Small property owners may keep units vacant so that family members, out-of-town guests, and health aides, for example, can have a place to stay. They keep the units vacant for future needs because the so-called tenant protections make it nearly impossible and always very expensive to remove a tenant when the owner needs the unit.
Starting in 2022, landlords will have to register their residential rental units with San Francisco’s Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board and get a license following a unanimous decision by this San Francisco Board of Supervisors to create an inventory list.
The Ellis Act is a 1985 statewide law that allows landlords to evict tenants if they go out of the rental business. While it is difficult to know how many of the recent Ellis Act evictions are for legitimate reasons, the data strongly suggests that a significant proportion of them do not go out of the rental business.
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 