Thank you, supervisors, for passing this resolution by a vote of 11 to zero:

Therefore be it resolved that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors call upon the San Francisco delegation to the State Legislature to sponsor legislation that would repeal Section 1569-147 of the Health and Safety Code so as to allow local governments to limit the annual rent increase imposed on occupied units of licensed residential care facilities for the elderly to the percentage by which the cost of living increased in that jurisdiction in the preceding year.

What is this all about? State law currently forbids a local entity like the City and County of San Francisco to impose rent controls of any kind on licensed residential care facilities. Operators of one such facility, Sunrise at Golden Gate Park, raised rents last year by 5% and threaten another 5-6% increase this year. The maximum allowable increase under San Francisco’s rent control ordinance for March ‘07 thru February ‘08 is between 1% and 1.5%. The Sunrise Residents Association complained to the Board of Supervisors that they are retirees on fixed incomes and will be priced out of their homes and forced to move if this keeps up. Sunrise, of course, is not the only care facility where this is happening.

Gray Panthers was one of many organizations that testified before the Board in support of this resolution. We hope the Supervisors push our state representatives— Migden, Leno, Ma—to get this state exemption repealed so we can expand our local rent control. And it wouldn’t hurt if each of us told our representatives the same thing.

(back to July 2007 Newsletter front page)