San Francisco’s legislature is considering a bill that would protect teachers from no-fault eviction during the school year, reports the San Francisco Examiner.
If the ordinance is adopted, landlords could not evict educators for reasons beyond tenants’ control — like condo conversions, removal of rental units, capital improvements or substantial renovations — while school is in session. Landlords are already prohibited, with certain exceptions, from initiating an owner move-in eviction during the school year if it would displace a tenant who lives with a child.
The amendment, being considered by the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee today, seeks to quell increasing fears among teachers that they could lose their housing and, in the city’s increasingly tight market, fail to find another place they can afford.
In a recent survey by teacher’s union Unified Educators of San Francisco, over 40 percent of 900 public school educators questioned said they feared losing their homes in the near future, the union’s political director told the Examiner. Fifty-nine percent said they are worried they won’t be able to keep working for the school district.
“We are not only losing veteran teachers [because] they’re facing an eviction … but our new teachers and new paraprofessionals are leaving the city in droves,” said Ken Tray, the union’s political director. He estimated public schools will see a turnover of 700 educators by the end of this school year.
Eviction notices have increased in San Francisco by 67 percent in the last five years, according to the Rent Board, and nearly 83 percent of those are no-fault evictions. The new legislation, introduced by Supervisors David Campos, Jane Kim, John Avalos and Eric Mar, would apply to all public and private school teachers living and working in San Francisco.
Jen Kinney is a freelance writer and documentary photographer. Her work has also appeared in Philadelphia Magazine, High Country News online, and the Anchorage Press. She is currently a student of radio production at the Salt Institute of Documentary Studies. See her work at jakinney.com.
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