Rent Board Report: San Francisco Demolition Evictions Up 300 Percent

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— Tenant activists say a new evictions report by San Francisco's Rent Board shows how serious the housing crisis has become in the City and that the problem is worse than the number's suggest.

The annual report shows that Ellis Act evictions went up 86 percent last year and evictions due to demolition increased almost 300 percent.

"Evictions are just increasing through the roof. It's just crazy out there right now. You know when you see demolition evictions up 300 percent— that's just crazy," said Ted Gullicksen, director of San Francisco's Tenant's Union.

He said the new information only bolsters his claim that landlords are evicting tenants in droves to take advantage of the hot housing market.

In addition Gullicksen said these new numbers don't even tell the whole story because many more tenants take buyouts when they are asked to leave and that technically they aren't counted as an eviction in those instances.
"It's no surprise our counseling clinic is just packed these days with people mostly being evicted," he said.

Although evictions for things like owner move-ins, demolitions and withdrawal of units from the rental market rose dramatically last year to 673, almost twice as many tenants were evicted for things like non payment of rent and violating their rental agreement.