I wanted to share two major announcements my office recently made in our fight to address our City’s affordable housing crisis:
“These affordable S.F. apartments were threatened, then a city attorney stepped in”
Earlier this month, we successfully prevented a developer from turning 76 affordable housing units into market-rate housing, which would have put this housing out of reach for most San Francisco renters.
Preserving affordable housing is one of the most important things we can do to prevent homelessness. Especially given the challenges of building new affordable housing, I’m proud that we were able to protect these existing units for low- and middle-income renters.
“SF city attorney sues 3 Chinatown property owners for ‘inhumane conditions‘”
In another case, my office is working to enforce existing laws to ensure landlords provide safe accommodations for their tenants. We recently sued the owners of three Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels for years of unacceptable conditions.
Between the three buildings, we saw code violations stemming from broken plumbing, exposed electrical wiring, insect infestations, mold and mildew, lack of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, insufficient emergency exits, broken doors and windows, damaged paint with lead risks, damaged ceilings and floors, and more.
Lawsuits like these are a last resort. Typically, landlords in this situation respond to initial warnings and bring their buildings into compliance. But, these owners failed for years to meet their legal responsibility to provide safe, code-compliant housing, and they need to be held accountable. If you know of a property owner who is providing unsafe or illegal accommodations or otherwise violating City codes, please report a complaint here.