San Francisco tenancies-in-common could soon face closer scrutiny under legislation that was proposed by a city supervisor on Tuesday.
Supervisor Eric Mar proposed an ordinance that he said would “bring balance to what right now is an unregulated market.” Tenancies-in-common are arrangements in which multiple parties own shares of the same property.
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Mar said the city currently doesn’t keep track of how many rental units are lost each year when apartments are taken off the market to be converted to TICs.
His legislation would require that the city’s Planning Department sign off on the conversion of an apartment building into a TIC and require that the property be subject to the same housing and building codes as new construction.
“The absence of regulation of these types allows speculators to evict tenants,” Mar said.
Matt McFarland, a staff attorney with the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, said his office sees the impact of such evictions, many of which impact seniors and disabled tenants who have been in their buildings for decades.
“This legislation would create quite a bit more transparency,” McFarland said.
Theresa Flandrich, a resident of the city’s North Beach neighborhood, said she is being evicted in April, along with people in several other buildings, because of conversions to tenancies-in-common.
“It is destroying our neighborhood,” Flandrich said.
The legislation was one of two proposed by San Francisco supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting to address the shortage of affordable housing in San Francisco.
Supervisor Scott Wiener also introduced an ordinance that would loosen density limits for new developments that include at least 20 percent affordable housing.
Mayor Ed Lee said he has not yet looked at the language of Mar’s or Wiener’s ordinances so could not say if he would support them.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
