From Frustration To Effective Action For Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute

In 1999, eight very frustrated owners of small properties in San Francisco met to discuss the increasingly harsh regulations that were squeezing them out of the rental business. The impetus for their meeting was an ordinance that would have allowed tenants to pass their apartment on to new tenants without landlord approval.

The implications were clear: small landlords, most of whom lived in their buildings, would have no say in who would live literally on top of them.

These eight founding members soon found they had tapped into a wellspring of equally concerned and frustrated small property owners. For many years, many had lived harmoniously with long-term tenants in buildings that give the city its special character: Graceful Victorians, handsome Edwardians and 1950s bungalows, brown-shingled faux Maybecks and stucco Mediterraneans.

Prop I: A watershed event for small property owners

In 1994, Proposition I passed, placing 2-4 unit, owner-occupied buildings -- formerly exempt -- under rent control. Overnight, small property owners, from seniors on fixed incomes to young couples just starting out, were lumped together with the big boys, many of whom had cadres of experienced property managers and lawyers on call to decipher all 60+ pages of the Rent Ordinance. While some of the ordinances were challenged in court, others cropped up in their place. In this new climate of acrimony and often inexplicable legislation, some small property owners simply gave up and took their properties off the market. (It's estimated that 10,000 - 25,000 units have been taken off the rental market.) Others decided to stand up and fight.

Years and 2,500 members later...

Today, SPOSFI members number more than 2,500, and SPOSFI is heard in City Hall, in Sacramento, in the news media and anywhere the rights and interests of San Francisco small property owners are challenged. Here's just a small sampling of what SPOSFI has accomplished thus far:

Created San Francisco's first grass roots organization devoted solely to the concerns of small property owners. Changed the law for tenancies-in-common (TICs), enabling renters to join together and buy their own building. Initiated a class action suit by small property owners forced to pay 5% on security deposits to tenants at a time when money market accounts were paying less than 2%. SPOSFI went to City Hall to speak out against proposed amendments to the Rent Ordinance that would force landlords to pay $2,000 per tenant (including babies) for relocation or eviction, and allow tenants to sue the current owner for action of a former owner.

Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute (SPOSFI) is a diverse, grass-roots organization promoting fairness for small property owners and sensible housing policy for San Francisco. Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute members come from all neighborhoods and from all walks of life, religions and ethnicities, and are united in the common goal of restoring and protecting the rights of small property owners in San Francisco. Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute members navigate the treacherous waters of the SF Rent Ordinance and educate the public about regulations that are strangling small property owners. SPOSFI work together to affect legislation, endorse and campaign for candidates sympathetic to the SPOSFI cause, and strive to increase home ownership opportunities for all San Franciscans.

The SPOSF Institute mounts legal challenges to issues that threaten property rights; through SPOSFI educational programs, they reach out to members and the community at large; through a Resource Guide, SPOSFI offer a list of service providers used by members.
SPOSFI recognize that it's tough being a small property owner in San Francisco, and that San Francisco has more obstacles to ownership and profitability than most other cities. SPOSFI recognize that properties are security, and that in order to be successful in SPOSFI goals members must work together.

It is the mission of the non-profit SPOSF INSTITUTE to provide owners of small rental properties in San Francisco with the tools and information necessary to conduct business successfully in this difficult climate. Through the SPOSFI educational programs, publications, and workshops SPOSFI seek to help members better understand their rights and obligations, how to work constructively with city and state officials, and how to deal effectively with their tenants.

Through legal advocacy, SPOSFI seek to protect the rights of small property owners against unfair and burdensome regulations. Recent court decisions and the defeat of rent control measures in a number of US cities give SPOSFI good reason to be hopeful.

Because the SPOSF INSTITUTE is a reasonably new organization, SPOSFI are just beginning to put programs in place including

• Help minimize excess property control
• SPOSF News monthly newsletter
• Access to the Member Area
• Monthly meeting with interesting speakers and news
• Meet elected officials and candidates
• The SPOSFI lease
• Additional property management forms
• Seminars and special events
• Tax deductible contributions
• Provider Resources lists (attorneys, contractors, etc.)