San Franciscans to get $32 million for rent relief in last-minute budget deal
June 29, 2021
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/San-Franciscans-to-get-32-million-for-rent-16283179.php
San Francisco will allocate $32 million toward rent relief, seeking to fill a gaping rent debt hole created by the pandemic and save tenants from eviction and potential homelessness.
Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors, led by Budget Committee Chair Matt Haney, cemented a deal Tuesday evening to include the amount in the upcoming budget after more than 30 hours of deliberations on the $13.2 billion spending plan. Details are still being worked out, but tenants who are imminently facing eviction will be prioritized.
San Franciscans have racked up between $147 million and $355 million in unpaid rent over the past 15 months because of pandemic unemployment, a city report released last week said.
The new local dollars are on top of the state’s rent relief program and a city-run initiative doling out $90 million in federal dollars. The state relief program from April 2020 to March 2021 has administered $4 million, out of nearly $50 million requested, according to recently obtained data from The Chronicle.
Since the city-run program launched at the end of May, 1,800 households that owe a combined $16 million have applied as of last Wednesday. Half of applicants were notified that they’ve been approved to get funds, but none had yet received money as of last week. The program expects to cover only between 5,000 and 6,000 of the highest-need households – only one in three households estimated to need it.
Supervisor Dean Preston, who pushed for rent relief in this year’s budget, estimates the funds will help approximately 3,500 households.
“San Francisco is coming together to stop pandemic-fueled displacement,” Preston said in a statement Tuesday. “We know the work is far from over, but the deal reached today will mean thousands of households won’t have to live in fear of eviction.”
Supervisors voted last week to extend the city’s eviction moratorium through the end of December, which protects tenants from getting kicked out of their home because of COVID-19-related causes if they can pay a quarter of their rent. Three days later, the state extended its similar moratorium, but only until the end of September, which could make the city’s protections a moot point.
While the state rent relief program makes direct payments primarily to landlords, the city’s would focus on tenants. Local landlords previously told The Chronicle the eviction moratorium could harm them. Noni Richen, board president of the Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, a nonprofit that aids small landlords in the city, said they are also suffering financially.
“No other small businesses are treated as we are being treated,” she said.
The local rent relief settles a tussle over revenue from Proposition I, a tax on expensive real estate property transfers, that passed on the ballot last year. Prop. I is expected to bring in $128 million this year. Its supporters, including Preston, campaigned that half of the revenue would be spent on rent relief and the other half on affordable social housing, a mixed-income model of public housing.
The Mayor’s initial proposed budget didn’t allocate the specific amount from Prop. I to those purposes, since the money was technically a general tax, meaning that it goes into the general fund and can be used for any city services. Breed said during a Board meeting in April that housing is a “top priority” and funding housing and eviction protection is “imperative” but pointed to relief available.
“I don’t agree we should set it aside for brand new programming that hasn’t been fully defined when we have an economic and housing crisis to solve now,” she added.
Preston got to use a quarter of the revenue for rent relief in the end and still plans to pursue allocating half of the $128 million to affordable social housing at a later date, he said Tuesday.
The city rent relief funds will be administered through a new program crafted by supervisors and run by the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
Chronicle staff writer Lauren Hepler contributed to this report.
Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoenc