Community Demands Stronger Protections from Demolitions & Displacement

PRESS RELEASE for Monday, November 17, 2025

San Francisco, CA – Today at City Hall, the Race & Equity in all Planning Coalition (REP-SF) and our allies are demanding stronger protections from demolitions and displacement. The Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee is holding an important hearing on Supervisor Chyanne Chen’s Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO) and Mayor Lurie’s dangerous upzoning plan.

Upzoning Plan: 

Tenant advocates, small business owners, affordable housing groups, and families have been sounding the alarm about the Mayor’s upzoning plan, which, if passed, will increase speculation and accelerate the displacement of tenants and small businesses across the city. REP-SF strongly opposes the Mayor’s upzoning plan, which does not serve families, will make rents more expensive, and will make it impossible for San Francisco to develop the affordable housing we desperately need.

REP-SF strongly supports the amendments introduced by Supervisor Connie Chan and Supervisor Chyanne Chen, which will ban demolitions under the upzoning plan and focus on protecting tenants, supporting small businesses, and prioritizing truly affordable housing. We urge the Board’s Land Use Committee to move these critical amendments forward.

REP-SF is concerned about the equity impacts around SB 79 and the upzoning. We are demanding a more clear and detailed analysis from the Planning Department, especially the lack of affordable housing, and the disproportionate impacts on Priority Equity Geographies and low-income communities.

REP-SF demands that there be a hearing on the upzoning, with the Board of Supervisors sitting as a Committee of the Whole, to allow members of the public the opportunity to speak in front of the full Board on these citywide changes, and to hear from all of their representatives about how they will meaningfully address and solve many of the remaining concerns around displacement, demolition, and tenant and small business protections. We also demand that the amendments from Supervisors Chan and Chen be debated and voted on by the full Board of Supervisors.

“As it stands, the ‘Family Zoning Plan’ will displace small businesses (it already has) and incentivizes housing that is largely unaffordable to small business workers. We urge the Board’s Land Use Committee to adopt Supervisor Chan’s proposed amendments, and we urge the Committee’s immediate action to appropriate funds for small business relocation assistance,” said Christin Evans, co-founder of Small Business Forward, a member of REP-SF.

“The Mayor's upzoning plan is focused on demolishing existing neighborhoods in San Francisco, including Western SOMA. Instead of incentivizing the displacement of residents and small businesses, we should be focusing on building affordable housing, protecting existing housing, protecting tenants, and strengthening our small businesses. We need community-based development, not speculative profit-driven development. We support Supervisor Chan's and Supervisor Chen's amendments as they represent a logical baseline of what should be included in such a sweeping upzoning proposal,” said David Woo, Community Development and Policy Coordinator at SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District, a member of REP-SF.

“Trickle-down economics didn’t serve the needs of low-income people and working families in the 1980s and it doesn’t serve their needs today. No one is disputing that San Francisco needs to build more housing; but we have to ask ourselves who we are actually building it for? We need deeply affordable housing that can solve our displacement crisis, help our neighborhood small business corridors to thrive, and create inclusive, diverse, transit-rich communities,” said Wendolyn Aragon of Richmond District Rising, a member of REP-SF.

“During a time where we had to collect bottles and cans just to get by, my family used to live in a single tiny unit on Irving. It was cramped, never meant to be crammed with five people. Still, it was an important point of stability. We need more affordable housing; but, that can’t come at the cost of our communities. Upzoning, WITHOUT strong tenant protections and WITHOUT a solid focus on real affordability, will lead to working-class communities being priced out of their homes as land values rise. Our city needs to protect and prioritize the voices of tenants, of youth, and working families. Our city needs truly affordable family-sized housing for working-class families. And our city does not need the unaffordable market-rate units that this ‘family upzoning plan’ will introduce,” said Tina, a 12th grader in San Francisco and a youth leader at the Chinese Progressive Association, a member of REP-SF.

Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO): 

REP-SF and our allied coalition, the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC) support Supervisor Chen’s Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO) – legislation to create, clarify, and implement systems of support for tenants that have become necessary because of state laws and local programs that put tenants at increasing risk of displacement.

It is unfortunate that state law SB 330 and the Mayor’s upzoning are forcing us to pass a tenant protection ordinance due to an expanding network of state bills and local ordinances that place tenants in increasing peril. Unfortunately, the TPO does not protect against demolitions because state law does not allow that.

This legislation enhances noticing and language requirements, expands relocation assistance, and establishes consequences for tenant harassment, among many other interventions. But there are still significant outstanding issues, as detailed in REP-SF and SFADC’s letter to the Planning Commission, along with our proposed solutions.

While the TPO isn’t currently perfect, we continue to work on amendments to make it the strongest piece of legislation possible to protect tenants from the displacement that new state laws allow. REP-SF supports the amendments introduced by the Planning Department and by Supervisor Chen and Supervisor Melgar. We urge the Board’s Land Use Committee to move these critical amendments forward.

“We shouldn’t bulldoze any apartment building tenants call home. The city needs to remove them all from the upzoning plan and until the day state reps think tenants are important enough to protect by removing the Ellis Act and not reward speculators for displacing tenants we need a strong Tenant Protection Ordinance here. Harassment and displacement should not be rewarded,” said Fred Sherburn-Zimmer, Director of Policy and Campaigns for Housing Rights Committee of SF, a member of REP-SF and SFADC.

“While SB 330 does require developers to meet a set of minimum standards in exchange for permission to demolish someone’s home, these standards are nowhere near sufficient, nor are they accompanied by any systems of enforcement or accountability. That’s why we need the TPO. While the TPO is not perfect and cannot stop demolitions, if it is passed, it will be our strongest defense to protect tenants from the displacement that State laws like SB 330 allow,” said Zachary Frial of South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN), a member of REP-SF and SFADC.

For more information about the TPO, please read REP-SF and SFADC’s Nov. 5 letter to the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.

For more information about the upzoning, please read REP-SF’s Sept. 4 letter to Mayor Lurie, the Board of Supervisors, and the Planning Commission. Read REP-SF’s Advocacy Platform to learn more about our community solutions.