Time to Rethink the City's Housing Policy

This Examiner op ed, written by a member of Plan C, outlines why the Board of Supervisors need to change their attitude toward tenancies in common and the condo lottery. An excerpt:

What policy goal is served by limiting condo conversions? It’s not to stop evictions — because it’s now virtually impossible to evict a building’s tenants and still qualify for condo conversion. Is it to “preserve San Francisco’s rental stock”? Even if you agree that this is a worthy goal, limiting condo conversions isn’t having that effect — building owners are converting rental units to TICs at ever-increasing levels despite the fact that condo conversion opportunities get slimmer each year.

The answer is that in this new era of easily available TICs and recently enacted eviction protections, there is no longer any good reason to limit condo conversions in San Francisco. Doing so only hurts new homeowners, and helps no one. San Francisco’s elected officials should take a bold new step and implement a much-needed housing reform: the abolition of limits on condo conversion.

By the way, every TIC owner in the City should join Plan C. Membership is free.