Community Launches Critical Solutions to Keep Residents in SF
Photo by Joseph Smooke of People Power Media.
April 2, 2025
On Thursday, Feb. 27, our citywide coalitions REP-SF, the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC), and the Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO) threw down for tenants at the SF Planning Commission Hearing we requested to prevent displacement. Our community presentation focused on a set of comprehensive solutions to ensure residents are able to stay in the city with the escalating threats from upzoning and demolitions. Our coalitions hosted a powerful press conference ahead of the hearing, and our community members and allies delivered over an hour of emotional public testimony. Thank you to everyone who came out! Check out our video highlights and great media coverage of the hearing! Find out more in our blog post on SF's proposed upzonings.
tenant stories
Tenants and tenant counselors from SFADC and REP-SF spoke in support of strengthening protections and advancing our community solutions for affordability and stability! Watch this video, featuring public testimonies from Allyn Mejia of the Housing Rights Committee (HRCSF), Fred Sherburn-Zimmer of HRCSF, Reina Tello of PODER and REP-SF, and Ocean Blue Coast of Senior & Disability Action, and a comment from Commissioner Gilbert Williams.
community presentation
At the Planning Commission, we launched our set of community-based solutions that are a critical next step for the City’s development to ensure residents are able to stay and afford to live in San Francisco. Our community plan closes loopholes that developers are getting away with to displace tenants, breaks through the City’s bureaucracy, and creates affordability and stability. To learn more, watch our full community presentation by Amalia Macias-Laventure of SFADC and Priya Prabhakar of REP-SF. And watch the full video of our press conference!
REP-SF in the News
REP-SF featured in the SF Examiner! “Tenant advocates’ concern over San Francisco’s upzoning plans are driving a legislative push to draw up new safeguards for renters.” The article features quotes from REP-SF members Jeantelle Laberinto, Reina Tello, and Joseph Smooke.
“I can’t count the number of friends, family and community members who have already been displaced,” said Jeantelle Laberinto. “We know these displacement pressures are only going to get worse as The City moves forward with upzoning.”
During the hearing, dozens of renters and their advocates spoke about their own experiences with evictions. That included Reina Tello, who told commissioners that when her family was evicted, it took two years to find stable housing. “Can you imagine the last two years of your life living in turmoil,” she said, “not knowing whether you’re going to have a roof over your head?” Such testimony seemed to move commissioners.
“I don’t mean to pull on everyone’s heartstrings, but it just hit me that, you know, this is a serious issue,” said Planning Commissioner Gilbert Williams. “It’s really important that we get this right, and we do everything we can to make sure that no one gets left behind.”
“We’re hopeful,” said Joseph Smooke. Following Thursday’s hearing, he told The Examiner that he was encouraged by the response from commissioners. “We definitely felt like our message got through,” he said.
REP-SF featured in 48Hills! “In an extraordinary meeting, the San Francisco Planning Commission heard a presentation and hours of public testimony on the impacts the city’s proposal to increase height and density in neighborhoods would have on tenants and small business.” The article includes quotes from our community letter to SF Planning and a quote from Mitchell Omerberg, member of REP-SF and SFADC, who has worked on tenant issues in the city for more than 40 years: “We’re talking about demolitions and more demolitions.”
Author Tim Redmond writes, “This will be one of the most important tests of whether this mayor and the more conservative Board of Supes cares more about speculators than existing San Francisco tenants and small businesses.”
Planning commissioner comments
Our coalitions’ message and solutions definitely got through to the Commissioners. It was clear that we revealed there are huge loopholes when it comes to demolitions in the City.
It was amazing to hear President Lydia So acknowledging that residents are falling through the cracks of the City’s bureaucracy. President So encouraged city agencies to figure out their roles in protecting tenants and holding landlords and developers accountable. Thank you, President So, for supporting our community solutions to protect tenants!
The Feb. 27 hearing was a watershed moment to keep residents in SF. Thank you, Commissioner Kathrin Moore, for celebrating our on-the-ground community expertise and for encouraging the Planning Dept. to continue to collaborate with us on solutions! Moore saw the critical needs we are addressing as “emergency response” because when a tenant is displaced from their home, it is an emergency, and the tenant counselors at SFADC and REP-SF are emergency responders.
PUBLIC TESTIMONies
Our community members and allies delivered over an hour of emotional public testimony in support of our community solutions to protect tenants from displacement. Thank you to everyone who spoke out for tenants! Watch some of the highlights below!
Zachary Frial, an environmental justice organizer with South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN), members of REP-SF, SFADC, and CCHO, spoke about gentrification and displacement pressures due to developer giveaways in the South of Market. Frial said: “We need the City to work for its residents and not developers. Developer speculation, which is already displacing tenants, is only getting worse with upzoning. Luxury developers are also getting away with paying their fair share for critical needs like affordable housing and childcare. Developer giveaways further the historical pattern of disinvestment and marginalization that neighborhoods like SOMA and the Tenderloin have endured for decades.”
AnaChristina Arana, member of REP-SF, spoke about the coalition’s petition to City and State officials demanding that San Francisco put affordability, equity, and the protection of tenants and small businesses first. The petition highlights the over 100 equity-based actions in the Housing Element the City is currently ignoring, in violation of its obligation to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing. Several hundred residents SF signed our petition to join us in demanding equity-based policies for truly affordable housing, tenant and small business protections, and community planning.
Sydney Peterson, general manager of the 4 Star Theater on Clement and a member of Small Business Forward, spoke on behalf of small business owners and workers who would like to live near where they work at our San Francisco small businesses, representing the group as someone who works at a small business in an upzoned area near where they rent in an upzoned area. Peterson said, “Allowing people who work at small businesses to be displaced even more by upzoning incentives to demolish buildings in commercial districts will disrupt the economies and vibrancy of our unique San Francisco neighborhoods and displace neighborhood serving businesses without any support for their relocation.”
Patrick Hoffman, Sunset District Resident and student at San Francisco State University, spoke about “Redzoning.” Hoffman said, “There appears to be an anti-Asian motive behind the West Side upzoning plan…I’ve named this tactic ‘Redzoning,’ the act of rezoning housing puzzles in such a way to take advantage of displace or harm a particular community, ethnic group, or demographic.”
take action!
Thank you again to everyone who came out to the hearing and supported our advocacy to ensure tenants are able to stay in the city!
Please join us on April 17 for an SF Planning Commission Hearing on Small Business Displacement. RSVP to deliver public comment.
Join REP-SF and Small Business Forward (SBF) in advocating against small business displacement with the City's proposed upzoning plan targeting neighborhood commercial corridors. Our coalitions and small businesses are asking the Planning Commission to adopt permanent controls to protect neighborhood-serving small businesses.
1 pm: Community Presentation & Public Comment at City Hall in Planning Commission Room 400
Suggested talking points for public comment will be provided! Learn more in our blog post on SF's proposed upzonings: bit.ly/REP_Blog_Rezone
