San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has officially declared a “rent emergency,” bravely confirming something everyone already knew.
San Francisco rents have increased 25.6 percent over the past year, while the average one-bedroom apartment now costs more than $4,300 a month. More than 1,000 eviction notices have already been filed this year, putting San Francisco on pace for its highest total in nearly a decade.
So Lurie held a press conference at Alamo Square and announced that San Francisco is experiencing a rent emergency.
Thank God somebody finally told us.
But if you read some of the coverage, you might get the impression Lurie descended from the mayor’s office carrying stone tablets engraved with revolutionary new tenant protections.
He didn’t.
Take Supervisor Jackie Fielder.
On September 1, nine days before Lurie’s big announcement, Fielder introduced legislation that would prevent landlords from evicting tenants for nonpayment when the amount owed is below the federal fair-market rent for an equivalent unit. The official city legislative record lists Fielder as the lead sponsor, alongside Supervisors Myrna Melgar, Shamann Walton, Connie Chan, Chyanne Chen, Bilal Mahmood and Danny Sauter.
That’s good. It also doesn't make it his idea. Then there’s Supervisor Danny Sauter.
Lurie supports it. Again: good. Again: not his idea.
So what did Lurie actually bring to the table?
Lurie is proposing another $3 million for legal representation for tenants facing eviction and a 25 percent increase in mandatory Ellis Act relocation payments. His administration is also supporting millions in rental assistance and a $1 million campaign educating tenants about their rights.
Those are real policies, and Lurie deserves exactly the amount of credit he's actually entitled to for them. But declaring a “rent emergency” itself does approximately jack shit.
Unlike an actual disaster declaration, Lurie’s rent-emergency declaration does not give him the power to bypass existing laws or regulations. It is largely symbolic and intended to focus City Hall's attention on housing affordability.
In other words, City Hall has officially issued a proclamation stating:
Holy shit, rent is expensive.
What makes Lurie’s newfound concern for renters particularly funny is that Candidate Daniel Lurie wasn't exactly Che Guevara with a Rent Board petition.
“I believe we should continue the rent control policies that are in place now,” Lurie said during an interview with KQED at the time. “I believe rent control has had a very positive impact, but expanding it is not something I’m considering at this time.”
At the time, then-Supervisor Aaron Peskin had pushed legislation that could have expanded San Francisco rent control from buildings constructed before 1979 to buildings constructed through 1994, potentially protecting another 16,000 units. The legislation depended on Proposition 33 passing.
Two years later, Mayor Lurie is declaring a rent emergency and standing alongside politicians pushing additional tenant protections.
It's amazing what a 25.6 percent rent increase can do for a man's politics.
There’s another contradiction here.
San Francisco’s latest explosion in rents has coincided with the city’s AI-driven economic boom and an influx of highly paid tech workers. At the same time, the city continues to produce remarkably little new housing.
Apparently when enormous amounts of tech money pour into a geographically tiny city with limited housing supply, landlords don't respond by lowering rents out of respect for socioeconomic diversity.
Who could have predicted this?
To be fair, Lurie has focused much of his housing agenda on increasing supply, including successfully pushing an upzoning of western and northern San Francisco. But even that approach has drawn criticism from housing advocates who argue the city still isn't doing enough to encourage construction.
Supporting good tenant legislation is still better than opposing it. And if Lurie has genuinely changed his thinking about the urgency of protecting renters, great.
But supporting somebody else's legislation doesn't mean you invented it.
Daniel Lurie can take credit for declaring the emergency.
San Francisco renters have been declaring it every first of the month for years.
