Honorable Mayor Newsom,

Please do not support the Avalos Amendment.  It is another issue that will in the long run hurt San Francisco.  Property owners pay property taxes and the taxes (on newly sold properties) are based on their value.  This amendment will not only hurt the owners and eventually new tenants but also the City. It will reduce the value of these properties and therefore bring in less revenue to the City.  Free market systems can adjust for changing times.  A regulated market cannot make those adjustments and will therefore, over time, put undue pressure on the tenants who must pay higher rents to subsidize the rent controlled units.  We must encourage new housing in SF— not impede it.

These are some other reasons the amendment is not fair:

• They will impede an owner’s ability to move into a rental unit in structures for which a certificate of occupancy was issued after June 13, 1979—a problem no owner had reason to believe would ever exist when a decision was made to buy and rent.
• They will discourage owners from renting units in post-1979 structures because of problems likely to be experienced recovering possession.
• They will discourage the construction of residential structures that can be rented.

The Avalos amendments provide no verifiable evidence—only hearsay from biased tenant activists and others—that evictions without cause have become a problem in structures for which a certificate of occupancy was issued after June 13, 1979.

Thank you for your consideration.

Janis Stone
DRE00517072