San Francisco Planning Commissioners on Thursday, March 8 unanimously rejected the condo conversion application for 668-678 Page Street where Iris Canada, a 100-year-old African American woman who had lived in her apartment since the 50s, was evicted on February 10 of last year. Ms. Canada’s story went worldwide. She died shortly after her eviction on March 20. Tenant activists, including those from the Tenants Union, Senior Disability Action, Faith In Action, and Housing Rights Committee, testified against the condo conversion, saying that the city should not reward a senior eviction. The city’s condo conversion law prohibits condo conversion of … (click for more)

Tenants paid a visit on December 5 to State Assemblymember David Chiu’s San Francisco office to pressure him to schedule a hearing on the Costa Hawkins repeal measure (AB 1506) in the Housing and Community Development committee that he chairs. Introduced last February, the bill would get rid of a law that has limited rent control since 1995 when it was passed by the state legislature. Costa-Hawkins removes rent control on single-family homes and most condos, eliminates vacancy control, and doesn’t allow rent control to be extended on buildings built beyond 1995. It has caused rents to rise, evictions to … (click for more)

At the November 16 SF Planning Commission meeting, city representatives promised that none of the Bayview vets who live in Judy Wu properties will be displaced before comparable housing is found for them. The commissioners rejected the discretionary review that a tenant in one of the Judy Wu properties filed, asking that the commission not grant her permits to demolish the units the city says are illegal. Ms. Wu is accused of subdividing single family homes into illegal units and renting them to formerly homeless vets with VASH vouchers (federal subsidies for vets). She is being sued by the City … (click for more)

About 450 tenants from across the state of California gathered at Alameda High School in the city of Alameda on Saturday, September 22 and Sunday, September 23 to learn from each other and to strategize on key tenant issues, including the repeal of Costa Hawkins, a law that restricts the implementation of vacancy control and stronger tenant protections.