Community Launching Critical Next Step for Development to Protect Tenants from Displacement
PRESS RELEASE for February 27, 2025
San Francisco, CA – At today’s Planning Commission hearing, community members representing three citywide housing justice coalitions, are launching a critical next step for the City’s development to ensure residents are able to stay and afford to live in San Francisco.
The Race & Equity in all Planning coalition (REP-SF), the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC), and the Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO), are presenting to the Planning Commission a comprehensive set of solutions based on our on-the-ground, community expertise. Our community plan closes loopholes that developers are getting away with, breaks through the City’s bureaucracy, and creates affordability and stability.
WHAT: Press Conference and Tenant Displacement Hearing at SF Planning Commission
WHEN & WHERE: Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, 11:30 am–4:30 pm at SF City Hall (1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl)
11:30 AM: Press Conference at City Hall in Room 421 (on the 4th floor)
12:30 PM: Presentation on Community Solutions, followed by Public Comment in Planning Commission Chambers, Room 400 or SFGovTV.org/planning.
WHO: Tenant counselors and coalition members will speak about displacement pressures and community-based solutions:
Amalia Macias-Laventure, SFADC
Theresa Flandrich, North Beach Tenants Committee, SFADC
Zachary Frial, SOMCAN, members of REP-SF, SFADC & CCHO
John Avalos, former Supervisor & executive director, CCHO
Priya Prabhakar, REP-SF
Community presentation: Priya Prabhakar of REP-SF and Amalia Macias-Laventure of SFADC
“Our community plan shows how we can have better neighborhoods, with the same neighbors. Our counselors, lawyers, and advocates are the most knowledgeable experts about the threats facing tenants, and what protections actually work. We love our neighborhoods and we want to ensure residents are able to stay and afford to live in San Francisco,” says Amalia Macias-Laventure, a member of SFADC and REP-SF.
“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,” says Zachary Frial, an environmental justice organizer with South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN), members of REP-SF, SFADC, and CCHO.
“Our proposed solutions close loopholes that developers are getting away with and break down the City’s bureaucracy, so tenants don’t fall through the cracks. Residents need affordability and stability, and that’s not happening with the City’s current policies on development. Our plan ensures tenants are able to stay and afford to live in San Francisco,” says Priya Prabhakar, REP-SF organizer.
“When tenants are harassed, told that they have to leave their home, and there is no affordable housing, we lose our communities – caregivers, volunteers, community connections. We lose people who are the very fabric of our community. We need the City to enforce accountability to developers, and for the City to be accountable to tenants,” says Theresa Flandrich, a tenant organizer with the North Beach Tenants Committee, a member of SFADC.
“The City can no longer neglect their legal obligation to affirmatively further fair housing. We need the City and the State to prioritize and invest in affordable housing,” says John Avalos, former Supervisor and executive director of CCHO.
In today’s community presentation, we are outlining four actions the Planning Commission can take to move forward our community solutions:
Support the comprehensive set of policies and systems of enforcement outlined in our community letter and the presentation.
Incorporate a discussion about tenant displacement in every informational hearing going forward, especially for the proposed upzonings.
The City must push back against the State’s overreach and advocate to amend SB-330.
Demand that any further upzoning is only applicable for projects that are 100% affordable.
For more information, please read our technical letter to the Planning Commission and REP-SF's blog post on SF Planning's proposed upzonings and our community demands.
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About the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC)
The San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC) is a group of tenant organizations and allies who organize against the soaring evictions and rent increases in our city, which have resulted in the displacement of thousands of San Franciscans.
About the Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO)
The Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO) is a nonprofit coalition of 22 community-based housing developers and tenant advocates. CCHO’s mission is to foster the development of permanently affordable low-income housing in San Francisco, under community control and through non-speculative means of ownership, with adequate provisions for tenant services and empowerment.
