Did You Think Democrats Protected Tenants From Predatory Developers?

Yesterday, tragically, the Democratically-controlled California State Senate sided with predatory real estate speculators who are destroying the whole concept of San Francisco as a diverse, working class city by displacing and uprooting tenants. There was an 18-19 vote against SB 1439, Mark Leno's crucial Ellis Act reform bill. Ted Lieu rushed back to Sacramento from his campaign in CA-33 to voted for Leno's bill.

This morning, San Francisco attorney and trusted tenants' rights advocate Paul Hogarth had a glimmer of good news: "It's not over; the bill will be reconsidered either today or tomorrow. Here are three Senators we must target like crazy today."

JERRY HILL (San Mateo County)-- go to his FB page at Jerry.Hill.CA and express your outrage. Hill claims he did it because he has constituents who own rental property in San Francisco, and "might" wanna do an Ellis Act within 5 years of ownership. What about all the tenants evicted out of San Francisco, and are now renting on the Peninsula? As for his landlord constituents, they can still do owner move-in evictions without Ellis Act.

ED HERNANDEZ (L.A. County)-- tweet him @dredhernandez and express your outrage. Urge him to reconsider and vote YES on SB1439.

BEN HUESO (San Diego)-- Ben Hueso voted "yes," and then switched his vote to "no." Could it have been all the money he gets from the real estate lobby? Demand he explain himself, and do the right thing by voting YES. His Facebook page is at /Senator-Ben-Hueso/514048398664628

It's worth noting that Hernandez and Hueso are both opposed to the fracking moratorium which is also up for reconsideration now.


UPDATE: WE WON!

The Senate reconsidered and the bill passed 21-14. The three villains we asked everyone to reach out to-- Jerry Hill, Ed Hernandez and Ben Hueso -- who all voted "no" on the bill the day before, voted "yes" yesterday. They did however make their yes votes conditional on pending amendments to water down the bill's effectiveness. So… still plenty of work left, and plenty of vigilance!