Don’t Demolish Rent-Controlled Homes! Community Rallies for Truly Affordable Housing
PRESS RELEASE for Monday, Oct. 20, 2025
San Francisco, CA – Today at City Hall, the Race & Equity in all Planning Coalition (REP-SF) and our allies are rallying in support of truly affordable housing, before the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee hearing about Mayor Lurie’s dangerous upzoning plan. Tenant advocates, small business owners, affordable housing groups, and families are sounding the alarm about Mayor Lurie’s upzoning plan, which, if passed, will increase speculation and accelerate the displacement of tenants and small businesses across the city.
Our communities are rallying in support of Supervisor Connie Chan’s and Supervisor Chyanne Chen's proposed amendments to the upzoning plan, which focus on protecting tenants, supporting small businesses, and prioritizing truly affordable housing.
If it moves forward as currently proposed with the Mayor's amendment to carve out 3+ unit buildings, the Mayor’s proposed upzoning still incentivizes new condos to be built where thousands of people already live. To protect our rent-controlled homes, we demand that the City exempt all rent-controlled housing from the upzoning plan, and we demand that there be a prohibition on demolishing all existing rent-controlled housing citywide. We must protect rent-controlled housing as our largest stock of affordable housing in San Francisco! The sites inventory shows clearly that existing rent-controlled buildings don't need to be included in the upzoning plan in order to comply with the state.
The San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition (SFADC) reports that there are 10,228 two-unit rent-controlled buildings in the upzoned areas, so this amendment would still put thousands of tenants at risk of displacement. Instead, we are demanding that the City disallow demolition of all rent-controlled buildings citywide, regardless of building size. Two-unit buildings are more likely to be targeted for demolition and redevelopment – making it especially important to protect them from this upzoning.
REP-SF is demanding 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.
“REP-SF strongly opposes Mayor Lurie’s upzoning plan, which does not serve families, will make rent more expensive, will increase the displacement of tenants and small businesses, and will make it impossible for San Francisco to develop the affordable housing we desperately need. We urge the Board’s Land Use Committee to reject the Mayor’s displacement plan, and instead invest in a real community plan that protects tenants, supports small businesses, and focuses on truly affordable housing for families, seniors, and working people,” said Jeantelle Laberinto of the REP-SF coalition. “We appreciate Supervisors Chan and Chen's leadership in introducing critical amendments to strengthen tenant protections, prioritize affordable housing, support small businesses, create real family-sized housing, and ensure sustainable development.”
“If we don't exempt all rent-controlled buildings from upzoning, we are putting a target on the head of every tenant who calls those units home, and we would be asking investors to bring in a wave of displacement worse than the city has seen in the last 50 years,” said Fred Sherburn-Zimmer, Director of Policy and Campaigns for Housing Rights Committee of SF, a member of REP-SF and SFADC. “Tenant groups are asking for the City to exempt all rent-controlled housing from its upzoning plan and to pass tenant protections in buildings covered by the state upzoning. Tenant groups continue to pressure state politicians to expand protections of tenants under upzoning, including removing the Ellis Act.”
“The Mayor’s upzoning plan creates new threats to small businesses that are already struggling to survive. It marks our businesses for demolition, and it will incentivize the development of overpriced luxury housing that will be unaffordable for small business owners and workers,” said Justin Dolezal, co-founder of Small Business Forward, a member of REP-SF. “We strongly support Supervisor Chan’s proposed amendment to require developers to pay impact fees, including a nexus study that will allow us to require developers pay in to small business relocation assistance fund for displaced commercial tenants.”
“Despite the plan being called the ‘Family Zoning Plan,’ it does not have the interest, nor the input, of our youth and working families in mind. The Mayor uses youth and families as a cover, while planning to price us out and demolish our rent-controlled homes, while prioritizing market-rate development over affordable housing for low-income families,” said Emily Mock, lead youth organizer at the Chinese Progressive Association, a member of REP-SF.
For more information, 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.
