Written by Amanda Angulo
On Tuesday, San Francisco’s Democratic Supervisor Dean Preston has proposed a law that will require landlords and property owners for rent-forgiveness on their tenants due to state and local health orders. As Progressives view this as a win for the tenants who are struggling to pay their rent debt, they are leaving landlords in the dust.
While many small businesses in San Francisco have gathered increasing charges on their rent during the pandemic, the non-payments have also been hurting property owners who also have to handle their own payments and survive during these hard times.
“There are a lot of neighborhood businesses that are not sure if they are going to survive,” Preston stated. “The ones I’ve talked to in my district, the biggest factor is what happens to the $50-$100-$150,000 dollars of rent debt. We don’t want businesses to close and get vacant storefronts because they don’t see a path out because of rent debt.”
Their reason for the proposal of the legislation is due to the fact that if businesses close, then it will result in an increase in vacancies in commercial corridors in San Francisco. However, the city has already been struggling with this due to expensive property costs in comparison to the rest of the U.S, even before the pandemic.
Owner of an independent bookstore and a board member of the Haight-Ashbury Merchants Association, Christin Evans, even claimed that many of the businesses on Haight Street were forced to close due to the monthly rent being at approximately $10,000 to $20,000.
However, the commercial real estate industry has been arguing against the bill. David Blattis from Blatteis Realty said, “To deprive them even more of what they need to pay their mortgages and insurance on the building and upgrades, roof repairs, is going to kill these landlords.”
From April 2020 to December 2020, up to $44.9 million per month of rent was unpaid to the landlords. If rent-forgiveness is imposed on private property owners for their tenants to remain open, it will drive the owners to bankruptcy.
