San Francisco resolution to address those coming up short on rent
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco city leaders are now reviewing the first comprehensive study showing the city's renters are coming up as much as $32 million a month short.
The Board of Supervisors are set to vote Tuesday on the Rent Resolution and Relief Fund, trying to fill that $32 million a month shortfall of renters who can't come up with the money due to the pandemic.
San Francisco rents are already notoriously high, now a new study from the Budget and Legislative Analyst office has found that renters are coming up between $13 and $32 million short each on all or part of their rent each month due to the pandemic, renters like Lourdes Dobarganes, a domestic worker.
In Spanish she explained that the truth is it's been very hard.
During the pandemic she says she hasn't had work, and without work she's worried and hasn't paid rent in six months.
She says she doesn't have the money, and she's scared of losing her housing.
San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston requested the report and says it's the first view of just how serious the problem is.
"What the budget and legislative analyst found in this new report is that as much as $32 million or rent is going unpaid each month because of COVID-19," said Supervisor Preston.
Now the supervisor has written the rent resolution and relief fund, the Board of Supervisors is set to take it up for a vote Tuesday.
Supervisor Preston says money raised from Proposition I, a proposed tax on real estate transactions valued at more than $10 million, would provide funds to help property owners who give their tenants a break on the rent.
"It is a win-win program," explained Supervisor Preston. "For renters who get relieved of this rent debt and have security in their homes, and it's a win for property owners who are suffering from not getting rental income."
Property owner Andrea Hartsough says she wants to keep her renters right where they are.
She's grown close with them, and knows they are working hard to pay rent, but she says she also has bills to pay.
She says the proposal might not be perfect but it would help her and her tenants. "We have to make our ends meet, renters need to make their ends meet, and right now there simply is not enough to go around," said Hartsough. "The way I see this is the government pitching in, trying to make things work."
While the Board of Supervisors are set to vote on this Tuesday, the voters of San Francisco will have their say on the funding source, Proposition I on Election Day.