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Judge strikes down San Francisco eviction law / attempt to impose socialism / fag welfare.

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San Francisco’s latest attempt to make landlords pay relocation 
costs for tenants they evict when the property owners go out of 
the rental business has hit another judicial roadblock.

The ordinance, scaled down from a previous measure, would 
require landlords to pay displaced tenants the difference 
between their current rent and the market rate for a similar 
unit in the city for two years, up to a maximum of $50,000. 
Tenants would have to show they were using the funds solely for 
relocation costs and rents, and landlords who faced hardships 
could appeal to the city Rent Board to reduce their payments.

But Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay said the required 
payments exceed the “reasonable” relocation assistance 
authorized by the Ellis Act, the state law that allows landlords 
to evict all their tenants when they leave the rental business 
without having to show any other grounds for an eviction.

Reasonable payments are those that would offset the immediate 
costs of eviction — first and last months’ rent, the tenant’s 
security deposit and moving expenses, Quidachay said in his 
ruling Friday. He said additional charges to “subsidize the 
payment of rent that a displaced tenant will face on the open 
market, regardless of income ... have no relationship to the 
adverse impact caused by the landlord’s decision to exit the 
rental market.”

He also noted that the $50,000 maximum payment for two years is 
more than three times the current payment for displaced San 
Francisco tenants — $4,500 a year, adjusted annually for 
inflation — authorized by a 2005 city ordinance that was upheld 
by the courts.

The ruling is “a major victory for San Francisco property 
owners,” said Andrew Zacks, a lawyer for three landlords and the 
Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, who challenged 
the ordinance. “No matter how many times it tries, the city 
cannot disregard state law.”

The city plans to appeal.

The issue in the case is, “Can we make landlords compensate 
tenants for what we know are the real impacts of Ellis Act 
evictions,” Deputy City Attorney Christine Van Aken said Tuesday.

She said the state law allows local governments to “require 
mitigation of any adverse impact” on evicted tenants. “We think 
having to pay dramatically new, higher rents is an adverse 
impact of the eviction,” Van Aken said.

The author of the ordinance, Supervisor David Campos, said he 
was confident that the law would be upheld on appeal. “I think 
that in the midst of the worst housing crisis in the history of 
San Francisco, adjusting relocation payments to reflect the 
crisis in which we are is a reasonable step,” he said.

An earlier Campos ordinance, which took effect in June 2014, 
required the same two-year rent subsidy but without the $50,000 
limit, and did not require tenants to show that they used the 
funds solely for housing.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer declared the measure 
unconstitutional in October 2014, saying it violated property 
rights by forcing owners to pay for problems they didn’t cause — 
the skyrocketing prices of rental housing, and the gap between 
market rates and the city’s rent-control law. Quidachay, in a 
separate case, ruled later that the ordinance also conflicted 
with the Ellis Act’s authorization of only “reasonable” 
relocation assistance. The city has appealed both rulings.

City supervisors approved Campos’ new ordinance in May and it 
was scheduled to take effect in June but has been on hold during 
the legal challenge.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: 
begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Judge-strikes-down-San-
Francisco-eviction-law-6554447.php

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