Below is the text of a letter SFADC member organizations and others sent to the Board of Supervisors emphasizing the urgency of the need for rent relief funds to be allocated in the upcoming budget.

June 29, 2021

Dear President Walton, Budget Committee Chair Haney and Members of the Board of Supervisors:

We are deeply troubled  that the proposed City budget fails to address the extraordinary and urgent unmet need for rent relief in our communities.

Wednesday’s hearing before the Government, Audit, and Oversight committee confirmed on a macro scale what we are witnessing in our neighborhoods and communities:  tens of thousands of working class and poor San Franciscans cannot pay their existing rent and both state and local rent relief programs do not have the resources to meet that need.   More than 24,000 San Francisco households are behind in rent but San Francisco’s rent program is designed to reach less than a third of that need.

Despite this immediate and documented need the City’s budget is contributing $0 of its own funds for rent relief to tenants who need help because of the pandemic– despite the fact it is growing a reserve of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ultimately, we need more than rent relief.   We need permanent solutions to the housing crisis – a crisis that will only grow worse in the post-pandemic period.  Therefore we are also disappointed that the budget fails to grow new affordable co-ops, land trusts, and other social housing.

San Franciscans united to support Prop I last November to address both needs and we continue to believe the City needs to honor that vote.

But the bottom line today is that our communities need an expanded rent relief program that helps more tenants who cannot pay their rent.

Unless the Board of Supervisors acts to correct the moral deficit of this present budget more tenants will be giving up their homes and leaving our communities to avoid unsustainable debt.   The growing  number of vacant apartments across the City is already testament to the failure of our state and city to timely address this need.

We urge you to mobilize the City’s reserves to address this crisis.

Sincerely,

Affordable Housing Alliance

Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus

Bill Sorro Housing Program

Causa Justa Just Cause

Chinese Progressive Association

Central City SRO Collaborative

Chinatown Community Development Center

Community Tenants Association

Eviction Defense Collaborative (EDC)

Excelsior Strong

Hospitality House

Housing Rights Committee of SF

Jobs With Justice SF

La Raza Community Resource Center
Mission SRO Collaborative/Dolores Street Community Services

North Beach Tenants Committee

Our Mission No Eviction

PODER

San Francisco Anti Displacement Coalition

San Francisco Community Land Trust

SF Rising

San Francisco Tenants Union

Senior and Disability Action

South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN)

Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation

TODCO

United to Save the Mission