny to real estate transactions that might have cost longtime renters an affordable apartment.

In his veto letter to the supervisors, Newsom argued that the city already limits condo conversions to 200 a year through a lottery system and Daly's ordinance would create "yet another major barrier in an already arduous process."

On Friday, Daly said Newsom's reasoning that the hearings would be too cumbersome is a "red herring."

"In most instances it would not increase bureaucracy beyond having an address printed on a Planning Commission calendar. There would be no additional time, no additional resources," Daly said.

Current law requires Planning Commission hearings for condo conversions of buildings with five or more units. Under Daly's ordinance, owners of buildings with two, three or four units also would have to go before the commission.

"What the legislation would have allowed, which is the real reason Newsom used the pen, is for the Planning Commission to take a further look at condo conversions and see if there were evictions that occurred in order to clear the building for the condo conversion," Daly said.

But Newsom said that roadblocks to condominium conversions are not the solution to affordable housing and that too often in the debate first-time home buyers are pitted against long-term tenants.

"If you're going to solve issues of poverty, you've got to focus on equity. You've got to focus on creating home ownership opportunities," he said. "We need to develop more housing, more home ownership opportunities and this doesn't seem to be advancing that for tens of thousands of people."

He noted the condominium conversion process in San Francisco -- which includes the lottery and an exacting building permit approval process -- can mean TIC owners wait many years before being able to convert to condo ownership.

The mayor's veto marks the second time in two weeks in which he shot down a Daly-sponsored measure geared to reduce condo conversions.

Last month, Newsom also vetoed legislation that would have required property owners to disclose the evictions of disabled or elderly tenants to all potential home buyers.

In a separate letter made public Friday, Newsom said he supports legislation sponsored by Supervisor Bevan Dufty, which would require that such a disclosure be made within the first three days of escrow.

Newsom's vetoes have drawn protest from tenant advocates, some of whom say the mayor is actually promoting evictions of poor and working-class residents.

"As somebody whose platform is to end homelessness in the city, from my experience, one guaranteed way to do that is to keep people who have homes in them," said Ora Prochovnick, director of the New College School of Law's Housing Advocacy Clinic in San Francisco.

San Francisco landlords evicted tenants using the Ellis Act -- a state law that lets property owners evict tenants if they are leaving the rental business -- at near record-breaking levels during the city's last fiscal year.

"Newsom shows a strong interest in supporting home ownership and the real estate industry in San Francisco and that's to the expense of the low-income renters," Prochovnick said.

Supervisors have 30 days to attempt a veto override of the condo conversion legislation. There does not, however, appear to be the eight votes on the Board of Supervisors needed to revive it.

E-mail Cecilia M. Vega at cvega@sfchronicle.com.