The Facts

Supervisor Jackie Fielder has a proposal to protect renters from eviction. Her minimum-debt ordinance would bar nonpayment evictions until a tenant owes more than one month of federal fair market rent for a comparable apartment, Yujie Zhou reports at Mission Local. The debt would remain collectible.

The current thresholds are $2,485 for a studio, $2,977 for a one-bedroom, and $3,604 for a two-bedroom.

The Context

Other cities have similar policies. Oakland requires at least one month of federal fair market rent to support a nonpayment eviction, and Berkeley adopted the same basic rule.

The ordinance is co-sponsored by Supervisors Myrna Melgar, Shamann Walton, Connie Chan, Chyanne Chen, Bilal Mahmood, and Danny Sauter.

The GrowSF Take

Fielder is right to stop landlords from using a few unpaid dollars to dislodge tenants. Eviction is an extreme response to a trivial, accidental, or even temporary shortfall. The legal text is short and simple, and we support it.

San Francisco must keep making it easier to build new homes, and we should keep finding ways to help people struggling to stay here.