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"content": "\n\u003cp>When it started, Bradford and Ophelia only had a few cats. But others soon appeared.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The couple, who have lived together at a West Oakland \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">homeless\u003c/a> encampment for the last three years, bottle-fed the strays who wandered in and administered medicine to them when they were sick. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It wasn’t long before Bradford and Ophelia, who asked KQED to only use their first names out of concern for their safety, developed a reputation for being knowledgeable pet owners. People started bringing them more cats: the shop owner who couldn’t keep his kitten, or the pregnant cat they were given after a friend passed away. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, they’re caring for a verifiable colony: 14 cats and kittens — and counting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Everybody just got spayed and neutered,” Bradford said with a smile. “So we’re feeling very responsible about that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-31-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-31-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-31-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-31-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Two of Kevin Klee’s many cats roam the area outside his trailer on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. Klee says that he’s running out of space where he lives and he wishes that somebody could take them. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-7 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102848\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-40-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102848\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-40-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-40-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-40-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams prepares vaccines on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102849\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-43-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102849\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-43-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-43-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-43-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams tries to gain the trust of a dog she is about to vaccinate on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Taking care of a pet — let alone two dozen — can be a challenge for unhoused people. The cost of a typical trip to the vet can easily reach hundreds or thousands of dollars. And figuring out how to transport a sick pet to a low-cost community clinic can be difficult.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One Oakland group, the Human and Pet Initiative, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.hapi.pet/\">HAPI\u003c/a>, is working to solve this problem. For the last three years, on a weekly basis, the small nonprofit has brought shots, microchips, flea medication, kibble and other resources to about 15 encampments in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meg McAdam, HAPI’s group’s founder and president, made it possible for Bradford and Ophelia to fix their cats. HAPI paid for the operations after McAdam and her team of about five volunteers built a trusting relationship with the couple, who agreed to let her take their cats to the vet to get spayed and neutered.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McAdam knows that some people have strong feelings about the wellbeing of the animals they see on the street, or question whether unhoused people deserve to have pets in the first place. But she said that’s beside the point.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I don’t even have to debate that, ’cause it doesn’t matter, ’cause they do. So as long as they do, I want to help them take care of them,” McAdam said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McAdam said that this work has a butterfly effect: providing care to these animals allows HAPI to support their human companions too. “When they’re making a choice of whether to feed their dog or themselves, if I can feed their dog so they can feed themselves, it’s a win, right?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McAdam wears her heart on her sleeve. Her arms are covered in animal tattoos: A dog on her right arm, and a vibrant blue sleeve of sea creatures on her left. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a fitting look for the job she does seven days a week: Providing no-cost, mobile medical support to people living on the streets. McAdam has learned that there are many reasons why an unhoused person may choose to have a pet. One of the reasons is safety. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The bigger, the better,” said Star, who lives near the Lake Merritt Estuary with her three guard dogs, Prince, Joker, and Chloe, who weigh over 100 pounds each. “‘Cause they can cuddle you, they can love you, they can protect you.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams cuts the nails of Christy Grensberg’s new puppy, Houdini, on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>One of the dogs, Prince, acts as her service animal, Star said. She has epilepsy, and he alerts her when she’s going to have a seizure, providing stability when she loses her balance. Her dogs also protect her from external threats, like theft, or sexual harassment and assault — the dangers of being a woman living outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“ The only way to survive out here is if I have my dogs,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Pets can also provide a sense of companionship, or a second chance at developing bonds that feel like family. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’ve not had responsibility to anyone … or anything in a while,” said Jaquelyn, who lives at an encampment under the West Oakland BART tracks with her puppy, Loco. “I feel like my son will be jealous if I pay more attention to the dog than him, but I don’t get to see my son often.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102852\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hailey Looneie and Jane Esposito greet a local’s dog on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Losing touch with family is a common source of trauma for unhoused people, and pets can help fill the gap. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to mess up this time,” Jaquelyn said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Part of this responsibility is regular veterinary care. Most of the people McAdam works with are eager to receive support from her. But it’s not always so simple.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jaquelyn and Loco live in the same encampment as Loco’s grandma, a German Shepherd named Diamond. Diamond belongs to a man named Alfonso, who has always been wary of McAdam and her team. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Alfonso is the only person who ever said to us, ‘Get away from my dogs,’” McAdam told her volunteers during a weekly outreach meeting. As a result, she tries to give him space to avoid making him feel encroached upon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-8 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102845\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-29-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102845\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-29-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-29-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-29-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Julian Standley and Claudia Glasper pose with their dogs, Benji and Sassy, on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102837\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-11-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102837\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-11-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-11-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-11-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdam’s van is packed with supplies for pet owners on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-9 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102844\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-28-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102844\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-28-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-28-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-28-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">HAPI member, Jane Esposito, organizes vaccination records while her coworkers vaccinate a dog on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102842\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-25-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102842\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-25-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-25-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-25-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams injects a microchip into Christy Grensburg’s new puppy, Houdini, on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. In case the owner is not available or doesn’t have a phone, McAdams adds HAPI’s contact information onto every microchip form they fill out. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But one outreach day in May, McAdam noticed that Diamond looked quite ill. Alfonso returned home as a volunteer vet tech named Jocelyn Saenz-Sanchez performed an exam on the German Shepherd, who was breathing heavily in a resting place in the shade. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But instead of getting mad at them and asking him to leave as he had done in the past, Alfonso was happy to see McAdam. The two made a plan for her to come back and take Diamond to the vet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This was a huge breakthrough,” she said later. “I’m hoping that this is the beginning of a new relationship with him.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Building this level of trust can take a long time. In this case, it took three years of offering food and other support and being turned down or ignored. But time is finite, and the needs of a sick pet can be urgent. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102850\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams and Alfredo Penate update each other on their lives since HAPI last visited on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. McAdams says that she visited Penate many times over the years in order to first gain his trust. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Diamond’s health drastically declined in the days after McAdam’s team examined her, and she died before she could get in to see a vet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McAdam knows that without relationship building, she can’t reach the animals that need help. And ultimately, she also knows these animals are extensions of their owners. The city of Oakland recognizes this, too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“These nonprofit groups, they are a force multiplier for our work,” said Joe DeVries, director of Oakland Animal Services. He said the resources HAPI provides are critical. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“But I think what’s even more important is the relationships that they provide.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>DeVries said many people associate Animal Control Officers, formerly part of the police department until 2015, with law enforcement. It’s now a standalone agency under the city administrator’s office, but it does have a mandate to enforce local pet laws, like leash laws, and animal cruelty and neglect. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102841\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Christy Grensberg relays her vaccine record contact information to Jane Esposito on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. After her past two dogs died from Canine Parvovirus, Grensberg said that she is being extremely cautious with Houdini and making sure to get him vaccinated. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>So far this year, they have seized pets from their owners about 300 times. But the majority of the animals in their custody are domesticated pets that are surrendered, DeVries said. Most of the time, this happens when somebody can’t afford both animal care and housing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He witnessed others making this heartbreaking choice when he worked as Oakland’s homelessness administrator back in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What I saw when we were out at encampments, and people weren’t accepting offers of shelter, their criticism of congregate shelter was very valid,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now, some city-run shelter programs do allow pets, making it easier for unhoused people to take the first step toward getting indoors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But before they get to a shelter or housing, groups like HAPI take care of pets on the street. There are a handful of groups around the state like HAPI, from \u003ca href=\"https://pawfund.org/what-we-do/\">Paw Fund\u003c/a> in Berkeley to the \u003ca href=\"https://folsomtimes.com/paws-mobile-clinic-is-lifeline-for-pets-of-countys-unhoused/\">PAWS Mobile Clinic\u003c/a> in Sacramento and \u003ca href=\"https://www.projectstreetvet.org/volunteer\">Project Street Vet\u003c/a> in Los Angeles. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On an outreach day in May, McAdam and her crew distributed 270 pounds of dog kibble, 45 pounds of cat kibble, and vaccinated 15 dogs and two kittens. Some of these animals were already on her list, but others were new.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That common ground of loving someone’s pets,” she said, “really breaks down barriers.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The couple, who have lived together at a West Oakland \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">homeless\u003c/a> encampment for the last three years, bottle-fed the strays who wandered in and administered medicine to them when they were sick. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It wasn’t long before Bradford and Ophelia, who asked KQED to only use their first names out of concern for their safety, developed a reputation for being knowledgeable pet owners. People started bringing them more cats: the shop owner who couldn’t keep his kitten, or the pregnant cat they were given after a friend passed away. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Today, they’re caring for a verifiable colony: 14 cats and kittens — and counting.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Everybody just got spayed and neutered,” Bradford said with a smile. “So we’re feeling very responsible about that.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One Oakland group, the Human and Pet Initiative, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.hapi.pet/\">HAPI\u003c/a>, is working to solve this problem. For the last three years, on a weekly basis, the small nonprofit has brought shots, microchips, flea medication, kibble and other resources to about 15 encampments in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meg McAdam, HAPI’s group’s founder and president, made it possible for Bradford and Ophelia to fix their cats. HAPI paid for the operations after McAdam and her team of about five volunteers built a trusting relationship with the couple, who agreed to let her take their cats to the vet to get spayed and neutered.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>McAdam knows that some people have strong feelings about the wellbeing of the animals they see on the street, or question whether unhoused people deserve to have pets in the first place. But she said that’s beside the point.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I don’t even have to debate that, ’cause it doesn’t matter, ’cause they do. So as long as they do, I want to help them take care of them,” McAdam said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>McAdam said that this work has a butterfly effect: providing care to these animals allows HAPI to support their human companions too. “When they’re making a choice of whether to feed their dog or themselves, if I can feed their dog so they can feed themselves, it’s a win, right?”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>McAdam said that this work has a butterfly effect: providing care to these animals allows HAPI to support their human companions too. “When they’re making a choice of whether to feed their dog or themselves, if I can feed their dog so they can feed themselves, it’s a win, right?”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>McAdam wears her heart on her sleeve. Her arms are covered in animal tattoos: A dog on her right arm, and a vibrant blue sleeve of sea creatures on her left. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s a fitting look for the job she does seven days a week: Providing no-cost, mobile medical support to people living on the streets. McAdam has learned that there are many reasons why an unhoused person may choose to have a pet. One of the reasons is safety. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It’s a fitting look for the job she does seven days a week: Providing no-cost, mobile medical support to people living on the streets. McAdam has learned that there are many reasons why an unhoused person may choose to have a pet. One of the reasons is safety. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The bigger, the better,” said Star, who lives near the Lake Merritt Estuary with her three guard dogs, Prince, Joker, and Chloe, who weigh over 100 pounds each. “‘Cause they can cuddle you, they can love you, they can protect you.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The bigger, the better,” said Star, who lives near the Lake Merritt Estuary with her three guard dogs, Prince, Joker, and Chloe, who weigh over 100 pounds each. “‘Cause they can cuddle you, they can love you, they can protect you.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102840\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams cuts the nails of Christy Grensberg’s new puppy, Houdini, on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One of the dogs, Prince, acts as her service animal, Star said. She has epilepsy, and he alerts her when she’s going to have a seizure, providing stability when she loses her balance. Her dogs also protect her from external threats, like theft, or sexual harassment and assault — the dangers of being a woman living outside.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One of the dogs, Prince, acts as her service animal, Star said. She has epilepsy, and he alerts her when she’s going to have a seizure, providing stability when she loses her balance. Her dogs also protect her from external threats, like theft, or sexual harassment and assault — the dangers of being a woman living outside.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“ The only way to survive out here is if I have my dogs,” she said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Pets can also provide a sense of companionship, or a second chance at developing bonds that feel like family. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’ve not had responsibility to anyone … or anything in a while,” said Jaquelyn, who lives at an encampment under the West Oakland BART tracks with her puppy, Loco. “I feel like my son will be jealous if I pay more attention to the dog than him, but I don’t get to see my son often.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I’ve not had responsibility to anyone … or anything in a while,” said Jaquelyn, who lives at an encampment under the West Oakland BART tracks with her puppy, Loco. “I feel like my son will be jealous if I pay more attention to the dog than him, but I don’t get to see my son often.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102852\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hailey Looneie and Jane Esposito greet a local’s dog on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102852\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hailey Looneie and Jane Esposito greet a local’s dog on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to mess up this time,” Jaquelyn said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Part of this responsibility is regular veterinary care. Most of the people McAdam works with are eager to receive support from her. But it’s not always so simple.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jaquelyn and Loco live in the same encampment as Loco’s grandma, a German Shepherd named Diamond. Diamond belongs to a man named Alfonso, who has always been wary of McAdam and her team. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Alfonso is the only person who ever said to us, ‘Get away from my dogs,’” McAdam told her volunteers during a weekly outreach meeting. As a result, she tries to give him space to avoid making him feel encroached upon.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But one outreach day in May, McAdam noticed that Diamond looked quite ill. Alfonso returned home as a volunteer vet tech named Jocelyn Saenz-Sanchez performed an exam on the German Shepherd, who was breathing heavily in a resting place in the shade. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But instead of getting mad at them and asking him to leave as he had done in the past, Alfonso was happy to see McAdam. The two made a plan for her to come back and take Diamond to the vet.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This was a huge breakthrough,” she said later. “I’m hoping that this is the beginning of a new relationship with him.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Building this level of trust can take a long time. In this case, it took three years of offering food and other support and being turned down or ignored. But time is finite, and the needs of a sick pet can be urgent. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102850\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams and Alfredo Penate update each other on their lives since HAPI last visited on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. McAdams says that she visited Penate many times over the years in order to first gain his trust.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102850\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams and Alfredo Penate update each other on their lives since HAPI last visited on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. McAdams says that she visited Penate many times over the years in order to first gain his trust.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Diamond’s health drastically declined in the days after McAdam’s team examined her, and she died before she could get in to see a vet.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Diamond’s health drastically declined in the days after McAdam’s team examined her, and she died before she could get in to see a vet.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>McAdam knows that without relationship building, she can’t reach the animals that need help. And ultimately, she also knows these animals are extensions of their owners. The city of Oakland recognizes this, too.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>McAdam knows that without relationship building, she can’t reach the animals that need help. And ultimately, she also knows these animals are extensions of their owners. The city of Oakland recognizes this, too.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“These nonprofit groups, they are a force multiplier for our work,” said Joe DeVries, director of Oakland Animal Services. He said the resources HAPI provides are critical. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“These nonprofit groups, they are a force multiplier for our work,” said Joe DeVries, director of Oakland Animal Services. He said the resources HAPI provides are critical. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“But I think what’s even more important is the relationships that they provide.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>DeVries said many people associate Animal Control Officers, formerly part of the police department until 2015, with law enforcement. It’s now a standalone agency under the city administrator’s office, but it does have a mandate to enforce local pet laws, like leash laws, and animal cruelty and neglect. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>DeVries said many people associate Animal Control Officers, formerly part of the police department until 2015, with law enforcement. It’s now a standalone agency under the city administrator’s office, but it does have a mandate to enforce local pet laws, like leash laws, and animal cruelty and neglect. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102841\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Christy Grensberg relays her vaccine record contact information to Jane Esposito on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. After her past two dogs died from Canine Parvovirus, Grensberg said that she is being extremely cautious with Houdini and making sure to get him vaccinated.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102841\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Christy Grensberg relays her vaccine record contact information to Jane Esposito on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. After her past two dogs died from Canine Parvovirus, Grensberg said that she is being extremely cautious with Houdini and making sure to get him vaccinated.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So far this year, they have seized pets from their owners about 300 times. But the majority of the animals in their custody are domesticated pets that are surrendered, DeVries said. Most of the time, this happens when somebody can’t afford both animal care and housing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>So far this year, they have seized pets from their owners about 300 times. But the majority of the animals in their custody are domesticated pets that are surrendered, DeVries said. Most of the time, this happens when somebody can’t afford both animal care and housing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He witnessed others making this heartbreaking choice when he worked as Oakland’s homelessness administrator back in 2018.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He witnessed others making this heartbreaking choice when he worked as Oakland’s homelessness administrator back in 2018.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“What I saw when we were out at encampments, and people weren’t accepting offers of shelter, their criticism of congregate shelter was very valid,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“What I saw when we were out at encampments, and people weren’t accepting offers of shelter, their criticism of congregate shelter was very valid,” he said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Now, some city-run shelter programs do allow pets, making it easier for unhoused people to take the first step toward getting indoors.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Now, some city-run shelter programs do allow pets, making it easier for unhoused people to take the first step toward getting indoors.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But before they get to a shelter or housing, groups like HAPI take care of pets on the street. There are a handful of groups around the state like HAPI, from \u003ca href=\"https://pawfund.org/what-we-do/\">Paw Fund\u003c/a> in Berkeley to the \u003ca href=\"https://folsomtimes.com/paws-mobile-clinic-is-lifeline-for-pets-of-countys-unhoused/\">PAWS Mobile Clinic\u003c/a> in Sacramento and \u003ca href=\"https://www.projectstreetvet.org/volunteer\">Project Street Vet\u003c/a> in Los Angeles. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But before they get to a shelter or housing, groups like HAPI take care of pets on the street. There are a handful of groups around the state like HAPI, from \u003ca href=\"https://pawfund.org/what-we-do/\">Paw Fund\u003c/a> in Berkeley to the \u003ca href=\"https://folsomtimes.com/paws-mobile-clinic-is-lifeline-for-pets-of-countys-unhoused/\">PAWS Mobile Clinic\u003c/a> in Sacramento and \u003ca href=\"https://www.projectstreetvet.org/volunteer\">Project Street Vet\u003c/a> in Los Angeles. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On an outreach day in May, McAdam and her crew distributed 270 pounds of dog kibble, 45 pounds of cat kibble, and vaccinated 15 dogs and two kittens. Some of these animals were already on her list, but others were new.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On an outreach day in May, McAdam and her crew distributed 270 pounds of dog kibble, 45 pounds of cat kibble, and vaccinated 15 dogs and two kittens. Some of these animals were already on her list, but others were new.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“That common ground of loving someone’s pets,” she said, “really breaks down barriers.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“That common ground of loving someone’s pets,” she said, “really breaks down barriers.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "Volunteers providing weekly mobile veterinary care help build trust with the East Bay city’s unhoused pet owners.\n",
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"title": "Oakland Pet Lovers Provide Care to Unhoused Residents’ Furry Friends | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>When it started, Bradford and Ophelia only had a few cats. But others soon appeared.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The couple, who have lived together at a West Oakland \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">homeless\u003c/a> encampment for the last three years, bottle-fed the strays who wandered in and administered medicine to them when they were sick. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It wasn’t long before Bradford and Ophelia, who asked KQED to only use their first names out of concern for their safety, developed a reputation for being knowledgeable pet owners. People started bringing them more cats: the shop owner who couldn’t keep his kitten, or the pregnant cat they were given after a friend passed away. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, they’re caring for a verifiable colony: 14 cats and kittens — and counting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Everybody just got spayed and neutered,” Bradford said with a smile. “So we’re feeling very responsible about that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-31-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-31-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-31-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-31-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Two of Kevin Klee’s many cats roam the area outside his trailer on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. Klee says that he’s running out of space where he lives and he wishes that somebody could take them. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-7 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102848\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-40-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102848\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-40-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-40-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-40-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams prepares vaccines on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102849\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-43-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102849\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-43-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-43-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-43-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams tries to gain the trust of a dog she is about to vaccinate on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Taking care of a pet — let alone two dozen — can be a challenge for unhoused people. The cost of a typical trip to the vet can easily reach hundreds or thousands of dollars. And figuring out how to transport a sick pet to a low-cost community clinic can be difficult.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One Oakland group, the Human and Pet Initiative, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.hapi.pet/\">HAPI\u003c/a>, is working to solve this problem. For the last three years, on a weekly basis, the small nonprofit has brought shots, microchips, flea medication, kibble and other resources to about 15 encampments in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meg McAdam, HAPI’s group’s founder and president, made it possible for Bradford and Ophelia to fix their cats. HAPI paid for the operations after McAdam and her team of about five volunteers built a trusting relationship with the couple, who agreed to let her take their cats to the vet to get spayed and neutered.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McAdam knows that some people have strong feelings about the wellbeing of the animals they see on the street, or question whether unhoused people deserve to have pets in the first place. But she said that’s beside the point.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I don’t even have to debate that, ’cause it doesn’t matter, ’cause they do. So as long as they do, I want to help them take care of them,” McAdam said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McAdam said that this work has a butterfly effect: providing care to these animals allows HAPI to support their human companions too. “When they’re making a choice of whether to feed their dog or themselves, if I can feed their dog so they can feed themselves, it’s a win, right?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McAdam wears her heart on her sleeve. Her arms are covered in animal tattoos: A dog on her right arm, and a vibrant blue sleeve of sea creatures on her left. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a fitting look for the job she does seven days a week: Providing no-cost, mobile medical support to people living on the streets. McAdam has learned that there are many reasons why an unhoused person may choose to have a pet. One of the reasons is safety. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The bigger, the better,” said Star, who lives near the Lake Merritt Estuary with her three guard dogs, Prince, Joker, and Chloe, who weigh over 100 pounds each. “‘Cause they can cuddle you, they can love you, they can protect you.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-20-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams cuts the nails of Christy Grensberg’s new puppy, Houdini, on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>One of the dogs, Prince, acts as her service animal, Star said. She has epilepsy, and he alerts her when she’s going to have a seizure, providing stability when she loses her balance. Her dogs also protect her from external threats, like theft, or sexual harassment and assault — the dangers of being a woman living outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“ The only way to survive out here is if I have my dogs,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Pets can also provide a sense of companionship, or a second chance at developing bonds that feel like family. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’ve not had responsibility to anyone … or anything in a while,” said Jaquelyn, who lives at an encampment under the West Oakland BART tracks with her puppy, Loco. “I feel like my son will be jealous if I pay more attention to the dog than him, but I don’t get to see my son often.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102852\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-51-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hailey Looneie and Jane Esposito greet a local’s dog on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Losing touch with family is a common source of trauma for unhoused people, and pets can help fill the gap. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to mess up this time,” Jaquelyn said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Part of this responsibility is regular veterinary care. Most of the people McAdam works with are eager to receive support from her. But it’s not always so simple.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jaquelyn and Loco live in the same encampment as Loco’s grandma, a German Shepherd named Diamond. Diamond belongs to a man named Alfonso, who has always been wary of McAdam and her team. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Alfonso is the only person who ever said to us, ‘Get away from my dogs,’” McAdam told her volunteers during a weekly outreach meeting. As a result, she tries to give him space to avoid making him feel encroached upon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-8 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102845\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-29-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102845\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-29-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-29-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-29-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Julian Standley and Claudia Glasper pose with their dogs, Benji and Sassy, on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102837\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-11-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102837\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-11-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-11-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-11-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdam’s van is packed with supplies for pet owners on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-9 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102844\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-28-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102844\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-28-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-28-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-28-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">HAPI member, Jane Esposito, organizes vaccination records while her coworkers vaccinate a dog on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" data-id=\"12102842\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-25-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102842\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-25-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-25-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-25-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams injects a microchip into Christy Grensburg’s new puppy, Houdini, on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. In case the owner is not available or doesn’t have a phone, McAdams adds HAPI’s contact information onto every microchip form they fill out. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But one outreach day in May, McAdam noticed that Diamond looked quite ill. Alfonso returned home as a volunteer vet tech named Jocelyn Saenz-Sanchez performed an exam on the German Shepherd, who was breathing heavily in a resting place in the shade. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But instead of getting mad at them and asking him to leave as he had done in the past, Alfonso was happy to see McAdam. The two made a plan for her to come back and take Diamond to the vet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This was a huge breakthrough,” she said later. “I’m hoping that this is the beginning of a new relationship with him.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Building this level of trust can take a long time. In this case, it took three years of offering food and other support and being turned down or ignored. But time is finite, and the needs of a sick pet can be urgent. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102850\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-46-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Meg McAdams and Alfredo Penate update each other on their lives since HAPI last visited on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. McAdams says that she visited Penate many times over the years in order to first gain his trust. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Diamond’s health drastically declined in the days after McAdam’s team examined her, and she died before she could get in to see a vet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>McAdam knows that without relationship building, she can’t reach the animals that need help. And ultimately, she also knows these animals are extensions of their owners. The city of Oakland recognizes this, too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“These nonprofit groups, they are a force multiplier for our work,” said Joe DeVries, director of Oakland Animal Services. He said the resources HAPI provides are critical. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“But I think what’s even more important is the relationships that they provide.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>DeVries said many people associate Animal Control Officers, formerly part of the police department until 2015, with law enforcement. It’s now a standalone agency under the city administrator’s office, but it does have a mandate to enforce local pet laws, like leash laws, and animal cruelty and neglect. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102841\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/092326-STREETVETS-21-MC-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Christy Grensberg relays her vaccine record contact information to Jane Esposito on Sept. 23, 2026, in Oakland. After her past two dogs died from Canine Parvovirus, Grensberg said that she is being extremely cautious with Houdini and making sure to get him vaccinated. (Miles Cull/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>So far this year, they have seized pets from their owners about 300 times. But the majority of the animals in their custody are domesticated pets that are surrendered, DeVries said. Most of the time, this happens when somebody can’t afford both animal care and housing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He witnessed others making this heartbreaking choice when he worked as Oakland’s homelessness administrator back in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“What I saw when we were out at encampments, and people weren’t accepting offers of shelter, their criticism of congregate shelter was very valid,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now, some city-run shelter programs do allow pets, making it easier for unhoused people to take the first step toward getting indoors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But before they get to a shelter or housing, groups like HAPI take care of pets on the street. There are a handful of groups around the state like HAPI, from \u003ca href=\"https://pawfund.org/what-we-do/\">Paw Fund\u003c/a> in Berkeley to the \u003ca href=\"https://folsomtimes.com/paws-mobile-clinic-is-lifeline-for-pets-of-countys-unhoused/\">PAWS Mobile Clinic\u003c/a> in Sacramento and \u003ca href=\"https://www.projectstreetvet.org/volunteer\">Project Street Vet\u003c/a> in Los Angeles. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On an outreach day in May, McAdam and her crew distributed 270 pounds of dog kibble, 45 pounds of cat kibble, and vaccinated 15 dogs and two kittens. Some of these animals were already on her list, but others were new.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That common ground of loving someone’s pets,” she said, “really breaks down barriers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "prop-45-faster-environmental-reviews-for-certain-projects",
"title": "Prop 45: Faster Environmental Reviews for Certain Projects",
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"content": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Episode Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:00] \u003c/em>In 1970, as California was building freeways and developing dams and levees, Governor Ronald Reagan signed the California Environmental Quality Act into law. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:10] \u003c/em>CEQA, as it’s known, requires public agencies to consider the environmental impact of big projects. How rivers could be impacted by new dams and levees, or how local marshland could face more noise pollution. It’s a way of saying, look before you leap, or in this case, build. But housing advocates have often taken issue with CEQa. Arguing that it’s been used to block or stall much needed development here in California. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:43] \u003c/em>Now, Prop 45 seeks to change the landmark statute by tightening the timeframe for the environmental review process. Those who oppose the proposition aren’t just worried about what it means for the environment, but also whether it can open the door to more data centers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:02] \u003c/em>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara, host of The Bay. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:06] \u003c/em>And I’m Olivia Ellen Price, host of Bay Curious, and you made it to the final edition of PropFest 2026. This has been a collaboration between the Bay and Bay Curios, and this is the 14th and final prop. Are you ready, Ericka? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:22] \u003c/em>I sure am, Olivia. Here’s how Prop 45 will read on your ballot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:30] \u003c/em>Prop 45, modifies environmental review for certain projects. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:36] \u003c/em>Here to walk us through Proposition 45 is KQED’s climate reporter Laura Klivans. Hey Laura.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:43] \u003c/em>Hello \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:44] \u003c/em>So Laura, Prop 45 would overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act. First, what is the California environmental quality act, otherwise known as CEQA? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:58] \u003c/em>So CEQA is this major California environmental law, and it was passed in 1970 under then-Governor Reagan. And the goal was to require government agencies to study and share potential environmental impacts of public projects like dams and highways and power plants and to do what was possible to reduce or mitigate those impacts. Over time, there have been many lawsuits around it, and it is now applicable to not just public projects, but private ones. Proponents view this law as an essential environmental law for California to protect our environment and think about longer term consequences to building. Critics do not like CEQA because they say it offers people with special interests the opportunity to delay and block projects in the name of the environment. So therefore it’s been like very controversial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:02:55] \u003c/em>Private projects as in… Maybe a new apartment building or a new housing complex?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:02] \u003c/em>Yeah \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:04] \u003c/em>So Prop 45 would make some tweaks to CEQA. How exactly could CEQA change under Prop 45? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:11] \u003c/em>So the proposition is saying let’s speed up the environmental reviews for certain projects that it calls essential. So those would be things like housing or clean energy, not including nuclear, hospitals, clinics, schools, fire, wildfire risk reductions, like things that sound really important, transportation, and here’s an interesting category, broadband access. We’ll come back to why that’s so interesting. So Prop 45 would put a timeline on CEQA review for these essential categories I mentioned. It would set a 365 day time limit on environmental reviews for these projects. It would require courts to rule on CEQA related lawsuits within 270 days. And then it also changes some other details. So like here’s an example of one, a government agency that’s overseeing a review. They would need to specify all the information that they’d like to get from the application, from the builder, at the time that it needs to be submitted, rather than going back to the builder again and again and saying, we need more info for this and more info for that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:22] \u003c/em>Who put this on the ballot and why are we as voters being asked to potentially make some changes to CEQA?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:29] \u003c/em>So the California Chamber of Commerce has sponsored this proposition, and they represent businesses, they advocate for them, they lobby for them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Barrera: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:38] \u003c/em>The CEQA law was well-intentioned, but we have seen, obviously, the law be abused and misused in order to block projects by groups who don’t want to see any development, don’t want to any growth here in California. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:50] \u003c/em>Jennifer Barrera is the CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, and she is saying we have an issue with growth, nothing’s affordable here, and this would basically advance projects that they designated as essential more quickly and easily. It would streamline legal challenges, reduce frivolous lawsuits, things like that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Barrera: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:10] \u003c/em>When we talk about delay, and I’ll keep going back to housing just because it is such an important point of our affordability crisis and a part of this ballot initiative, but when you delay ultimate housing, I mean that creates inequity in our population. That creates losers with regards to those who can’t afford and those who can’t afford. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:28] \u003c/em>Proponents say, you know, you’re still going to have environmental review, we’re just going to put like a shot clock on it, as they say. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:38] \u003c/em>So you mentioned the California Chamber of Commerce. Who else is in favor of this measure?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:45] \u003c/em>There are groups that represent places that need to build, like hospitals or some housing organizations and some building industries, like the workers. Also notably, Buffy Wicks, she’s a California Assembly member, and she is one of the people who championed change last year to CEQA. That has exempted housing that is already on developed areas from CEQA review. So that was a major reform that already happened last year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:17] \u003c/em>We’ll have more on Prop 45 with KQED’s Laura Klivans, right after this break. By the way, did you know that KQED is funded almost entirely by everyday listeners just like you? Consider becoming a sustaining KQED member by going to donate.kqed.org/podcasts. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:46] \u003c/em>So you have some folks who say that these changes to CEQA are necessary in order to address this housing crisis that we’re in, in part. Who is coming out in opposition to this measure and what are their arguments?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:59] \u003c/em>There are a bunch of other folks who are against this, like environmental groups, environmental justice groups, health groups, unions that represent teachers and firefighters, for example, are against us. One major argument is that, hey, this is too broad. This is our landmark environmental regulation. Let’s keep it. And state Senator Catherine Blakespear represents northern San Diego and part of Orange County and has come out in opposition. She chairs the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sen. Catherine Blakespear: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:07:27] \u003c/em>It’s really important that California continue to be a bulwark against the backsliding and we continue to fight climate change and to protect our environment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:07:36] \u003c/em>She’s saying it’s going to allow for more homes to be built in something called the wildland urban interface, which is like basically places that butt up against beautiful nature areas, but are therefore very fire prone. And so she and some other state legislators are saying this is a terrible idea. We don’t need to build more housing in those areas. And this would allow for that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sen. Catherine Blakespear: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:01] \u003c/em>It really just goes way too far and creates these very big loopholes and changes our system of CEQA and our environmental review, which is our landmark environmental laws in California since the 1970s. And it is far, far too broad. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:16] \u003c/em>I think we all know that it takes a long time to build housing in California and that one of the main arguments for Prop 45 is the idea that we need to build more housing more quickly. What about pro-housing or YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) groups? What do they think about this measure? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:35] \u003c/em>Yeah, so it’s mixed. There are some housing groups that support Proposition 45. And then, actually, interestingly, this one large group, California YMBY, YIMBY stands for ‘Yes in My Backyard,’ they have come out with no position on this. They are neutral. That’s because they see both reasons to support this measure and reasons to oppose it. And on the one hand, it could fast track sprawl, which is not something they support, so. Maybe it makes it easier to build a highway, makes it easy to build housing that is not in a dense or already populated area. On the other hand, it might make it easier to build clean energy and clean energy infrastructure, which is something that they would support. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:09:23] \u003c/em>So we’ve been talking about CEQA in the context of building more housing, but it of course applies to all kinds of projects in California. And when it comes to Prop 45, there’s actually one specific kind of project that has made its way into the debate and that’s data centers? Can you explain why data centers have become part of the conversation around Prop 45?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:09:48] \u003c/em>Yes, so people who support Prop 45 say this does not apply to data centers. And opponents, people who are saying no to this proposition, they say, oh, but it could. Look at the broadband access category. The language is broad enough that it could be construed to include data centers, Opponents are also saying, listen, the people who wrote this made carve-outs for what it doesn’t make exclusions for. There’s this huge category of transportation And it says in the language that it doesn’t include high-speed rail. There’s a category for clean energy. Also in the Language for Prop 45, it says that doesn’t including nuclear. So if this truly does not include data centers, wouldn’t the people who wrote this get ahead of that and write, this doesn’t included data centers in the language? And the people that wrote it are saying, well, we weren’t thinking of that because broadband access doesn’t includes data centers. That’s just as simple as that. So that is up in the air. And now data centers is such a wild issue now, and it’s really, we’ve seen it explode politically, that that has impacted this proposition. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:10:55] \u003c/em>Enough people are worried about it that they are, I don’t know, seeing data centers in Prop 45 and adding it to the debate, it sounds like. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:03] \u003c/em>Right. Right. And then this is super interesting. So pulling from the Public Policy Institute of California showed support among likely voters was at 73% in July and in September it is 49 percent. In that time, the data center conversation started happening. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:26] \u003c/em>Let’s talk about campaign spending here, Laura. What are we seeing on the pro-Prop 45 side in terms of spending? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:35] \u003c/em>There’s a lot of money. When I checked last, over $40 million. We see a lot of Silicon Valley tech people, Google executives, like the former CEO, Eric Schmidt, and more. We also see money coming in from the building trades. And then against, still some money there, $15 million. But this was interesting when I was looking at the money because one of the top donors is Wendy Schmidt, who is married to Eric Schmidt. And she has put $5 million in against Prop 45. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:06] \u003c/em>Laura, thank you so much. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:08] \u003c/em>Thank you for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:13] \u003c/em>In a nutshell, a yes vote on this measure means environmental reviews can be expedited for certain projects. A no vote means projects would continue to use existing project review and court challenge procedures under CEQA. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:30] \u003c/em>We made it to the finish line, y’all. Thanks so much for joining us on this wild ride. We hope you’re feeling more prepared than ever to cast your ballot this November.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:38] \u003c/em>And if you don’t, you can always go back and listen to the entire Prop Fest series again at kqed.org/propfest. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:48] \u003c/em>Do us a favor and send Prop Fest to one friend right now. Word of mouth really helps us grow our shows. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:57] \u003c/em>Prop Fest is made possible thanks to Katrina Schwartz Pauline Bartolone Anna Casalme Olivia Allen Price Gabriela Glick Christopher Beale, Alan Montecillo and me, Ericka Cruz Guevarra\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:11] \u003c/em>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Springer, Jen Chien. Ethan Toven Lindsey. And everyone on Team KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:20] \u003c/em>Our show is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Support for the Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:42] \u003c/em>And I’m Olivia Allen Price. Good luck with your ballot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:00] \u003c/em>In 1970, as California was building freeways and developing dams and levees, Governor Ronald Reagan signed the California Environmental Quality Act into law. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:10] \u003c/em>CEQA, as it’s known, requires public agencies to consider the environmental impact of big projects. How rivers could be impacted by new dams and levees, or how local marshland could face more noise pollution. It’s a way of saying, look before you leap, or in this case, build. But housing advocates have often taken issue with CEQa. Arguing that it’s been used to block or stall much needed development here in California. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:10] \u003c/em>CEQA, as it’s known, requires public agencies to consider the environmental impact of big projects. How rivers could be impacted by new dams and levees, or how local marshland could face more noise pollution. It’s a way of saying, look before you leap, or in this case, build. But housing advocates have often taken issue with CEQa. Arguing that it’s been used to block or stall much needed development here in California. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:43] \u003c/em>Now, Prop 45 seeks to change the landmark statute by tightening the timeframe for the environmental review process. Those who oppose the proposition aren’t just worried about what it means for the environment, but also whether it can open the door to more data centers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:43] \u003c/em>Now, Prop 45 seeks to change the landmark statute by tightening the timeframe for the environmental review process. Those who oppose the proposition aren’t just worried about what it means for the environment, but also whether it can open the door to more data centers. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:02] \u003c/em>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara, host of The Bay. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:02] \u003c/em>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara, host of The Bay. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:06] \u003c/em>And I’m Olivia Ellen Price, host of Bay Curious, and you made it to the final edition of PropFest 2026. This has been a collaboration between the Bay and Bay Curios, and this is the 14th and final prop. Are you ready, Ericka? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:06] \u003c/em>And I’m Olivia Ellen Price, host of Bay Curious, and you made it to the final edition of PropFest 2026. This has been a collaboration between the Bay and Bay Curios, and this is the 14th and final prop. Are you ready, Ericka? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:22] \u003c/em>I sure am, Olivia. Here’s how Prop 45 will read on your ballot. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:22] \u003c/em>I sure am, Olivia. Here’s how Prop 45 will read on your ballot. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:30] \u003c/em>Prop 45, modifies environmental review for certain projects. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:30] \u003c/em>Prop 45, modifies environmental review for certain projects. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:36] \u003c/em>Here to walk us through Proposition 45 is KQED’s climate reporter Laura Klivans. Hey Laura.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:36] \u003c/em>Here to walk us through Proposition 45 is KQED’s climate reporter Laura Klivans. Hey Laura.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:43] \u003c/em>Hello \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:44] \u003c/em>So Laura, Prop 45 would overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act. First, what is the California environmental quality act, otherwise known as CEQA? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:44] \u003c/em>So Laura, Prop 45 would overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act. First, what is the California environmental quality act, otherwise known as CEQA? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:58] \u003c/em>So CEQA is this major California environmental law, and it was passed in 1970 under then-Governor Reagan. And the goal was to require government agencies to study and share potential environmental impacts of public projects like dams and highways and power plants and to do what was possible to reduce or mitigate those impacts. Over time, there have been many lawsuits around it, and it is now applicable to not just public projects, but private ones. Proponents view this law as an essential environmental law for California to protect our environment and think about longer term consequences to building. Critics do not like CEQA because they say it offers people with special interests the opportunity to delay and block projects in the name of the environment. So therefore it’s been like very controversial. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:58] \u003c/em>So CEQA is this major California environmental law, and it was passed in 1970 under then-Governor Reagan. And the goal was to require government agencies to study and share potential environmental impacts of public projects like dams and highways and power plants and to do what was possible to reduce or mitigate those impacts. Over time, there have been many lawsuits around it, and it is now applicable to not just public projects, but private ones. Proponents view this law as an essential environmental law for California to protect our environment and think about longer term consequences to building. Critics do not like CEQA because they say it offers people with special interests the opportunity to delay and block projects in the name of the environment. So therefore it’s been like very controversial. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:02:55] \u003c/em>Private projects as in… Maybe a new apartment building or a new housing complex?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:02:55] \u003c/em>Private projects as in… Maybe a new apartment building or a new housing complex?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:02] \u003c/em>Yeah \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:04] \u003c/em>So Prop 45 would make some tweaks to CEQA. How exactly could CEQA change under Prop 45? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:04] \u003c/em>So Prop 45 would make some tweaks to CEQA. How exactly could CEQA change under Prop 45? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:11] \u003c/em>So the proposition is saying let’s speed up the environmental reviews for certain projects that it calls essential. So those would be things like housing or clean energy, not including nuclear, hospitals, clinics, schools, fire, wildfire risk reductions, like things that sound really important, transportation, and here’s an interesting category, broadband access. We’ll come back to why that’s so interesting. So Prop 45 would put a timeline on CEQA review for these essential categories I mentioned. It would set a 365 day time limit on environmental reviews for these projects. It would require courts to rule on CEQA related lawsuits within 270 days. And then it also changes some other details. So like here’s an example of one, a government agency that’s overseeing a review. They would need to specify all the information that they’d like to get from the application, from the builder, at the time that it needs to be submitted, rather than going back to the builder again and again and saying, we need more info for this and more info for that. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:11] \u003c/em>So the proposition is saying let’s speed up the environmental reviews for certain projects that it calls essential. So those would be things like housing or clean energy, not including nuclear, hospitals, clinics, schools, fire, wildfire risk reductions, like things that sound really important, transportation, and here’s an interesting category, broadband access. We’ll come back to why that’s so interesting. So Prop 45 would put a timeline on CEQA review for these essential categories I mentioned. It would set a 365 day time limit on environmental reviews for these projects. It would require courts to rule on CEQA related lawsuits within 270 days. And then it also changes some other details. So like here’s an example of one, a government agency that’s overseeing a review. They would need to specify all the information that they’d like to get from the application, from the builder, at the time that it needs to be submitted, rather than going back to the builder again and again and saying, we need more info for this and more info for that. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:22] \u003c/em>Who put this on the ballot and why are we as voters being asked to potentially make some changes to CEQA?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:22] \u003c/em>Who put this on the ballot and why are we as voters being asked to potentially make some changes to CEQA?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:29] \u003c/em>So the California Chamber of Commerce has sponsored this proposition, and they represent businesses, they advocate for them, they lobby for them. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:29] \u003c/em>So the California Chamber of Commerce has sponsored this proposition, and they represent businesses, they advocate for them, they lobby for them. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Barrera: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:38] \u003c/em>The CEQA law was well-intentioned, but we have seen, obviously, the law be abused and misused in order to block projects by groups who don’t want to see any development, don’t want to any growth here in California. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Barrera: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:38] \u003c/em>The CEQA law was well-intentioned, but we have seen, obviously, the law be abused and misused in order to block projects by groups who don’t want to see any development, don’t want to any growth here in California. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:50] \u003c/em>Jennifer Barrera is the CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, and she is saying we have an issue with growth, nothing’s affordable here, and this would basically advance projects that they designated as essential more quickly and easily. It would streamline legal challenges, reduce frivolous lawsuits, things like that. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:50] \u003c/em>Jennifer Barrera is the CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, and she is saying we have an issue with growth, nothing’s affordable here, and this would basically advance projects that they designated as essential more quickly and easily. It would streamline legal challenges, reduce frivolous lawsuits, things like that. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Barrera: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:10] \u003c/em>When we talk about delay, and I’ll keep going back to housing just because it is such an important point of our affordability crisis and a part of this ballot initiative, but when you delay ultimate housing, I mean that creates inequity in our population. That creates losers with regards to those who can’t afford and those who can’t afford. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Barrera: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:10] \u003c/em>When we talk about delay, and I’ll keep going back to housing just because it is such an important point of our affordability crisis and a part of this ballot initiative, but when you delay ultimate housing, I mean that creates inequity in our population. That creates losers with regards to those who can’t afford and those who can’t afford. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:28] \u003c/em>Proponents say, you know, you’re still going to have environmental review, we’re just going to put like a shot clock on it, as they say. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:38] \u003c/em>So you mentioned the California Chamber of Commerce. Who else is in favor of this measure?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:45] \u003c/em>There are groups that represent places that need to build, like hospitals or some housing organizations and some building industries, like the workers. Also notably, Buffy Wicks, she’s a California Assembly member, and she is one of the people who championed change last year to CEQA. That has exempted housing that is already on developed areas from CEQA review. So that was a major reform that already happened last year. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:17] \u003c/em>We’ll have more on Prop 45 with KQED’s Laura Klivans, right after this break. By the way, did you know that KQED is funded almost entirely by everyday listeners just like you? Consider becoming a sustaining KQED member by going to donate.kqed.org/podcasts. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:17] \u003c/em>We’ll have more on Prop 45 with KQED’s Laura Klivans, right after this break. By the way, did you know that KQED is funded almost entirely by everyday listeners just like you? Consider becoming a sustaining KQED member by going to donate.kqed.org/podcasts. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:46] \u003c/em>So you have some folks who say that these changes to CEQA are necessary in order to address this housing crisis that we’re in, in part. Who is coming out in opposition to this measure and what are their arguments?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:59] \u003c/em>There are a bunch of other folks who are against this, like environmental groups, environmental justice groups, health groups, unions that represent teachers and firefighters, for example, are against us. One major argument is that, hey, this is too broad. This is our landmark environmental regulation. Let’s keep it. And state Senator Catherine Blakespear represents northern San Diego and part of Orange County and has come out in opposition. She chairs the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sen. Catherine Blakespear: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:07:27] \u003c/em>It’s really important that California continue to be a bulwark against the backsliding and we continue to fight climate change and to protect our environment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sen. Catherine Blakespear: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:07:27] \u003c/em>It’s really important that California continue to be a bulwark against the backsliding and we continue to fight climate change and to protect our environment.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:07:36] \u003c/em>She’s saying it’s going to allow for more homes to be built in something called the wildland urban interface, which is like basically places that butt up against beautiful nature areas, but are therefore very fire prone. And so she and some other state legislators are saying this is a terrible idea. We don’t need to build more housing in those areas. And this would allow for that. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sen. Catherine Blakespear: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:01] \u003c/em>It really just goes way too far and creates these very big loopholes and changes our system of CEQA and our environmental review, which is our landmark environmental laws in California since the 1970s. And it is far, far too broad. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:16] \u003c/em>I think we all know that it takes a long time to build housing in California and that one of the main arguments for Prop 45 is the idea that we need to build more housing more quickly. What about pro-housing or YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) groups? What do they think about this measure? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:35] \u003c/em>Yeah, so it’s mixed. There are some housing groups that support Proposition 45. And then, actually, interestingly, this one large group, California YMBY, YIMBY stands for ‘Yes in My Backyard,’ they have come out with no position on this. They are neutral. That’s because they see both reasons to support this measure and reasons to oppose it. And on the one hand, it could fast track sprawl, which is not something they support, so. Maybe it makes it easier to build a highway, makes it easy to build housing that is not in a dense or already populated area. On the other hand, it might make it easier to build clean energy and clean energy infrastructure, which is something that they would support. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:35] \u003c/em>Yeah, so it’s mixed. There are some housing groups that support Proposition 45. And then, actually, interestingly, this one large group, California YMBY, YIMBY stands for ‘Yes in My Backyard,’ they have come out with no position on this. They are neutral. That’s because they see both reasons to support this measure and reasons to oppose it. And on the one hand, it could fast track sprawl, which is not something they support, so. Maybe it makes it easier to build a highway, makes it easy to build housing that is not in a dense or already populated area. On the other hand, it might make it easier to build clean energy and clean energy infrastructure, which is something that they would support. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:09:23] \u003c/em>So we’ve been talking about CEQA in the context of building more housing, but it of course applies to all kinds of projects in California. And when it comes to Prop 45, there’s actually one specific kind of project that has made its way into the debate and that’s data centers? Can you explain why data centers have become part of the conversation around Prop 45?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:09:48] \u003c/em>Yes, so people who support Prop 45 say this does not apply to data centers. And opponents, people who are saying no to this proposition, they say, oh, but it could. Look at the broadband access category. The language is broad enough that it could be construed to include data centers, Opponents are also saying, listen, the people who wrote this made carve-outs for what it doesn’t make exclusions for. There’s this huge category of transportation And it says in the language that it doesn’t include high-speed rail. There’s a category for clean energy. Also in the Language for Prop 45, it says that doesn’t including nuclear. So if this truly does not include data centers, wouldn’t the people who wrote this get ahead of that and write, this doesn’t included data centers in the language? And the people that wrote it are saying, well, we weren’t thinking of that because broadband access doesn’t includes data centers. That’s just as simple as that. So that is up in the air. And now data centers is such a wild issue now, and it’s really, we’ve seen it explode politically, that that has impacted this proposition. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:09:48] \u003c/em>Yes, so people who support Prop 45 say this does not apply to data centers. And opponents, people who are saying no to this proposition, they say, oh, but it could. Look at the broadband access category. The language is broad enough that it could be construed to include data centers, Opponents are also saying, listen, the people who wrote this made carve-outs for what it doesn’t make exclusions for. There’s this huge category of transportation And it says in the language that it doesn’t include high-speed rail. There’s a category for clean energy. Also in the Language for Prop 45, it says that doesn’t including nuclear. So if this truly does not include data centers, wouldn’t the people who wrote this get ahead of that and write, this doesn’t included data centers in the language? And the people that wrote it are saying, well, we weren’t thinking of that because broadband access doesn’t includes data centers. That’s just as simple as that. So that is up in the air. And now data centers is such a wild issue now, and it’s really, we’ve seen it explode politically, that that has impacted this proposition. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:10:55] \u003c/em>Enough people are worried about it that they are, I don’t know, seeing data centers in Prop 45 and adding it to the debate, it sounds like. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:10:55] \u003c/em>Enough people are worried about it that they are, I don’t know, seeing data centers in Prop 45 and adding it to the debate, it sounds like. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:03] \u003c/em>Right. Right. And then this is super interesting. So pulling from the Public Policy Institute of California showed support among likely voters was at 73% in July and in September it is 49 percent. In that time, the data center conversation started happening. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:03] \u003c/em>Right. Right. And then this is super interesting. So pulling from the Public Policy Institute of California showed support among likely voters was at 73% in July and in September it is 49 percent. In that time, the data center conversation started happening. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:26] \u003c/em>Let’s talk about campaign spending here, Laura. What are we seeing on the pro-Prop 45 side in terms of spending? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:26] \u003c/em>Let’s talk about campaign spending here, Laura. What are we seeing on the pro-Prop 45 side in terms of spending? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:35] \u003c/em>There’s a lot of money. When I checked last, over $40 million. We see a lot of Silicon Valley tech people, Google executives, like the former CEO, Eric Schmidt, and more. We also see money coming in from the building trades. And then against, still some money there, $15 million. But this was interesting when I was looking at the money because one of the top donors is Wendy Schmidt, who is married to Eric Schmidt. And she has put $5 million in against Prop 45. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:35] \u003c/em>There’s a lot of money. When I checked last, over $40 million. We see a lot of Silicon Valley tech people, Google executives, like the former CEO, Eric Schmidt, and more. We also see money coming in from the building trades. And then against, still some money there, $15 million. But this was interesting when I was looking at the money because one of the top donors is Wendy Schmidt, who is married to Eric Schmidt. And she has put $5 million in against Prop 45. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:06] \u003c/em>Laura, thank you so much. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:06] \u003c/em>Laura, thank you so much. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:08] \u003c/em>Thank you for having me.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:08] \u003c/em>Thank you for having me.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:13] \u003c/em>In a nutshell, a yes vote on this measure means environmental reviews can be expedited for certain projects. A no vote means projects would continue to use existing project review and court challenge procedures under CEQA. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:13] \u003c/em>In a nutshell, a yes vote on this measure means environmental reviews can be expedited for certain projects. A no vote means projects would continue to use existing project review and court challenge procedures under CEQA. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:30] \u003c/em>We made it to the finish line, y’all. Thanks so much for joining us on this wild ride. We hope you’re feeling more prepared than ever to cast your ballot this November.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:30] \u003c/em>We made it to the finish line, y’all. Thanks so much for joining us on this wild ride. We hope you’re feeling more prepared than ever to cast your ballot this November.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:38] \u003c/em>And if you don’t, you can always go back and listen to the entire Prop Fest series again at kqed.org/propfest. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:38] \u003c/em>And if you don’t, you can always go back and listen to the entire Prop Fest series again at kqed.org/propfest. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:48] \u003c/em>Do us a favor and send Prop Fest to one friend right now. Word of mouth really helps us grow our shows. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:48] \u003c/em>Do us a favor and send Prop Fest to one friend right now. Word of mouth really helps us grow our shows. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:57] \u003c/em>Prop Fest is made possible thanks to Katrina Schwartz Pauline Bartolone Anna Casalme Olivia Allen Price Gabriela Glick Christopher Beale, Alan Montecillo and me, Ericka Cruz Guevarra\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:57] \u003c/em>Prop Fest is made possible thanks to Katrina Schwartz Pauline Bartolone Anna Casalme Olivia Allen Price Gabriela Glick Christopher Beale, Alan Montecillo and me, Ericka Cruz Guevarra\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:11] \u003c/em>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Springer, Jen Chien. Ethan Toven Lindsey. And everyone on Team KQED. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:11] \u003c/em>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Springer, Jen Chien. Ethan Toven Lindsey. And everyone on Team KQED. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:20] \u003c/em>Our show is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Support for the Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:20] \u003c/em>Our show is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Support for the Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:42] \u003c/em>And I’m Olivia Allen Price. Good luck with your ballot. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:42] \u003c/em>And I’m Olivia Allen Price. Good luck with your ballot. \u003c/p>\n"
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Episode Transcript:\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:00] \u003c/em>In 1970, as California was building freeways and developing dams and levees, Governor Ronald Reagan signed the California Environmental Quality Act into law. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:10] \u003c/em>CEQA, as it’s known, requires public agencies to consider the environmental impact of big projects. How rivers could be impacted by new dams and levees, or how local marshland could face more noise pollution. It’s a way of saying, look before you leap, or in this case, build. But housing advocates have often taken issue with CEQa. Arguing that it’s been used to block or stall much needed development here in California. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:00:43] \u003c/em>Now, Prop 45 seeks to change the landmark statute by tightening the timeframe for the environmental review process. Those who oppose the proposition aren’t just worried about what it means for the environment, but also whether it can open the door to more data centers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:02] \u003c/em>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara, host of The Bay. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:06] \u003c/em>And I’m Olivia Ellen Price, host of Bay Curious, and you made it to the final edition of PropFest 2026. This has been a collaboration between the Bay and Bay Curios, and this is the 14th and final prop. Are you ready, Ericka? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:22] \u003c/em>I sure am, Olivia. Here’s how Prop 45 will read on your ballot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:30] \u003c/em>Prop 45, modifies environmental review for certain projects. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:36] \u003c/em>Here to walk us through Proposition 45 is KQED’s climate reporter Laura Klivans. Hey Laura.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:43] \u003c/em>Hello \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:44] \u003c/em>So Laura, Prop 45 would overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act. First, what is the California environmental quality act, otherwise known as CEQA? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:01:58] \u003c/em>So CEQA is this major California environmental law, and it was passed in 1970 under then-Governor Reagan. And the goal was to require government agencies to study and share potential environmental impacts of public projects like dams and highways and power plants and to do what was possible to reduce or mitigate those impacts. Over time, there have been many lawsuits around it, and it is now applicable to not just public projects, but private ones. Proponents view this law as an essential environmental law for California to protect our environment and think about longer term consequences to building. Critics do not like CEQA because they say it offers people with special interests the opportunity to delay and block projects in the name of the environment. So therefore it’s been like very controversial. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:02:55] \u003c/em>Private projects as in… Maybe a new apartment building or a new housing complex?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:02] \u003c/em>Yeah \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:04] \u003c/em>So Prop 45 would make some tweaks to CEQA. How exactly could CEQA change under Prop 45? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:03:11] \u003c/em>So the proposition is saying let’s speed up the environmental reviews for certain projects that it calls essential. So those would be things like housing or clean energy, not including nuclear, hospitals, clinics, schools, fire, wildfire risk reductions, like things that sound really important, transportation, and here’s an interesting category, broadband access. We’ll come back to why that’s so interesting. So Prop 45 would put a timeline on CEQA review for these essential categories I mentioned. It would set a 365 day time limit on environmental reviews for these projects. It would require courts to rule on CEQA related lawsuits within 270 days. And then it also changes some other details. So like here’s an example of one, a government agency that’s overseeing a review. They would need to specify all the information that they’d like to get from the application, from the builder, at the time that it needs to be submitted, rather than going back to the builder again and again and saying, we need more info for this and more info for that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:22] \u003c/em>Who put this on the ballot and why are we as voters being asked to potentially make some changes to CEQA?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:29] \u003c/em>So the California Chamber of Commerce has sponsored this proposition, and they represent businesses, they advocate for them, they lobby for them. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Barrera: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:38] \u003c/em>The CEQA law was well-intentioned, but we have seen, obviously, the law be abused and misused in order to block projects by groups who don’t want to see any development, don’t want to any growth here in California. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:04:50] \u003c/em>Jennifer Barrera is the CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, and she is saying we have an issue with growth, nothing’s affordable here, and this would basically advance projects that they designated as essential more quickly and easily. It would streamline legal challenges, reduce frivolous lawsuits, things like that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jennifer Barrera: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:10] \u003c/em>When we talk about delay, and I’ll keep going back to housing just because it is such an important point of our affordability crisis and a part of this ballot initiative, but when you delay ultimate housing, I mean that creates inequity in our population. That creates losers with regards to those who can’t afford and those who can’t afford. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:28] \u003c/em>Proponents say, you know, you’re still going to have environmental review, we’re just going to put like a shot clock on it, as they say. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:38] \u003c/em>So you mentioned the California Chamber of Commerce. Who else is in favor of this measure?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:05:45] \u003c/em>There are groups that represent places that need to build, like hospitals or some housing organizations and some building industries, like the workers. Also notably, Buffy Wicks, she’s a California Assembly member, and she is one of the people who championed change last year to CEQA. That has exempted housing that is already on developed areas from CEQA review. So that was a major reform that already happened last year. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:17] \u003c/em>We’ll have more on Prop 45 with KQED’s Laura Klivans, right after this break. By the way, did you know that KQED is funded almost entirely by everyday listeners just like you? Consider becoming a sustaining KQED member by going to donate.kqed.org/podcasts. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:46] \u003c/em>So you have some folks who say that these changes to CEQA are necessary in order to address this housing crisis that we’re in, in part. Who is coming out in opposition to this measure and what are their arguments?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:06:59] \u003c/em>There are a bunch of other folks who are against this, like environmental groups, environmental justice groups, health groups, unions that represent teachers and firefighters, for example, are against us. One major argument is that, hey, this is too broad. This is our landmark environmental regulation. Let’s keep it. And state Senator Catherine Blakespear represents northern San Diego and part of Orange County and has come out in opposition. She chairs the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sen. Catherine Blakespear: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:07:27] \u003c/em>It’s really important that California continue to be a bulwark against the backsliding and we continue to fight climate change and to protect our environment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:07:36] \u003c/em>She’s saying it’s going to allow for more homes to be built in something called the wildland urban interface, which is like basically places that butt up against beautiful nature areas, but are therefore very fire prone. And so she and some other state legislators are saying this is a terrible idea. We don’t need to build more housing in those areas. And this would allow for that. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sen. Catherine Blakespear: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:01] \u003c/em>It really just goes way too far and creates these very big loopholes and changes our system of CEQA and our environmental review, which is our landmark environmental laws in California since the 1970s. And it is far, far too broad. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:16] \u003c/em>I think we all know that it takes a long time to build housing in California and that one of the main arguments for Prop 45 is the idea that we need to build more housing more quickly. What about pro-housing or YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) groups? What do they think about this measure? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:08:35] \u003c/em>Yeah, so it’s mixed. There are some housing groups that support Proposition 45. And then, actually, interestingly, this one large group, California YMBY, YIMBY stands for ‘Yes in My Backyard,’ they have come out with no position on this. They are neutral. That’s because they see both reasons to support this measure and reasons to oppose it. And on the one hand, it could fast track sprawl, which is not something they support, so. Maybe it makes it easier to build a highway, makes it easy to build housing that is not in a dense or already populated area. On the other hand, it might make it easier to build clean energy and clean energy infrastructure, which is something that they would support. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:09:23] \u003c/em>So we’ve been talking about CEQA in the context of building more housing, but it of course applies to all kinds of projects in California. And when it comes to Prop 45, there’s actually one specific kind of project that has made its way into the debate and that’s data centers? Can you explain why data centers have become part of the conversation around Prop 45?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:09:48] \u003c/em>Yes, so people who support Prop 45 say this does not apply to data centers. And opponents, people who are saying no to this proposition, they say, oh, but it could. Look at the broadband access category. The language is broad enough that it could be construed to include data centers, Opponents are also saying, listen, the people who wrote this made carve-outs for what it doesn’t make exclusions for. There’s this huge category of transportation And it says in the language that it doesn’t include high-speed rail. There’s a category for clean energy. Also in the Language for Prop 45, it says that doesn’t including nuclear. So if this truly does not include data centers, wouldn’t the people who wrote this get ahead of that and write, this doesn’t included data centers in the language? And the people that wrote it are saying, well, we weren’t thinking of that because broadband access doesn’t includes data centers. That’s just as simple as that. So that is up in the air. And now data centers is such a wild issue now, and it’s really, we’ve seen it explode politically, that that has impacted this proposition. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:10:55] \u003c/em>Enough people are worried about it that they are, I don’t know, seeing data centers in Prop 45 and adding it to the debate, it sounds like. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:03] \u003c/em>Right. Right. And then this is super interesting. So pulling from the Public Policy Institute of California showed support among likely voters was at 73% in July and in September it is 49 percent. In that time, the data center conversation started happening. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:26] \u003c/em>Let’s talk about campaign spending here, Laura. What are we seeing on the pro-Prop 45 side in terms of spending? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:11:35] \u003c/em>There’s a lot of money. When I checked last, over $40 million. We see a lot of Silicon Valley tech people, Google executives, like the former CEO, Eric Schmidt, and more. We also see money coming in from the building trades. And then against, still some money there, $15 million. But this was interesting when I was looking at the money because one of the top donors is Wendy Schmidt, who is married to Eric Schmidt. And she has put $5 million in against Prop 45. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:06] \u003c/em>Laura, thank you so much. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Laura Klivans: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:08] \u003c/em>Thank you for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:13] \u003c/em>In a nutshell, a yes vote on this measure means environmental reviews can be expedited for certain projects. A no vote means projects would continue to use existing project review and court challenge procedures under CEQA. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:30] \u003c/em>We made it to the finish line, y’all. Thanks so much for joining us on this wild ride. We hope you’re feeling more prepared than ever to cast your ballot this November.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:38] \u003c/em>And if you don’t, you can always go back and listen to the entire Prop Fest series again at kqed.org/propfest. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:48] \u003c/em>Do us a favor and send Prop Fest to one friend right now. Word of mouth really helps us grow our shows. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:12:57] \u003c/em>Prop Fest is made possible thanks to Katrina Schwartz Pauline Bartolone Anna Casalme Olivia Allen Price Gabriela Glick Christopher Beale, Alan Montecillo and me, Ericka Cruz Guevarra\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:11] \u003c/em>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Springer, Jen Chien. Ethan Toven Lindsey. And everyone on Team KQED. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:20] \u003c/em>Our show is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Support for the Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. I’m Ericka Cruz Guevara.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>\u003cem>[00:13:42] \u003c/em>And I’m Olivia Allen Price. Good luck with your ballot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>For the past 11 months, Jennifer Sullivan has been anxiously trying to sound an alarm.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059557/esmeralda-courts-locals-as-it-tries-to-learn-from-california-forevers-mistakes\">Esmeralda Land Company\u003c/a> has proposed building a resort hotel, hundreds of homes, an event center, a preschool and a public park on a 266-acre property that once housed a wood treatment plant.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tucked in the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale, the 8-acre plant was known to use harmful chemicals and discharged them into the soil and groundwater, she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sullivan worries that disturbing the site with new development could resurface those chemicals and expose current residents to new harms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is the community that I live in,” Sullivan said. “The decision to approve this development is serious — it’s got serious consequences for our water, for public health.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-25-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102961\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-25-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-25-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-25-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12102956\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102956\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “No Esmeralda” sign is displayed in downtown Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12102955\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102955\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">“Yes on Esmeralda” signs are displayed in Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, the Cloverdale City Council will consider whether to approve the project — one of the largest developments in the city’s recent history — along with its extensive community benefits package and already-completed environmental reviews, essentially clearing the path for its eventual construction. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As it does, however, council members are weighing the homes, jobs and tax revenue such a project might generate against a new wave of concerns from residents over environmental harms. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Esmeralda CEO Devon Zuegel said she generally understands those concerns but argues the project has already undergone extensive environmental reviews. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This site has been studied for over two decades continuously,” Zuegel said. “And if 20 years is not a long enough review, I just don’t understand, is 100 years enough — 25 years? What is the point where it becomes enough?” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, Sullivan isn’t satisfied. And she’s preparing to take the fight to voters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If the city council approves the Esmeralda development as is, Sullivan wants a referendum and said she’ll start collecting signatures to place such a measure on a ballot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Vice Mayor Todd Lands speaks with a resident before a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But some officials are skeptical about how widespread Sullivan’s concerns are among the general population. Vice-Mayor Todd Lands said the opposition might be loud, but he has seen more support for the project through letters from residents and conversations in the community. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’ve noticed it’s about the same 15 to 20 people that have been anti-Esmeralda,” he said. “As the letters start steadily coming in, I’m starting to learn more about how the public actually feels as a whole.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the Cloverdale Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend the council approve Esmeralda’s plan with conditions that seek to address some of Sullivan’s concerns, including requiring the developer to hire a consultant to monitor compliance with all environmental mitigation measures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Officials with the Esmeralda Land Company have hosted several informational town hall meetings with residents since 2024, but Sullivan said she didn’t hear about it until last winter. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The scale of the project surprised her, she said, particularly the fact that Esmeralda wants to build a resort hotel with up to 160 rooms and more than 600 homes on site. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102957\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A mural in downtown Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“This would be a luxury hotel and, when you live in a small town, you’re like ‘Wow, that’s a lot of people, this is a big change,’” she said. “I just started doing some research into the property itself, and then that’s when I went down the rabbit hole.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sullivan began pulling records on the site’s history and looking into environmental mitigation reports. She started a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/2111526989254995/\">Facebook page\u003c/a> for opponents of the project and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/defend-cloverdale-from-esmeraldas-shortcuts\">GoFundMe campaign\u003c/a> to hire a land use attorney who could push the city to require more environmental reviews.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For her, it’s personal, she said. When she was 38, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. While medical research has found that genetics play a large role in cases, environmental factors play a role too. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The environment that we live in has a huge impact on our health,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>About 8 acres of the property where Esmeralda hopes to build was previously used as a wood treatment plant, which closed in 1976. Following the closure, state agencies and the site’s owners spent the next several decades remediating the area and the groundwater below.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12103228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103228\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jennifer Sullivan speaks with a fellow resident at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building before a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12103227\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103227\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2009, a different developer proposed the Alexander Valley Resort. Like Esmeralda’s proposal, the project included a hotel, spa, fitness center, offices and shops, but it envisioned an 18-hole golf course and less open space. Though the developer eventually abandoned the project, city officials had \u003ca href=\"https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2003072142/4\">approved \u003c/a>environmental reviews and cleared it for construction. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As part of the site’s ongoing remediation efforts, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cloverdale.net/DocumentCenter/View/6953/EIR-Addendum\">North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a certification\u003c/a> in 2012 verifying that the site had been decontaminated of hazardous waste. The following year, state agencies sectioned off the portion used as a wood treatment plant, along with a 14.5-acre buffer zone, and prohibited any schools, homes, hospitals or day care centers from ever being built there. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Esmeralda officials felt their project was similar, if not better for the environment than the previous project, partly because it would use less water, would have more dense housing and had more open space. They even conducted their own environmental reviews, including studying how to protect existing animals, habitats and rare plant species on site. The project’s design made sure to avoid building any homes, schools or day care centers on the previously contaminated land. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Esmeralda submitted an addendum environmental impact report — a narrower version of the full report — that’s used “when there’s been small tweaks or changes to a particular project,” according to Tamara Galanter, an environmental attorney at the law firm Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The only time you can do an addendum is if there’s no new information,” Galanter said, adding that, in order for a project to qualify, “There [can’t be any] changes to the project that will result in a new significant environmental impact.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sullivan argues that Esmeralda’s project shouldn’t qualify because it’s too different from the Alexander Valley Resort to rely on the same reviews. Esmeralda would include significantly more homes, a senior living center and potentially a K-6 school. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Esmeralda is majorly different from the Alexander Valley Resort,” she said. “I believed from the start, I was like, ‘They should be doing a newer updated [environmental report].’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the decision on whether a project requires an addendum or a full environmental review is determined by the city, said Chris Elmendorf, a land use law professor at the University of California at Davis. And courts have historically sided with the city’s determination of what is appropriate for a project, he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s a gray area,” Elmendorf said. “If there’s reasonable arguments both ways about whether there’s substantial new information or a substantial change in the project with implications to the environment, cities get the benefit of the doubt.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During the Planning Commission’s meeting, city staff made it clear they felt an addendum was sufficient. That document had been rigorously reviewed by a city-hired consultant, who found Esmeralda’s project would not introduce any new significant environmental effects. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But it was also clear many residents didn’t agree with that finding and that Sullivan’s skepticism had seeped into public opinion. Many residents demanded more environmental reviews, and some pointed to Sullivan’s Facebook page as a place they turned to for information about the project. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cloverdale resident Nancy Brown said, originally, she really liked Esmeralda’s plan and was excited about the project’s fancy hotel, spa and restaurants. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We can use the revenue in this town, but when Jennifer Sullivan posted all the information about the site being contaminated, it all changed,” Brown said. “It’s our health and safety. We’re 100% invested in that. So we demand a new [environmental review].”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While commissioners ultimately recommended approving the project, they conditioned it on a number of requests, including a new recycled water study and a requirement for routine soil testing, among other items. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Zuegel said she’s sympathetic — to an extent. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102962\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Esmeralda Land Company founder and president Devon Zuegel speaks during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“You definitely don’t want people to be building, especially homes, on a property that is dirty,” she said. “But that’s why California has such high standards for environmental cleanup; it’s to protect people and to protect the environment.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What’s more, she said, is that her project is a form of “brownfield development,” where a developer takes old commercial or industrial land and redevelops it “for higher and better use.” The alternatives would be to develop the project on pristine agricultural land or to develop it within a city, which she said could displace businesses or residents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Brownfield is considered amazing,” Zuegel said. “When you do the development, you end up cleaning [the land] to much higher standards than if you weren’t going to be redeveloping it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Many Cloverdale residents agree and are urging the city council to ultimately approve the project. Jon Lambert has lived in Cloverdale for the past 20 years. This spring, he started his own Facebook page, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761744191457347\">Hello Esmeralda\u003c/a>, with hopes that it would be a neutral space where residents could share information. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102954\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jon Lambert, a Cloverdale resident who supports the proposed Esmeralda development, sits in his front yard in Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Personally, Lambert is a big supporter and worries the city might miss out on a great opportunity if officials don’t approve the project.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Something like this may not come around again, and if it does come around again, it may be something that is not a good fit for Cloverdale,” he said. “What Esmeralda wants to do right now is the best possible thing that you could do with that piece of land, including not leaving it vacant.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Councilmember Andrés Marquez said that in his conversations with people on both sides, he’s found it’s not so black-and-white. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Just because somebody says they’re for the project doesn’t mean they’re for all the concessions the city might give,” he said. “If somebody says that they are against the project, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want any of this to happen, but they might feel they want certain protections in place.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Marquez said Wednesday’s council meeting is going to be about compromise. “What is the right thing to do for the residents of Cloverdale?”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059557/esmeralda-courts-locals-as-it-tries-to-learn-from-california-forevers-mistakes\">Esmeralda Land Company\u003c/a> has proposed building a resort hotel, hundreds of homes, an event center, a preschool and a public park on a 266-acre property that once housed a wood treatment plant.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Tucked in the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale, the 8-acre plant was known to use harmful chemicals and discharged them into the soil and groundwater, she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This is the community that I live in,” Sullivan said. “The decision to approve this development is serious — it’s got serious consequences for our water, for public health.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102955\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">“Yes on Esmeralda” signs are displayed in Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102955\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">“Yes on Esmeralda” signs are displayed in Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, the Cloverdale City Council will consider whether to approve the project — one of the largest developments in the city’s recent history — along with its extensive community benefits package and already-completed environmental reviews, essentially clearing the path for its eventual construction. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, the Cloverdale City Council will consider whether to approve the project — one of the largest developments in the city’s recent history — along with its extensive community benefits package and already-completed environmental reviews, essentially clearing the path for its eventual construction. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As it does, however, council members are weighing the homes, jobs and tax revenue such a project might generate against a new wave of concerns from residents over environmental harms. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Esmeralda CEO Devon Zuegel said she generally understands those concerns but argues the project has already undergone extensive environmental reviews. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This site has been studied for over two decades continuously,” Zuegel said. “And if 20 years is not a long enough review, I just don’t understand, is 100 years enough — 25 years? What is the point where it becomes enough?” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“This site has been studied for over two decades continuously,” Zuegel said. “And if 20 years is not a long enough review, I just don’t understand, is 100 years enough — 25 years? What is the point where it becomes enough?” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Still, Sullivan isn’t satisfied. And she’s preparing to take the fight to voters.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If the city council approves the Esmeralda development as is, Sullivan wants a referendum and said she’ll start collecting signatures to place such a measure on a ballot.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Vice Mayor Todd Lands speaks with a resident before a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But some officials are skeptical about how widespread Sullivan’s concerns are among the general population. Vice-Mayor Todd Lands said the opposition might be loud, but he has seen more support for the project through letters from residents and conversations in the community. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But some officials are skeptical about how widespread Sullivan’s concerns are among the general population. Vice-Mayor Todd Lands said the opposition might be loud, but he has seen more support for the project through letters from residents and conversations in the community. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’ve noticed it’s about the same 15 to 20 people that have been anti-Esmeralda,” he said. “As the letters start steadily coming in, I’m starting to learn more about how the public actually feels as a whole.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I’ve noticed it’s about the same 15 to 20 people that have been anti-Esmeralda,” he said. “As the letters start steadily coming in, I’m starting to learn more about how the public actually feels as a whole.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the Cloverdale Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend the council approve Esmeralda’s plan with conditions that seek to address some of Sullivan’s concerns, including requiring the developer to hire a consultant to monitor compliance with all environmental mitigation measures.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the Cloverdale Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend the council approve Esmeralda’s plan with conditions that seek to address some of Sullivan’s concerns, including requiring the developer to hire a consultant to monitor compliance with all environmental mitigation measures.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Officials with the Esmeralda Land Company have hosted several informational town hall meetings with residents since 2024, but Sullivan said she didn’t hear about it until last winter. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The scale of the project surprised her, she said, particularly the fact that Esmeralda wants to build a resort hotel with up to 160 rooms and more than 600 homes on site. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102957\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A mural in downtown Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102957\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A mural in downtown Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“This would be a luxury hotel and, when you live in a small town, you’re like ‘Wow, that’s a lot of people, this is a big change,’” she said. “I just started doing some research into the property itself, and then that’s when I went down the rabbit hole.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sullivan began pulling records on the site’s history and looking into environmental mitigation reports. She started a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/2111526989254995/\">Facebook page\u003c/a> for opponents of the project and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/defend-cloverdale-from-esmeraldas-shortcuts\">GoFundMe campaign\u003c/a> to hire a land use attorney who could push the city to require more environmental reviews.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Sullivan began pulling records on the site’s history and looking into environmental mitigation reports. She started a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/2111526989254995/\">Facebook page\u003c/a> for opponents of the project and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/defend-cloverdale-from-esmeraldas-shortcuts\">GoFundMe campaign\u003c/a> to hire a land use attorney who could push the city to require more environmental reviews.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For her, it’s personal, she said. When she was 38, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. While medical research has found that genetics play a large role in cases, environmental factors play a role too. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For her, it’s personal, she said. When she was 38, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. While medical research has found that genetics play a large role in cases, environmental factors play a role too. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>About 8 acres of the property where Esmeralda hopes to build was previously used as a wood treatment plant, which closed in 1976. Following the closure, state agencies and the site’s owners spent the next several decades remediating the area and the groundwater below.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103228\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jennifer Sullivan speaks with a fellow resident at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building before a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103227\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 2009, a different developer proposed the Alexander Valley Resort. Like Esmeralda’s proposal, the project included a hotel, spa, fitness center, offices and shops, but it envisioned an 18-hole golf course and less open space. Though the developer eventually abandoned the project, city officials had \u003ca href=\"https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2003072142/4\">approved \u003c/a>environmental reviews and cleared it for construction. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 2009, a different developer proposed the Alexander Valley Resort. Like Esmeralda’s proposal, the project included a hotel, spa, fitness center, offices and shops, but it envisioned an 18-hole golf course and less open space. Though the developer eventually abandoned the project, city officials had \u003ca href=\"https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2003072142/4\">approved \u003c/a>environmental reviews and cleared it for construction. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As part of the site’s ongoing remediation efforts, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cloverdale.net/DocumentCenter/View/6953/EIR-Addendum\">North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a certification\u003c/a> in 2012 verifying that the site had been decontaminated of hazardous waste. The following year, state agencies sectioned off the portion used as a wood treatment plant, along with a 14.5-acre buffer zone, and prohibited any schools, homes, hospitals or day care centers from ever being built there. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As part of the site’s ongoing remediation efforts, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cloverdale.net/DocumentCenter/View/6953/EIR-Addendum\">North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a certification\u003c/a> in 2012 verifying that the site had been decontaminated of hazardous waste. The following year, state agencies sectioned off the portion used as a wood treatment plant, along with a 14.5-acre buffer zone, and prohibited any schools, homes, hospitals or day care centers from ever being built there. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Esmeralda officials felt their project was similar, if not better for the environment than the previous project, partly because it would use less water, would have more dense housing and had more open space. They even conducted their own environmental reviews, including studying how to protect existing animals, habitats and rare plant species on site. The project’s design made sure to avoid building any homes, schools or day care centers on the previously contaminated land. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Esmeralda officials felt their project was similar, if not better for the environment than the previous project, partly because it would use less water, would have more dense housing and had more open space. They even conducted their own environmental reviews, including studying how to protect existing animals, habitats and rare plant species on site. The project’s design made sure to avoid building any homes, schools or day care centers on the previously contaminated land. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Esmeralda submitted an addendum environmental impact report — a narrower version of the full report — that’s used “when there’s been small tweaks or changes to a particular project,” according to Tamara Galanter, an environmental attorney at the law firm Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The only time you can do an addendum is if there’s no new information,” Galanter said, adding that, in order for a project to qualify, “There [can’t be any] changes to the project that will result in a new significant environmental impact.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sullivan argues that Esmeralda’s project shouldn’t qualify because it’s too different from the Alexander Valley Resort to rely on the same reviews. Esmeralda would include significantly more homes, a senior living center and potentially a K-6 school. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Sullivan argues that Esmeralda’s project shouldn’t qualify because it’s too different from the Alexander Valley Resort to rely on the same reviews. Esmeralda would include significantly more homes, a senior living center and potentially a K-6 school. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Esmeralda is majorly different from the Alexander Valley Resort,” she said. “I believed from the start, I was like, ‘They should be doing a newer updated [environmental report].’” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Esmeralda is majorly different from the Alexander Valley Resort,” she said. “I believed from the start, I was like, ‘They should be doing a newer updated [environmental report].’” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the decision on whether a project requires an addendum or a full environmental review is determined by the city, said Chris Elmendorf, a land use law professor at the University of California at Davis. And courts have historically sided with the city’s determination of what is appropriate for a project, he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But the decision on whether a project requires an addendum or a full environmental review is determined by the city, said Chris Elmendorf, a land use law professor at the University of California at Davis. And courts have historically sided with the city’s determination of what is appropriate for a project, he said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s a gray area,” Elmendorf said. “If there’s reasonable arguments both ways about whether there’s substantial new information or a substantial change in the project with implications to the environment, cities get the benefit of the doubt.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It’s a gray area,” Elmendorf said. “If there’s reasonable arguments both ways about whether there’s substantial new information or a substantial change in the project with implications to the environment, cities get the benefit of the doubt.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>During the Planning Commission’s meeting, city staff made it clear they felt an addendum was sufficient. That document had been rigorously reviewed by a city-hired consultant, who found Esmeralda’s project would not introduce any new significant environmental effects. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>During the Planning Commission’s meeting, city staff made it clear they felt an addendum was sufficient. That document had been rigorously reviewed by a city-hired consultant, who found Esmeralda’s project would not introduce any new significant environmental effects. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102960\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But it was also clear many residents didn’t agree with that finding and that Sullivan’s skepticism had seeped into public opinion. Many residents demanded more environmental reviews, and some pointed to Sullivan’s Facebook page as a place they turned to for information about the project. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But it was also clear many residents didn’t agree with that finding and that Sullivan’s skepticism had seeped into public opinion. Many residents demanded more environmental reviews, and some pointed to Sullivan’s Facebook page as a place they turned to for information about the project. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Cloverdale resident Nancy Brown said, originally, she really liked Esmeralda’s plan and was excited about the project’s fancy hotel, spa and restaurants. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Cloverdale resident Nancy Brown said, originally, she really liked Esmeralda’s plan and was excited about the project’s fancy hotel, spa and restaurants. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We can use the revenue in this town, but when Jennifer Sullivan posted all the information about the site being contaminated, it all changed,” Brown said. “It’s our health and safety. We’re 100% invested in that. So we demand a new [environmental review].”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We can use the revenue in this town, but when Jennifer Sullivan posted all the information about the site being contaminated, it all changed,” Brown said. “It’s our health and safety. We’re 100% invested in that. So we demand a new [environmental review].”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While commissioners ultimately recommended approving the project, they conditioned it on a number of requests, including a new recycled water study and a requirement for routine soil testing, among other items. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>While commissioners ultimately recommended approving the project, they conditioned it on a number of requests, including a new recycled water study and a requirement for routine soil testing, among other items. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Zuegel said she’s sympathetic — to an extent. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Zuegel said she’s sympathetic — to an extent. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102962\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Esmeralda Land Company founder and president Devon Zuegel speaks during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102962\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Esmeralda Land Company founder and president Devon Zuegel speaks during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You definitely don’t want people to be building, especially homes, on a property that is dirty,” she said. “But that’s why California has such high standards for environmental cleanup; it’s to protect people and to protect the environment.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“You definitely don’t want people to be building, especially homes, on a property that is dirty,” she said. “But that’s why California has such high standards for environmental cleanup; it’s to protect people and to protect the environment.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>What’s more, she said, is that her project is a form of “brownfield development,” where a developer takes old commercial or industrial land and redevelops it “for higher and better use.” The alternatives would be to develop the project on pristine agricultural land or to develop it within a city, which she said could displace businesses or residents. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>What’s more, she said, is that her project is a form of “brownfield development,” where a developer takes old commercial or industrial land and redevelops it “for higher and better use.” The alternatives would be to develop the project on pristine agricultural land or to develop it within a city, which she said could displace businesses or residents. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Brownfield is considered amazing,” Zuegel said. “When you do the development, you end up cleaning [the land] to much higher standards than if you weren’t going to be redeveloping it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Brownfield is considered amazing,” Zuegel said. “When you do the development, you end up cleaning [the land] to much higher standards than if you weren’t going to be redeveloping it.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Many Cloverdale residents agree and are urging the city council to ultimately approve the project. Jon Lambert has lived in Cloverdale for the past 20 years. This spring, he started his own Facebook page, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761744191457347\">Hello Esmeralda\u003c/a>, with hopes that it would be a neutral space where residents could share information. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Many Cloverdale residents agree and are urging the city council to ultimately approve the project. Jon Lambert has lived in Cloverdale for the past 20 years. This spring, he started his own Facebook page, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761744191457347\">Hello Esmeralda\u003c/a>, with hopes that it would be a neutral space where residents could share information. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102954\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jon Lambert, a Cloverdale resident who supports the proposed Esmeralda development, sits in his front yard in Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102954\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jon Lambert, a Cloverdale resident who supports the proposed Esmeralda development, sits in his front yard in Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Personally, Lambert is a big supporter and worries the city might miss out on a great opportunity if officials don’t approve the project.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Something like this may not come around again, and if it does come around again, it may be something that is not a good fit for Cloverdale,” he said. “What Esmeralda wants to do right now is the best possible thing that you could do with that piece of land, including not leaving it vacant.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Something like this may not come around again, and if it does come around again, it may be something that is not a good fit for Cloverdale,” he said. “What Esmeralda wants to do right now is the best possible thing that you could do with that piece of land, including not leaving it vacant.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Councilmember Andrés Marquez said that in his conversations with people on both sides, he’s found it’s not so black-and-white. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Councilmember Andrés Marquez said that in his conversations with people on both sides, he’s found it’s not so black-and-white. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Just because somebody says they’re for the project doesn’t mean they’re for all the concessions the city might give,” he said. “If somebody says that they are against the project, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want any of this to happen, but they might feel they want certain protections in place.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Just because somebody says they’re for the project doesn’t mean they’re for all the concessions the city might give,” he said. “If somebody says that they are against the project, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want any of this to happen, but they might feel they want certain protections in place.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Marquez said Wednesday’s council meeting is going to be about compromise. “What is the right thing to do for the residents of Cloverdale?”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Marquez said Wednesday’s council meeting is going to be about compromise. “What is the right thing to do for the residents of Cloverdale?”\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "The Cloverdale City Council will vote Wednesday on whether to approve Esmeralda, a controversial event center and new neighborhood in the small Sonoma County town that’s faced a recent wave of backlash over concerns that the site is contaminated.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>For the past 11 months, Jennifer Sullivan has been anxiously trying to sound an alarm.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12059557/esmeralda-courts-locals-as-it-tries-to-learn-from-california-forevers-mistakes\">Esmeralda Land Company\u003c/a> has proposed building a resort hotel, hundreds of homes, an event center, a preschool and a public park on a 266-acre property that once housed a wood treatment plant.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tucked in the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale, the 8-acre plant was known to use harmful chemicals and discharged them into the soil and groundwater, she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sullivan worries that disturbing the site with new development could resurface those chemicals and expose current residents to new harms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is the community that I live in,” Sullivan said. “The decision to approve this development is serious — it’s got serious consequences for our water, for public health.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-25-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102961\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-25-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-25-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-25-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12102956\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102956\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “No Esmeralda” sign is displayed in downtown Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12102955\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102955\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">“Yes on Esmeralda” signs are displayed in Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, the Cloverdale City Council will consider whether to approve the project — one of the largest developments in the city’s recent history — along with its extensive community benefits package and already-completed environmental reviews, essentially clearing the path for its eventual construction. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As it does, however, council members are weighing the homes, jobs and tax revenue such a project might generate against a new wave of concerns from residents over environmental harms. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Esmeralda CEO Devon Zuegel said she generally understands those concerns but argues the project has already undergone extensive environmental reviews. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This site has been studied for over two decades continuously,” Zuegel said. “And if 20 years is not a long enough review, I just don’t understand, is 100 years enough — 25 years? What is the point where it becomes enough?” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Still, Sullivan isn’t satisfied. And she’s preparing to take the fight to voters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If the city council approves the Esmeralda development as is, Sullivan wants a referendum and said she’ll start collecting signatures to place such a measure on a ballot.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103230\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-17-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Vice Mayor Todd Lands speaks with a resident before a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But some officials are skeptical about how widespread Sullivan’s concerns are among the general population. Vice-Mayor Todd Lands said the opposition might be loud, but he has seen more support for the project through letters from residents and conversations in the community. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’ve noticed it’s about the same 15 to 20 people that have been anti-Esmeralda,” he said. “As the letters start steadily coming in, I’m starting to learn more about how the public actually feels as a whole.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, the Cloverdale Planning Commission voted 4-1 to recommend the council approve Esmeralda’s plan with conditions that seek to address some of Sullivan’s concerns, including requiring the developer to hire a consultant to monitor compliance with all environmental mitigation measures.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Officials with the Esmeralda Land Company have hosted several informational town hall meetings with residents since 2024, but Sullivan said she didn’t hear about it until last winter. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The scale of the project surprised her, she said, particularly the fact that Esmeralda wants to build a resort hotel with up to 160 rooms and more than 600 homes on site. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102957\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A mural in downtown Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“This would be a luxury hotel and, when you live in a small town, you’re like ‘Wow, that’s a lot of people, this is a big change,’” she said. “I just started doing some research into the property itself, and then that’s when I went down the rabbit hole.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sullivan began pulling records on the site’s history and looking into environmental mitigation reports. She started a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/2111526989254995/\">Facebook page\u003c/a> for opponents of the project and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/defend-cloverdale-from-esmeraldas-shortcuts\">GoFundMe campaign\u003c/a> to hire a land use attorney who could push the city to require more environmental reviews.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For her, it’s personal, she said. When she was 38, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. While medical research has found that genetics play a large role in cases, environmental factors play a role too. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The environment that we live in has a huge impact on our health,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>About 8 acres of the property where Esmeralda hopes to build was previously used as a wood treatment plant, which closed in 1976. Following the closure, state agencies and the site’s owners spent the next several decades remediating the area and the groundwater below.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-2 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12103228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103228\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-22-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jennifer Sullivan speaks with a fellow resident at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building before a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12103227\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103227\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-EsmeraldaProject-34-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 2009, a different developer proposed the Alexander Valley Resort. Like Esmeralda’s proposal, the project included a hotel, spa, fitness center, offices and shops, but it envisioned an 18-hole golf course and less open space. Though the developer eventually abandoned the project, city officials had \u003ca href=\"https://ceqanet.lci.ca.gov/2003072142/4\">approved \u003c/a>environmental reviews and cleared it for construction. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As part of the site’s ongoing remediation efforts, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cloverdale.net/DocumentCenter/View/6953/EIR-Addendum\">North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a certification\u003c/a> in 2012 verifying that the site had been decontaminated of hazardous waste. The following year, state agencies sectioned off the portion used as a wood treatment plant, along with a 14.5-acre buffer zone, and prohibited any schools, homes, hospitals or day care centers from ever being built there. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Esmeralda officials felt their project was similar, if not better for the environment than the previous project, partly because it would use less water, would have more dense housing and had more open space. They even conducted their own environmental reviews, including studying how to protect existing animals, habitats and rare plant species on site. The project’s design made sure to avoid building any homes, schools or day care centers on the previously contaminated land. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Esmeralda submitted an addendum environmental impact report — a narrower version of the full report — that’s used “when there’s been small tweaks or changes to a particular project,” according to Tamara Galanter, an environmental attorney at the law firm Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The only time you can do an addendum is if there’s no new information,” Galanter said, adding that, in order for a project to qualify, “There [can’t be any] changes to the project that will result in a new significant environmental impact.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sullivan argues that Esmeralda’s project shouldn’t qualify because it’s too different from the Alexander Valley Resort to rely on the same reviews. Esmeralda would include significantly more homes, a senior living center and potentially a K-6 school. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Esmeralda is majorly different from the Alexander Valley Resort,” she said. “I believed from the start, I was like, ‘They should be doing a newer updated [environmental report].’” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the decision on whether a project requires an addendum or a full environmental review is determined by the city, said Chris Elmendorf, a land use law professor at the University of California at Davis. And courts have historically sided with the city’s determination of what is appropriate for a project, he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s a gray area,” Elmendorf said. “If there’s reasonable arguments both ways about whether there’s substantial new information or a substantial change in the project with implications to the environment, cities get the benefit of the doubt.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During the Planning Commission’s meeting, city staff made it clear they felt an addendum was sufficient. That document had been rigorously reviewed by a city-hired consultant, who found Esmeralda’s project would not introduce any new significant environmental effects. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102960\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-23-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Attendees listen to speakers during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But it was also clear many residents didn’t agree with that finding and that Sullivan’s skepticism had seeped into public opinion. Many residents demanded more environmental reviews, and some pointed to Sullivan’s Facebook page as a place they turned to for information about the project. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Cloverdale resident Nancy Brown said, originally, she really liked Esmeralda’s plan and was excited about the project’s fancy hotel, spa and restaurants. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We can use the revenue in this town, but when Jennifer Sullivan posted all the information about the site being contaminated, it all changed,” Brown said. “It’s our health and safety. We’re 100% invested in that. So we demand a new [environmental review].”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While commissioners ultimately recommended approving the project, they conditioned it on a number of requests, including a new recycled water study and a requirement for routine soil testing, among other items. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Zuegel said she’s sympathetic — to an extent. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102962\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-29-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Esmeralda Land Company founder and president Devon Zuegel speaks during a Planning Commission public hearing on the proposed Esmeralda development at the Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“You definitely don’t want people to be building, especially homes, on a property that is dirty,” she said. “But that’s why California has such high standards for environmental cleanup; it’s to protect people and to protect the environment.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>What’s more, she said, is that her project is a form of “brownfield development,” where a developer takes old commercial or industrial land and redevelops it “for higher and better use.” The alternatives would be to develop the project on pristine agricultural land or to develop it within a city, which she said could displace businesses or residents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Brownfield is considered amazing,” Zuegel said. “When you do the development, you end up cleaning [the land] to much higher standards than if you weren’t going to be redeveloping it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Many Cloverdale residents agree and are urging the city council to ultimately approve the project. Jon Lambert has lived in Cloverdale for the past 20 years. This spring, he started his own Facebook page, called \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/1761744191457347\">Hello Esmeralda\u003c/a>, with hopes that it would be a neutral space where residents could share information. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102954\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261001-ESMERALDAPROJECT-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Jon Lambert, a Cloverdale resident who supports the proposed Esmeralda development, sits in his front yard in Cloverdale on Oct. 1, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>Personally, Lambert is a big supporter and worries the city might miss out on a great opportunity if officials don’t approve the project.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Something like this may not come around again, and if it does come around again, it may be something that is not a good fit for Cloverdale,” he said. “What Esmeralda wants to do right now is the best possible thing that you could do with that piece of land, including not leaving it vacant.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Councilmember Andrés Marquez said that in his conversations with people on both sides, he’s found it’s not so black-and-white. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Just because somebody says they’re for the project doesn’t mean they’re for all the concessions the city might give,” he said. “If somebody says that they are against the project, it doesn’t mean that they don’t want any of this to happen, but they might feel they want certain protections in place.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Marquez said Wednesday’s council meeting is going to be about compromise. “What is the right thing to do for the residents of Cloverdale?”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "menlo-park-could-face-millions-in-fines-in-housing-fight",
"title": "Menlo Park Could Face Millions in Fines in Housing Fight",
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"headTitle": "Menlo Park Could Face Millions in Fines in Housing Fight | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>A San Francisco developer is suing Menlo Park, hoping to force the city to approve a proposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101341/congressman-calls-for-investigation-of-russian-owned-silicon-valley-site\">high-rise development\u003c/a> with hundreds of residences, retail and office space and a hotel, on the site of the former Sunset Magazine headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court late last week, asks a judge to require the wealthy Peninsula enclave to greenlight the project under the authority of a bevy of state housing laws passed in recent years meant to increase production of homes and limit local officials’ ability to thwart them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The legal battle could expose the city to several million dollars in fines under some of the newest state housing laws, and could also serve as a cautionary tale to other municipalities about the penalties for running afoul of California’s web of housing regulations aimed at combating a decadeslong housing shortage and affordability crisis. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Office has already weighed in on the fight, warning Menlo Park in a July letter that it has mishandled the project application from N17 Development and violated state housing laws in the process, which the city has rebuffed. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We regret having to bring this lawsuit, but we had no choice given the city has done nothing but throw roadblocks in our way to delay and deny the project, arrogantly breaking state housing laws,” Oisín Heneghan, the founder of N17, said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102903\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An aerial rendering shows what the proposed Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The property, which once served as a physical link to the California suburban lifestyle that was for years depicted in the pages of Sunset, has drawn recent scrutiny from South Bay \u003ca href=\"https://liccardo.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/liccardo.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/quill-letter-l39585-80-willow-road-development-letter-to-treasury-version-1-09-23-2026-08-51-pm.pdf\">Rep. Sam Liccardo\u003c/a>, because he said it is owned by a “Russian oligarch,” and could be used to store ill-gotten wealth or evade sanctions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But even before Liccardo raised those concerns about owner Vitaly Yusufov, son of a former Russian energy minister, the project sparked years of controversy in the small Peninsula city because of its massive size and height, which many residents and elected officials said was inappropriate for the area.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Heneghan’s company is proposing to demolish the existing buildings to create a mixed-use project with a total of 665 apartments or condos, with roughly 100 of them to be priced below market-rate, along with 332,000 square feet of office space, 17,000 square feet of retail space and a 130-room hotel.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The tallest buildings in the plans would range from 301 feet to as high as 458 feet, according to the city. The project, called Willow Park, would be built on a 6.7-acre piece of land at 80 Willow Road that sits at the corner of Middlefield Road and backs up to San Francisquito Creek.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The project was proposed in late 2023 under a unique provision of state law known as the “Builder’s Remedy,” which allows developers to bypass most local discretionary review and have a project fast-tracked when a city or county hasn’t received certification of its long-term housing plan from the state. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lawsuit claims the project should be considered “by right” and eligible for a streamlined review by city planners, and is also eligible for a series of waivers and concessions that would brush aside local development requirements like height limits, because it provides enough affordable housing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1126\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A digital rendering shows what a pool deck area in a portion of the Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“In other words, the city is not permitted to say no to the project. Yet over the course of nearly three years, the city has repeatedly refused to comply with state housing reform laws with respect to the project, drawing admonishments from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Attorney General,” the lawsuit said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“While its elected officials have talked a good game, Menlo Park is actually one of the most hostile cities to building new and affordable housing in the nation,” Heneghan said in the statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, echoing in part Bonta’s July letter, said the city unlawfully changed its reasoning at different points in the review process to deny the project a streamlined approval. It seeks a refund of roughly $300,000 in legal fees the city asked the developer to pay in connection with the review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Under AB 712, which went into effect in January, if a city loses a court battle over a housing application debating state housing reform laws, after receiving a notice like the one Menlo Park did from Bonta, the courts must impose fines of $10,000 per housing unit in the project against the city, and potentially more under other provisions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That could mean at least $6.65 million in fines for Menlo Park, a city with a population of only 32,000 and a roughly $90 million annual budget. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis, said if Menlo Park loses the case, it would make the risks of the newest housing laws “much more vivid” for leaders around California. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That will be a huge warning shot to all cities,” Elmendorf said. “Once the Attorney General or [the California Housing and Community Development Department] gets that letter in the record, you are at serious risk of big-time fiscal consequences.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Heneghan’s company has tried to negotiate with the city over a path forward until recently, but he claims the city has rejected those efforts. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mayor Betsy Nash said the city strongly disagrees with Bonta and Heneghan that the project is eligible for streamlined review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We are not rejecting the project. We are continuing our review in the standard way,” she said in an interview. Nash noted that the city selected a consultant to do an environmental impact report for the project, costs for which are typically footed by the developer. She said N17 has declined to pay for the EIR, which has contributed to the stalled review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We believe on such a massive project that is on the banks of an environmentally sensitive creek with major impacts to our infrastructure, that we need to go through the regular environmental impact review process,” Nash said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The city leaders also believe the project is not considered a housing project under recently updated state laws because it includes hotel space. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After a Sept. 29 closed session meeting of the council, the city manager sent an Oct. 1 response letter to Bonta, disagreeing with his office’s interpretation, and taking issue with his office sending a warning notice that “unlocks potentially catastrophic financial penalties against the city” without visiting the site. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The letter also said the city does not believe the project from N17 will help stem the housing crisis. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1230\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/2-v07-scaled-e1791329526834.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103248\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A digital rendering of what the proposed Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“There is no doubt that the vast majority of the housing in this project would\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>be affordable only to the very wealthiest residents of the Bay Area,” the letter said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>From 2015-23, the city built or approved 2,349 homes, exceeding its state-mandated housing goals in all income categories except moderate, where it built or approved about three-fourths of what was needed. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the current 2023-31 housing cycle, the state tasked the city with building or approving nearly 3,000 homes. Menlo Park had hit about 40% of that overall goal at the end of last year, though for homes in lower-income categories, it had achieved less than 30% of the goal, and less than 20% for very low-income homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While the legal wrangling over the details of the Willow Park project and the timing around certain housing laws is very specific to this case, Elmendorf said the issue helps illustrate how far the pendulum has swung in the state for housing production.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The fact that a project that five years ago would have been seen as preposterous is now a project that Menlo Park is very much on its back foot in trying to fend off, and stands to lose a ton of money on in court,” he said, “is a testament to how the legislature and officialdom generally within the state government has come to view the appropriate balance between local control and the state’s interest in the need for more housing.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A San Francisco developer is suing Menlo Park, hoping to force the city to approve a proposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101341/congressman-calls-for-investigation-of-russian-owned-silicon-valley-site\">high-rise development\u003c/a> with hundreds of residences, retail and office space and a hotel, on the site of the former Sunset Magazine headquarters.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court late last week, asks a judge to require the wealthy Peninsula enclave to greenlight the project under the authority of a bevy of state housing laws passed in recent years meant to increase production of homes and limit local officials’ ability to thwart them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court late last week, asks a judge to require the wealthy Peninsula enclave to greenlight the project under the authority of a bevy of state housing laws passed in recent years meant to increase production of homes and limit local officials’ ability to thwart them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The legal battle could expose the city to several million dollars in fines under some of the newest state housing laws, and could also serve as a cautionary tale to other municipalities about the penalties for running afoul of California’s web of housing regulations aimed at combating a decadeslong housing shortage and affordability crisis. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The legal battle could expose the city to several million dollars in fines under some of the newest state housing laws, and could also serve as a cautionary tale to other municipalities about the penalties for running afoul of California’s web of housing regulations aimed at combating a decadeslong housing shortage and affordability crisis. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Office has already weighed in on the fight, warning Menlo Park in a July letter that it has mishandled the project application from N17 Development and violated state housing laws in the process, which the city has rebuffed. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Office has already weighed in on the fight, warning Menlo Park in a July letter that it has mishandled the project application from N17 Development and violated state housing laws in the process, which the city has rebuffed. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We regret having to bring this lawsuit, but we had no choice given the city has done nothing but throw roadblocks in our way to delay and deny the project, arrogantly breaking state housing laws,” Oisín Heneghan, the founder of N17, said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We regret having to bring this lawsuit, but we had no choice given the city has done nothing but throw roadblocks in our way to delay and deny the project, arrogantly breaking state housing laws,” Oisín Heneghan, the founder of N17, said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102903\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An aerial rendering shows what the proposed Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102903\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An aerial rendering shows what the proposed Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The property, which once served as a physical link to the California suburban lifestyle that was for years depicted in the pages of Sunset, has drawn recent scrutiny from South Bay \u003ca href=\"https://liccardo.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/liccardo.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/quill-letter-l39585-80-willow-road-development-letter-to-treasury-version-1-09-23-2026-08-51-pm.pdf\">Rep. Sam Liccardo\u003c/a>, because he said it is owned by a “Russian oligarch,” and could be used to store ill-gotten wealth or evade sanctions.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The property, which once served as a physical link to the California suburban lifestyle that was for years depicted in the pages of Sunset, has drawn recent scrutiny from South Bay \u003ca href=\"https://liccardo.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/liccardo.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/quill-letter-l39585-80-willow-road-development-letter-to-treasury-version-1-09-23-2026-08-51-pm.pdf\">Rep. Sam Liccardo\u003c/a>, because he said it is owned by a “Russian oligarch,” and could be used to store ill-gotten wealth or evade sanctions.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But even before Liccardo raised those concerns about owner Vitaly Yusufov, son of a former Russian energy minister, the project sparked years of controversy in the small Peninsula city because of its massive size and height, which many residents and elected officials said was inappropriate for the area.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But even before Liccardo raised those concerns about owner Vitaly Yusufov, son of a former Russian energy minister, the project sparked years of controversy in the small Peninsula city because of its massive size and height, which many residents and elected officials said was inappropriate for the area.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Heneghan’s company is proposing to demolish the existing buildings to create a mixed-use project with a total of 665 apartments or condos, with roughly 100 of them to be priced below market-rate, along with 332,000 square feet of office space, 17,000 square feet of retail space and a 130-room hotel.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Heneghan’s company is proposing to demolish the existing buildings to create a mixed-use project with a total of 665 apartments or condos, with roughly 100 of them to be priced below market-rate, along with 332,000 square feet of office space, 17,000 square feet of retail space and a 130-room hotel.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The tallest buildings in the plans would range from 301 feet to as high as 458 feet, according to the city. The project, called Willow Park, would be built on a 6.7-acre piece of land at 80 Willow Road that sits at the corner of Middlefield Road and backs up to San Francisquito Creek.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The tallest buildings in the plans would range from 301 feet to as high as 458 feet, according to the city. The project, called Willow Park, would be built on a 6.7-acre piece of land at 80 Willow Road that sits at the corner of Middlefield Road and backs up to San Francisquito Creek.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The project was proposed in late 2023 under a unique provision of state law known as the “Builder’s Remedy,” which allows developers to bypass most local discretionary review and have a project fast-tracked when a city or county hasn’t received certification of its long-term housing plan from the state. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The project was proposed in late 2023 under a unique provision of state law known as the “Builder’s Remedy,” which allows developers to bypass most local discretionary review and have a project fast-tracked when a city or county hasn’t received certification of its long-term housing plan from the state. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The lawsuit claims the project should be considered “by right” and eligible for a streamlined review by city planners, and is also eligible for a series of waivers and concessions that would brush aside local development requirements like height limits, because it provides enough affordable housing. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The lawsuit claims the project should be considered “by right” and eligible for a streamlined review by city planners, and is also eligible for a series of waivers and concessions that would brush aside local development requirements like height limits, because it provides enough affordable housing. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A digital rendering shows what a pool deck area in a portion of the Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102902\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A digital rendering shows what a pool deck area in a portion of the Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“In other words, the city is not permitted to say no to the project. Yet over the course of nearly three years, the city has repeatedly refused to comply with state housing reform laws with respect to the project, drawing admonishments from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Attorney General,” the lawsuit said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“In other words, the city is not permitted to say no to the project. Yet over the course of nearly three years, the city has repeatedly refused to comply with state housing reform laws with respect to the project, drawing admonishments from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Attorney General,” the lawsuit said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“While its elected officials have talked a good game, Menlo Park is actually one of the most hostile cities to building new and affordable housing in the nation,” Heneghan said in the statement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“While its elected officials have talked a good game, Menlo Park is actually one of the most hostile cities to building new and affordable housing in the nation,” Heneghan said in the statement. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, echoing in part Bonta’s July letter, said the city unlawfully changed its reasoning at different points in the review process to deny the project a streamlined approval. It seeks a refund of roughly $300,000 in legal fees the city asked the developer to pay in connection with the review. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, echoing in part Bonta’s July letter, said the city unlawfully changed its reasoning at different points in the review process to deny the project a streamlined approval. It seeks a refund of roughly $300,000 in legal fees the city asked the developer to pay in connection with the review. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Under AB 712, which went into effect in January, if a city loses a court battle over a housing application debating state housing reform laws, after receiving a notice like the one Menlo Park did from Bonta, the courts must impose fines of $10,000 per housing unit in the project against the city, and potentially more under other provisions. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Under AB 712, which went into effect in January, if a city loses a court battle over a housing application debating state housing reform laws, after receiving a notice like the one Menlo Park did from Bonta, the courts must impose fines of $10,000 per housing unit in the project against the city, and potentially more under other provisions. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That could mean at least $6.65 million in fines for Menlo Park, a city with a population of only 32,000 and a roughly $90 million annual budget. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That could mean at least $6.65 million in fines for Menlo Park, a city with a population of only 32,000 and a roughly $90 million annual budget. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis, said if Menlo Park loses the case, it would make the risks of the newest housing laws “much more vivid” for leaders around California. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“That will be a huge warning shot to all cities,” Elmendorf said. “Once the Attorney General or [the California Housing and Community Development Department] gets that letter in the record, you are at serious risk of big-time fiscal consequences.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Heneghan’s company has tried to negotiate with the city over a path forward until recently, but he claims the city has rejected those efforts. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mayor Betsy Nash said the city strongly disagrees with Bonta and Heneghan that the project is eligible for streamlined review. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We are not rejecting the project. We are continuing our review in the standard way,” she said in an interview. Nash noted that the city selected a consultant to do an environmental impact report for the project, costs for which are typically footed by the developer. She said N17 has declined to pay for the EIR, which has contributed to the stalled review. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We are not rejecting the project. We are continuing our review in the standard way,” she said in an interview. Nash noted that the city selected a consultant to do an environmental impact report for the project, costs for which are typically footed by the developer. She said N17 has declined to pay for the EIR, which has contributed to the stalled review. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We believe on such a massive project that is on the banks of an environmentally sensitive creek with major impacts to our infrastructure, that we need to go through the regular environmental impact review process,” Nash said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We believe on such a massive project that is on the banks of an environmentally sensitive creek with major impacts to our infrastructure, that we need to go through the regular environmental impact review process,” Nash said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The city leaders also believe the project is not considered a housing project under recently updated state laws because it includes hotel space. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After a Sept. 29 closed session meeting of the council, the city manager sent an Oct. 1 response letter to Bonta, disagreeing with his office’s interpretation, and taking issue with his office sending a warning notice that “unlocks potentially catastrophic financial penalties against the city” without visiting the site. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>After a Sept. 29 closed session meeting of the council, the city manager sent an Oct. 1 response letter to Bonta, disagreeing with his office’s interpretation, and taking issue with his office sending a warning notice that “unlocks potentially catastrophic financial penalties against the city” without visiting the site. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The letter also said the city does not believe the project from N17 will help stem the housing crisis. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/2-v07-scaled-e1791329526834.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103248\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A digital rendering of what the proposed Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/2-v07-scaled-e1791329526834.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103248\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A digital rendering of what the proposed Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There is no doubt that the vast majority of the housing in this project would\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>be affordable only to the very wealthiest residents of the Bay Area,” the letter said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>From 2015-23, the city built or approved 2,349 homes, exceeding its state-mandated housing goals in all income categories except moderate, where it built or approved about three-fourths of what was needed. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>From 2015-23, the city built or approved 2,349 homes, exceeding its state-mandated housing goals in all income categories except moderate, where it built or approved about three-fourths of what was needed. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the current 2023-31 housing cycle, the state tasked the city with building or approving nearly 3,000 homes. Menlo Park had hit about 40% of that overall goal at the end of last year, though for homes in lower-income categories, it had achieved less than 30% of the goal, and less than 20% for very low-income homes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the current 2023-31 housing cycle, the state tasked the city with building or approving nearly 3,000 homes. Menlo Park had hit about 40% of that overall goal at the end of last year, though for homes in lower-income categories, it had achieved less than 30% of the goal, and less than 20% for very low-income homes. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While the legal wrangling over the details of the Willow Park project and the timing around certain housing laws is very specific to this case, Elmendorf said the issue helps illustrate how far the pendulum has swung in the state for housing production.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>While the legal wrangling over the details of the Willow Park project and the timing around certain housing laws is very specific to this case, Elmendorf said the issue helps illustrate how far the pendulum has swung in the state for housing production.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The fact that a project that five years ago would have been seen as preposterous is now a project that Menlo Park is very much on its back foot in trying to fend off, and stands to lose a ton of money on in court,” he said, “is a testament to how the legislature and officialdom generally within the state government has come to view the appropriate balance between local control and the state’s interest in the need for more housing.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The fact that a project that five years ago would have been seen as preposterous is now a project that Menlo Park is very much on its back foot in trying to fend off, and stands to lose a ton of money on in court,” he said, “is a testament to how the legislature and officialdom generally within the state government has come to view the appropriate balance between local control and the state’s interest in the need for more housing.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "A developer seeking to build high-rises on the former Sunset Magazine headquarters property is suing Menlo Park.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>A San Francisco developer is suing Menlo Park, hoping to force the city to approve a proposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12101341/congressman-calls-for-investigation-of-russian-owned-silicon-valley-site\">high-rise development\u003c/a> with hundreds of residences, retail and office space and a hotel, on the site of the former Sunset Magazine headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, filed in San Mateo County Superior Court late last week, asks a judge to require the wealthy Peninsula enclave to greenlight the project under the authority of a bevy of state housing laws passed in recent years meant to increase production of homes and limit local officials’ ability to thwart them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The legal battle could expose the city to several million dollars in fines under some of the newest state housing laws, and could also serve as a cautionary tale to other municipalities about the penalties for running afoul of California’s web of housing regulations aimed at combating a decadeslong housing shortage and affordability crisis. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Office has already weighed in on the fight, warning Menlo Park in a July letter that it has mishandled the project application from N17 Development and violated state housing laws in the process, which the city has rebuffed. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We regret having to bring this lawsuit, but we had no choice given the city has done nothing but throw roadblocks in our way to delay and deny the project, arrogantly breaking state housing laws,” Oisín Heneghan, the founder of N17, said in a statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102903\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-03-KQED-1536x960.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An aerial rendering shows what the proposed Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>The property, which once served as a physical link to the California suburban lifestyle that was for years depicted in the pages of Sunset, has drawn recent scrutiny from South Bay \u003ca href=\"https://liccardo.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/liccardo.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/quill-letter-l39585-80-willow-road-development-letter-to-treasury-version-1-09-23-2026-08-51-pm.pdf\">Rep. Sam Liccardo\u003c/a>, because he said it is owned by a “Russian oligarch,” and could be used to store ill-gotten wealth or evade sanctions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But even before Liccardo raised those concerns about owner Vitaly Yusufov, son of a former Russian energy minister, the project sparked years of controversy in the small Peninsula city because of its massive size and height, which many residents and elected officials said was inappropriate for the area.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Heneghan’s company is proposing to demolish the existing buildings to create a mixed-use project with a total of 665 apartments or condos, with roughly 100 of them to be priced below market-rate, along with 332,000 square feet of office space, 17,000 square feet of retail space and a 130-room hotel.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The tallest buildings in the plans would range from 301 feet to as high as 458 feet, according to the city. The project, called Willow Park, would be built on a 6.7-acre piece of land at 80 Willow Road that sits at the corner of Middlefield Road and backs up to San Francisquito Creek.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The project was proposed in late 2023 under a unique provision of state law known as the “Builder’s Remedy,” which allows developers to bypass most local discretionary review and have a project fast-tracked when a city or county hasn’t received certification of its long-term housing plan from the state. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lawsuit claims the project should be considered “by right” and eligible for a streamlined review by city planners, and is also eligible for a series of waivers and concessions that would brush aside local development requirements like height limits, because it provides enough affordable housing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1126\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12102902\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/261005-Menlo-Park-lawsuit-02-KQED-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A digital rendering shows what a pool deck area in a portion of the Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“In other words, the city is not permitted to say no to the project. Yet over the course of nearly three years, the city has repeatedly refused to comply with state housing reform laws with respect to the project, drawing admonishments from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Attorney General,” the lawsuit said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“While its elected officials have talked a good game, Menlo Park is actually one of the most hostile cities to building new and affordable housing in the nation,” Heneghan said in the statement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, echoing in part Bonta’s July letter, said the city unlawfully changed its reasoning at different points in the review process to deny the project a streamlined approval. It seeks a refund of roughly $300,000 in legal fees the city asked the developer to pay in connection with the review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Under AB 712, which went into effect in January, if a city loses a court battle over a housing application debating state housing reform laws, after receiving a notice like the one Menlo Park did from Bonta, the courts must impose fines of $10,000 per housing unit in the project against the city, and potentially more under other provisions. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That could mean at least $6.65 million in fines for Menlo Park, a city with a population of only 32,000 and a roughly $90 million annual budget. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis, said if Menlo Park loses the case, it would make the risks of the newest housing laws “much more vivid” for leaders around California. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That will be a huge warning shot to all cities,” Elmendorf said. “Once the Attorney General or [the California Housing and Community Development Department] gets that letter in the record, you are at serious risk of big-time fiscal consequences.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Heneghan’s company has tried to negotiate with the city over a path forward until recently, but he claims the city has rejected those efforts. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mayor Betsy Nash said the city strongly disagrees with Bonta and Heneghan that the project is eligible for streamlined review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We are not rejecting the project. We are continuing our review in the standard way,” she said in an interview. Nash noted that the city selected a consultant to do an environmental impact report for the project, costs for which are typically footed by the developer. She said N17 has declined to pay for the EIR, which has contributed to the stalled review. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We believe on such a massive project that is on the banks of an environmentally sensitive creek with major impacts to our infrastructure, that we need to go through the regular environmental impact review process,” Nash said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The city leaders also believe the project is not considered a housing project under recently updated state laws because it includes hotel space. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After a Sept. 29 closed session meeting of the council, the city manager sent an Oct. 1 response letter to Bonta, disagreeing with his office’s interpretation, and taking issue with his office sending a warning notice that “unlocks potentially catastrophic financial penalties against the city” without visiting the site. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The letter also said the city does not believe the project from N17 will help stem the housing crisis. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1230\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/10/2-v07-scaled-e1791329526834.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12103248\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A digital rendering of what the proposed Willow Park development at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park could look like. (Courtesy of N17 Development)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“There is no doubt that the vast majority of the housing in this project would\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>be affordable only to the very wealthiest residents of the Bay Area,” the letter said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>From 2015-23, the city built or approved 2,349 homes, exceeding its state-mandated housing goals in all income categories except moderate, where it built or approved about three-fourths of what was needed. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the current 2023-31 housing cycle, the state tasked the city with building or approving nearly 3,000 homes. Menlo Park had hit about 40% of that overall goal at the end of last year, though for homes in lower-income categories, it had achieved less than 30% of the goal, and less than 20% for very low-income homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While the legal wrangling over the details of the Willow Park project and the timing around certain housing laws is very specific to this case, Elmendorf said the issue helps illustrate how far the pendulum has swung in the state for housing production.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The fact that a project that five years ago would have been seen as preposterous is now a project that Menlo Park is very much on its back foot in trying to fend off, and stands to lose a ton of money on in court,” he said, “is a testament to how the legislature and officialdom generally within the state government has come to view the appropriate balance between local control and the state’s interest in the need for more housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "will-prop-45-fix-californias-housing-crisis-or-roll-back-a-valuable-environmental-law",
"title": "Will Prop. 45 Fix California’s Housing Crisis or Roll Back a Valuable Environmental Law?",
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"headTitle": "Will Prop. 45 Fix California’s Housing Crisis or Roll Back a Valuable Environmental Law? | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Proposition 45 would put a shot clock on environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. Opponents say CEQA still protects people and the environment from harmful development. Marisa talks with Jordan Grimes, legislative director at the Bay Area environmental group Greenbelt Alliance, who oppose the measure. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Last week, Marisa spoke with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12100915/housing-fix-or-data-center-loophole-this-ballot-measure-would-overhaul-ceqa\">Jennifer Barrera\u003c/a>, CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, which is leading the campaign in support of Prop. 45. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Check out \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Political Breakdown’s weekly newsletter\u003c/a>, delivered straight to your inbox.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Proposition 45 would put a shot clock on environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. Opponents say CEQA still protects people and the environment from harmful development. Marisa talks with Jordan Grimes, legislative director at the Bay Area environmental group Greenbelt Alliance, who oppose the measure. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Proposition 45 would put a shot clock on environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. Opponents say CEQA still protects people and the environment from harmful development. Marisa talks with Jordan Grimes, legislative director at the Bay Area environmental group Greenbelt Alliance, who oppose the measure. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Check out \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Political Breakdown’s weekly newsletter\u003c/a>, delivered straight to your inbox.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Check out \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Political Breakdown’s weekly newsletter\u003c/a>, delivered straight to your inbox.\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "Opponents of Proposition 45 argue the Legislature already fixed CEQA with a bill that took effect last year. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Proposition 45 would put a shot clock on environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. Opponents say CEQA still protects people and the environment from harmful development. Marisa talks with Jordan Grimes, legislative director at the Bay Area environmental group Greenbelt Alliance, who oppose the measure. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Last week, Marisa spoke with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12100915/housing-fix-or-data-center-loophole-this-ballot-measure-would-overhaul-ceqa\">Jennifer Barrera\u003c/a>, CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, which is leading the campaign in support of Prop. 45. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Check out \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/political-breakdown\">Political Breakdown’s weekly newsletter\u003c/a>, delivered straight to your inbox.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "this-sf-renter-is-trying-to-beat-the-ai-fueled-housing-boom-with-an-analog-approach",
"title": "This SF Renter Is Trying to Beat the AI-Fueled Housing Boom With an Analog Approach",
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"headTitle": "This SF Renter Is Trying to Beat the AI-Fueled Housing Boom With an Analog Approach | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the past nine months, Harlow Srain has reached out to more than 200 landlords and property managers. In search of a deal, she’s determined to stay in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After nearly a decade bouncing between couches, cars and shoddy apartments, the 28-year-old finally found the perfect place: a one-bedroom in Bernal Heights with access to a backyard that she shares with her now ex-partner. After they broke up late last year, they’ve continued to live uncomfortably together while Srain looks for a new place. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But Srain said it’s been a difficult search. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101915202/sf-renters-face-buyout-offers-and-evictions-as-ai-boom-sends-prices-soaring\">AI-fueled housing market\u003c/a> has sent rents soaring, \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/rent-report/ca/san-francisco\">up more than 25%\u003c/a> over the past year. Even with a roommate or two, Srain said she’d have to stretch her budget to stay in the neighborhood she’s grown to love.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, she decided to do something unusual: cold-call landlords and property managers to appeal to their humanity and possibly get them to lower the rent. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I know these people are probably making a stupid amount of profit,” she said. “Why not just ask to have them cut that back a little bit?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12087198\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12087198\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain’s (not pictured) plants line a shelf in the backyard of her complex in San Francisco on June 9, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12087197\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12087197\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain’s (not pictured) view from a balcony in her complex in San Francisco on June 9, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s rental market has “always been a pressure cooker,” Redfin’s chief economist Daryl Fairweather said. The land-constrained city’s scant supply of homes has long been outweighed by intense demand. But now, as more companies require employees to return to the office and investors pump billions of dollars into AI, Fairweather said the fight for available housing has become even more competitive. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“People, when they have money, they wanna spend it on a better, nicer place,” she said. “It goes into the real estate market and drives up both home prices and rents.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Those prices have spiked so swiftly that earlier this month, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie declared a “rent emergency” and introduced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12098973/san-francisco-mayor-lurie-infuses-30-million-in-reforms-to-tackle-rent-emergency\">$30 million package\u003c/a> to forestall evictions and protect existing tenants from displacement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That doesn’t address Srain’s problem, however, since her landlord isn’t evicting her. She’s competing for a limited supply of apartments with people who have a lot more money to spend. According to a June report from ApartmentList, an online rental marketplace, just over \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/vacancy-rate-dashboard\">2% of San Francisco’s multifamily housing\u003c/a> is vacant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sitting on the back patio of her Bernal Heights apartment earlier this summer, Srain scrolled through listings on her phone in search of a new home. Most of the calls ended in voicemails. Or a bot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When she did get a hold of a live human, they often stonewalled her. “With any situation where there’s a manager — like, ‘I’m just the manager’ — there’s no talking.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But every once in a while, someone picked up and played ball. That’s when she’d get into her pitch. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I recognize AI is really booming, tech is hiring, we’re going back into the office, but I don’t work in tech,” Srain told a property manager listing a two-bedroom in the Mission District for $4,700. “I’ve just lived in the Bay Area for … around 10 years, and I would like to stay here. So I’m just trying to see if rent prices are negotiable at all.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The manager sympathized but didn’t budge. People are willing to pay top dollar, he told her. The city is experiencing a boom right now, but he said one day, that boom will cool. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>JJ Panzer, the owner of Real Management Company in San Francisco, said that if Srain had been looking to get a good deal on an apartment, she might have found one during the pandemic, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/These-charts-show-just-how-extreme-the-rent-15848320.php\">rents dropped by more than 20%\u003c/a>, and San Francisco’s apartment vacancy rate \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/vacancy-rate-dashboard\">reached nearly 11%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Srain never reached out to Panzer. But if she had, he said her pitch would have been a “hard sell” in today’s market. His company manages more than 700 units across the Bay Area, though mostly in San Francisco. He owns three buildings himself. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12095218\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">JJ Panzer, president of Real Management Company, in front of their offices in San Francisco on Aug. 13, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Because many San Francisco apartments are covered under state or local rent control laws, Panzer said landlords can only increase rents significantly after a tenant leaves. Once a new tenant moves into a rent-controlled unit, he said they often don’t move out for years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You’ve got to get as much as you can for that vacancy because you don’t know when you’re going to see that apartment come vacant again,” Panzer said. “The better price I give you, the longer it’s going to be before I get a chance to make that money back.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are also first-come, first-served laws that require landlords to approve the first qualified application they receive. And there are anti-discrimination laws that don’t allow landlords to consider protected characteristics — including race, immigration status, familial status or source of income — when choosing a tenant, Fairweather said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You might come to your landlord and say ‘I have small kids’ or ‘I have an aging mother’ or ‘I’ve lived in this neighborhood forever,’ and those all might sound like innocent things to say,” she said. “But in housing, you’re not allowed to give preferential treatment to people based on their family status or these other protected characteristics.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Paul Griffiths, CEO and owner of Vesta Asset Management in San Francisco, a mid-size property management company, said today’s rental market has so much demand that it encourages pricing homes above market so there are fewer applicants to sift through. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101639\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain’s (not pictured) plants line a stairwell in the backyard of her complex in San Francisco on June 9, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If somebody calls me to say, ‘Can you offer less money?’ First of all, I don’t even have time to call that person back because I’m just scheduling the showings for 75 people,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Srain understands the competition is tough, but can’t help being frustrated by it. “It kind of makes me wonder, where’s the line? Where does it stop?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Srain grew up in Salinas, a mid-sized agricultural community about a two-hour drive south of San Francisco. She decided to move to the Bay Area in 2019 after she started dating someone in San José. She was working as a DoorDash driver and found a room in a three-bedroom house in Fremont for $750 a month. A couple rented one of the other rooms, and another person slept on a mattress in the garage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m freshly moved out of my parents’ house in this giant city that’s in a larger metropolitan area,” she said. “It was really, really exciting until I figured out what it meant to be housing-stable.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Within a week, another person moved into the remaining vacant room and then a stranger started living on the couch. She began to feel like she was living amongst strangers and didn’t have control over who entered or exited her home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said she witnessed drug use and domestic violence while living there, so she moved out. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the next three years, Srain moved from apartment to apartment to find an affordable place to live. For some of that time, she lived with friends or in her car.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Having to move almost twice a year every year, it can lead to trauma, believe it or not,” Srain said. “I have been sent through the wringer so many times.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fear of returning to a semi-nomadic lifestyle is part of what’s driving her current push to stay in San Francisco, and especially the neighborhood she’s called home for nearly two years — the longest she’s been in one place in the past decade.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was in her Bernal Heights apartment where she finally got an opportunity to plant roots and build community. She got to know her neighbors, joined a dodgeball league nearby and volunteered at a nearby bookstore. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is one of the first places I’ve ever felt comfortable. I felt at home,” she said. “I know my neighbors, whether they’re on this street or down a few blocks. I’ve never had this before.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She also got involved in advocating for tenants rights. Srain became a community organizer with the nonprofit Faith in Action, which champions tenants’ rights, affordable housing and efforts to reduce homelessness. Earlier this year, she canvassed for a rent control measure the group supports that’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12090248/redwood-city-to-vote-on-rent-control-in-november\">headed to the November ballot in Redwood City\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Through that work, she spoke with small landlords and homeowners about the problems they face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01227_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101628\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01227_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01227_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01227_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain poses for a portrait on the balcony of her housing unit in San Francisco on June 9, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I can understand that some homeowners are totally oblivious to the rental crisis because they have their own issues owning a home,” she said. “It has become really expensive with rising property taxes, [insurance], PG&E. It’s beginning to become unmanageable to own a home for some people.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She developed sympathy for small mom-and-pop landlords, who own just a building or two and face their own set of affordability issues. While cold-calling, she found they were more willing to explain how they set their rents and the profit they made on each unit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In one such call in January, Srain spoke with an older landlord who walked her through his costs to maintain a Pacifica apartment he was renting out, including details about his water bill, property taxes and how much profit he made. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was only around $100 to $200 [in profit],” she said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this guy really walked me through this!’ That’s impressive.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But not all landlords are willing to entertain Srain’s questions. Of the hundreds she called, she said only around 50 actually picked up the phone and were willing to talk. Many times, she’s found they were unwilling to divulge their experiences. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And no one has been willing to lower the rent. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Griffiths said he understands Srain’s struggle. “I think, ethically, most people believe that housing is a human right.” But he said the United States — even California — doesn’t have enough housing to provide that right to everyone.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You can’t put the responsibility of saying, ‘Well, everybody should be housed, and it’s the landlord’s responsibility,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Fairweather argued that, if anyone is to blame, it’s local governments that largely control how much housing can be built. San Francisco, she said, has long \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033966/sfs-single-family-home-neighborhoods-apartments-65-story-towers-downtown\">restricted development in certain neighborhoods, and while\u003c/a> city leaders have agreed to allow more housing in those parts of town, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062042/report-projects-weak-housing-production-under-san-francisco-zoning-plan-over-next-20-years\">reports suggest\u003c/a> it may not make a dent in the city’s housing affordability crisis.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>In San Francisco, the problem is so far gone that we can’t just say ‘Get rid of single-family zoning,’ and everything will be fixed,” Fairweather said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then again, she said, the reality is that there may never be enough apartments in San Francisco for everyone who would like to live there. “There’s no mathematical way around that. There are going to be some people who are left moving to other places because there physically aren’t enough units for everybody.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Srain knows her best option might be to move out of San Francisco to the East Bay, where it’s cheaper — something families have done for generations as the city has grown more expensive. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But she said that reality points to a broken system. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There are people living through so much worse right now in the Bay Area,” she said. “No one deserves that.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Over the past nine months, Harlow Srain has reached out to more than 200 landlords and property managers. In search of a deal, she’s determined to stay in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After nearly a decade bouncing between couches, cars and shoddy apartments, the 28-year-old finally found the perfect place: a one-bedroom in Bernal Heights with access to a backyard that she shares with her now ex-partner. After they broke up late last year, they’ve continued to live uncomfortably together while Srain looks for a new place. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But Srain said it’s been a difficult search. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101915202/sf-renters-face-buyout-offers-and-evictions-as-ai-boom-sends-prices-soaring\">AI-fueled housing market\u003c/a> has sent rents soaring, \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/rent-report/ca/san-francisco\">up more than 25%\u003c/a> over the past year. Even with a roommate or two, Srain said she’d have to stretch her budget to stay in the neighborhood she’s grown to love.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So, she decided to do something unusual: cold-call landlords and property managers to appeal to their humanity and possibly get them to lower the rent. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I know these people are probably making a stupid amount of profit,” she said. “Why not just ask to have them cut that back a little bit?”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12087198\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain’s (not pictured) plants line a shelf in the backyard of her complex in San Francisco on June 9, 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s rental market has “always been a pressure cooker,” Redfin’s chief economist Daryl Fairweather said. The land-constrained city’s scant supply of homes has long been outweighed by intense demand. But now, as more companies require employees to return to the office and investors pump billions of dollars into AI, Fairweather said the fight for available housing has become even more competitive. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“People, when they have money, they wanna spend it on a better, nicer place,” she said. “It goes into the real estate market and drives up both home prices and rents.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Those prices have spiked so swiftly that earlier this month, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie declared a “rent emergency” and introduced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12098973/san-francisco-mayor-lurie-infuses-30-million-in-reforms-to-tackle-rent-emergency\">$30 million package\u003c/a> to forestall evictions and protect existing tenants from displacement. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That doesn’t address Srain’s problem, however, since her landlord isn’t evicting her. She’s competing for a limited supply of apartments with people who have a lot more money to spend. According to a June report from ApartmentList, an online rental marketplace, just over \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/vacancy-rate-dashboard\">2% of San Francisco’s multifamily housing\u003c/a> is vacant. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sitting on the back patio of her Bernal Heights apartment earlier this summer, Srain scrolled through listings on her phone in search of a new home. Most of the calls ended in voicemails. Or a bot. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When she did get a hold of a live human, they often stonewalled her. “With any situation where there’s a manager — like, ‘I’m just the manager’ — there’s no talking.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I recognize AI is really booming, tech is hiring, we’re going back into the office, but I don’t work in tech,” Srain told a property manager listing a two-bedroom in the Mission District for $4,700. “I’ve just lived in the Bay Area for … around 10 years, and I would like to stay here. So I’m just trying to see if rent prices are negotiable at all.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The manager sympathized but didn’t budge. People are willing to pay top dollar, he told her. The city is experiencing a boom right now, but he said one day, that boom will cool. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>JJ Panzer, the owner of Real Management Company in San Francisco, said that if Srain had been looking to get a good deal on an apartment, she might have found one during the pandemic, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/These-charts-show-just-how-extreme-the-rent-15848320.php\">rents dropped by more than 20%\u003c/a>, and San Francisco’s apartment vacancy rate \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/vacancy-rate-dashboard\">reached nearly 11%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Srain never reached out to Panzer. But if she had, he said her pitch would have been a “hard sell” in today’s market. His company manages more than 700 units across the Bay Area, though mostly in San Francisco. He owns three buildings himself. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Srain never reached out to Panzer. But if she had, he said her pitch would have been a “hard sell” in today’s market. His company manages more than 700 units across the Bay Area, though mostly in San Francisco. He owns three buildings himself. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12095218\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">JJ Panzer, president of Real Management Company, in front of their offices in San Francisco on Aug. 13, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Because many San Francisco apartments are covered under state or local rent control laws, Panzer said landlords can only increase rents significantly after a tenant leaves. Once a new tenant moves into a rent-controlled unit, he said they often don’t move out for years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You’ve got to get as much as you can for that vacancy because you don’t know when you’re going to see that apartment come vacant again,” Panzer said. “The better price I give you, the longer it’s going to be before I get a chance to make that money back.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There are also first-come, first-served laws that require landlords to approve the first qualified application they receive. And there are anti-discrimination laws that don’t allow landlords to consider protected characteristics — including race, immigration status, familial status or source of income — when choosing a tenant, Fairweather said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You might come to your landlord and say ‘I have small kids’ or ‘I have an aging mother’ or ‘I’ve lived in this neighborhood forever,’ and those all might sound like innocent things to say,” she said. “But in housing, you’re not allowed to give preferential treatment to people based on their family status or these other protected characteristics.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Paul Griffiths, CEO and owner of Vesta Asset Management in San Francisco, a mid-size property management company, said today’s rental market has so much demand that it encourages pricing homes above market so there are fewer applicants to sift through. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101639\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain’s (not pictured) plants line a stairwell in the backyard of her complex in San Francisco on June 9, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“If somebody calls me to say, ‘Can you offer less money?’ First of all, I don’t even have time to call that person back because I’m just scheduling the showings for 75 people,” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Srain understands the competition is tough, but can’t help being frustrated by it. “It kind of makes me wonder, where’s the line? Where does it stop?”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Srain grew up in Salinas, a mid-sized agricultural community about a two-hour drive south of San Francisco. She decided to move to the Bay Area in 2019 after she started dating someone in San José. She was working as a DoorDash driver and found a room in a three-bedroom house in Fremont for $750 a month. A couple rented one of the other rooms, and another person slept on a mattress in the garage.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I’m freshly moved out of my parents’ house in this giant city that’s in a larger metropolitan area,” she said. “It was really, really exciting until I figured out what it meant to be housing-stable.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Within a week, another person moved into the remaining vacant room and then a stranger started living on the couch. She began to feel like she was living amongst strangers and didn’t have control over who entered or exited her home. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It was in her Bernal Heights apartment where she finally got an opportunity to plant roots and build community. She got to know her neighbors, joined a dodgeball league nearby and volunteered at a nearby bookstore. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She also got involved in advocating for tenants rights. Srain became a community organizer with the nonprofit Faith in Action, which champions tenants’ rights, affordable housing and efforts to reduce homelessness. Earlier this year, she canvassed for a rent control measure the group supports that’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12090248/redwood-city-to-vote-on-rent-control-in-november\">headed to the November ballot in Redwood City\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I can understand that some homeowners are totally oblivious to the rental crisis because they have their own issues owning a home,” she said. “It has become really expensive with rising property taxes, [insurance], PG&E. It’s beginning to become unmanageable to own a home for some people.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She developed sympathy for small mom-and-pop landlords, who own just a building or two and face their own set of affordability issues. While cold-calling, she found they were more willing to explain how they set their rents and the profit they made on each unit.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She developed sympathy for small mom-and-pop landlords, who own just a building or two and face their own set of affordability issues. While cold-calling, she found they were more willing to explain how they set their rents and the profit they made on each unit.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In one such call in January, Srain spoke with an older landlord who walked her through his costs to maintain a Pacifica apartment he was renting out, including details about his water bill, property taxes and how much profit he made. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It was only around $100 to $200 [in profit],” she said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this guy really walked me through this!’ That’s impressive.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But not all landlords are willing to entertain Srain’s questions. Of the hundreds she called, she said only around 50 actually picked up the phone and were willing to talk. Many times, she’s found they were unwilling to divulge their experiences. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And no one has been willing to lower the rent. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Griffiths said he understands Srain’s struggle. “I think, ethically, most people believe that housing is a human right.” But he said the United States — even California — doesn’t have enough housing to provide that right to everyone.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Griffiths said he understands Srain’s struggle. “I think, ethically, most people believe that housing is a human right.” But he said the United States — even California — doesn’t have enough housing to provide that right to everyone.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You can’t put the responsibility of saying, ‘Well, everybody should be housed, and it’s the landlord’s responsibility,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Fairweather argued that, if anyone is to blame, it’s local governments that largely control how much housing can be built. San Francisco, she said, has long \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033966/sfs-single-family-home-neighborhoods-apartments-65-story-towers-downtown\">restricted development in certain neighborhoods, and while\u003c/a> city leaders have agreed to allow more housing in those parts of town, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062042/report-projects-weak-housing-production-under-san-francisco-zoning-plan-over-next-20-years\">reports suggest\u003c/a> it may not make a dent in the city’s housing affordability crisis.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Fairweather argued that, if anyone is to blame, it’s local governments that largely control how much housing can be built. San Francisco, she said, has long \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033966/sfs-single-family-home-neighborhoods-apartments-65-story-towers-downtown\">restricted development in certain neighborhoods, and while\u003c/a> city leaders have agreed to allow more housing in those parts of town, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062042/report-projects-weak-housing-production-under-san-francisco-zoning-plan-over-next-20-years\">reports suggest\u003c/a> it may not make a dent in the city’s housing affordability crisis.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>In San Francisco, the problem is so far gone that we can’t just say ‘Get rid of single-family zoning,’ and everything will be fixed,” Fairweather said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>In San Francisco, the problem is so far gone that we can’t just say ‘Get rid of single-family zoning,’ and everything will be fixed,” Fairweather said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Then again, she said, the reality is that there may never be enough apartments in San Francisco for everyone who would like to live there. “There’s no mathematical way around that. There are going to be some people who are left moving to other places because there physically aren’t enough units for everybody.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Then again, she said, the reality is that there may never be enough apartments in San Francisco for everyone who would like to live there. “There’s no mathematical way around that. There are going to be some people who are left moving to other places because there physically aren’t enough units for everybody.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Srain knows her best option might be to move out of San Francisco to the East Bay, where it’s cheaper — something families have done for generations as the city has grown more expensive. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There are people living through so much worse right now in the Bay Area,” she said. “No one deserves that.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the past nine months, Harlow Srain has reached out to more than 200 landlords and property managers. In search of a deal, she’s determined to stay in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After nearly a decade bouncing between couches, cars and shoddy apartments, the 28-year-old finally found the perfect place: a one-bedroom in Bernal Heights with access to a backyard that she shares with her now ex-partner. After they broke up late last year, they’ve continued to live uncomfortably together while Srain looks for a new place. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But Srain said it’s been a difficult search. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101915202/sf-renters-face-buyout-offers-and-evictions-as-ai-boom-sends-prices-soaring\">AI-fueled housing market\u003c/a> has sent rents soaring, \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/rent-report/ca/san-francisco\">up more than 25%\u003c/a> over the past year. Even with a roommate or two, Srain said she’d have to stretch her budget to stay in the neighborhood she’s grown to love.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, she decided to do something unusual: cold-call landlords and property managers to appeal to their humanity and possibly get them to lower the rent. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I know these people are probably making a stupid amount of profit,” she said. “Why not just ask to have them cut that back a little bit?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12087198\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12087198\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01030-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain’s (not pictured) plants line a shelf in the backyard of her complex in San Francisco on June 9, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12087197\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12087197\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain’s (not pictured) view from a balcony in her complex in San Francisco on June 9, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s rental market has “always been a pressure cooker,” Redfin’s chief economist Daryl Fairweather said. The land-constrained city’s scant supply of homes has long been outweighed by intense demand. But now, as more companies require employees to return to the office and investors pump billions of dollars into AI, Fairweather said the fight for available housing has become even more competitive. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“People, when they have money, they wanna spend it on a better, nicer place,” she said. “It goes into the real estate market and drives up both home prices and rents.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Those prices have spiked so swiftly that earlier this month, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie declared a “rent emergency” and introduced a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12098973/san-francisco-mayor-lurie-infuses-30-million-in-reforms-to-tackle-rent-emergency\">$30 million package\u003c/a> to forestall evictions and protect existing tenants from displacement. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That doesn’t address Srain’s problem, however, since her landlord isn’t evicting her. She’s competing for a limited supply of apartments with people who have a lot more money to spend. According to a June report from ApartmentList, an online rental marketplace, just over \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/vacancy-rate-dashboard\">2% of San Francisco’s multifamily housing\u003c/a> is vacant. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sitting on the back patio of her Bernal Heights apartment earlier this summer, Srain scrolled through listings on her phone in search of a new home. Most of the calls ended in voicemails. Or a bot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When she did get a hold of a live human, they often stonewalled her. “With any situation where there’s a manager — like, ‘I’m just the manager’ — there’s no talking.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But every once in a while, someone picked up and played ball. That’s when she’d get into her pitch. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I recognize AI is really booming, tech is hiring, we’re going back into the office, but I don’t work in tech,” Srain told a property manager listing a two-bedroom in the Mission District for $4,700. “I’ve just lived in the Bay Area for … around 10 years, and I would like to stay here. So I’m just trying to see if rent prices are negotiable at all.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The manager sympathized but didn’t budge. People are willing to pay top dollar, he told her. The city is experiencing a boom right now, but he said one day, that boom will cool. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>JJ Panzer, the owner of Real Management Company in San Francisco, said that if Srain had been looking to get a good deal on an apartment, she might have found one during the pandemic, when \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/These-charts-show-just-how-extreme-the-rent-15848320.php\">rents dropped by more than 20%\u003c/a>, and San Francisco’s apartment vacancy rate \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/vacancy-rate-dashboard\">reached nearly 11%\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Srain never reached out to Panzer. But if she had, he said her pitch would have been a “hard sell” in today’s market. His company manages more than 700 units across the Bay Area, though mostly in San Francisco. He owns three buildings himself. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12095218\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260813-RentNegotiator-04-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">JJ Panzer, president of Real Management Company, in front of their offices in San Francisco on Aug. 13, 2026. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Because many San Francisco apartments are covered under state or local rent control laws, Panzer said landlords can only increase rents significantly after a tenant leaves. Once a new tenant moves into a rent-controlled unit, he said they often don’t move out for years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You’ve got to get as much as you can for that vacancy because you don’t know when you’re going to see that apartment come vacant again,” Panzer said. “The better price I give you, the longer it’s going to be before I get a chance to make that money back.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are also first-come, first-served laws that require landlords to approve the first qualified application they receive. And there are anti-discrimination laws that don’t allow landlords to consider protected characteristics — including race, immigration status, familial status or source of income — when choosing a tenant, Fairweather said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You might come to your landlord and say ‘I have small kids’ or ‘I have an aging mother’ or ‘I’ve lived in this neighborhood forever,’ and those all might sound like innocent things to say,” she said. “But in housing, you’re not allowed to give preferential treatment to people based on their family status or these other protected characteristics.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Paul Griffiths, CEO and owner of Vesta Asset Management in San Francisco, a mid-size property management company, said today’s rental market has so much demand that it encourages pricing homes above market so there are fewer applicants to sift through. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101639\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01026_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain’s (not pictured) plants line a stairwell in the backyard of her complex in San Francisco on June 9, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If somebody calls me to say, ‘Can you offer less money?’ First of all, I don’t even have time to call that person back because I’m just scheduling the showings for 75 people,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Srain understands the competition is tough, but can’t help being frustrated by it. “It kind of makes me wonder, where’s the line? Where does it stop?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Srain grew up in Salinas, a mid-sized agricultural community about a two-hour drive south of San Francisco. She decided to move to the Bay Area in 2019 after she started dating someone in San José. She was working as a DoorDash driver and found a room in a three-bedroom house in Fremont for $750 a month. A couple rented one of the other rooms, and another person slept on a mattress in the garage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I’m freshly moved out of my parents’ house in this giant city that’s in a larger metropolitan area,” she said. “It was really, really exciting until I figured out what it meant to be housing-stable.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Within a week, another person moved into the remaining vacant room and then a stranger started living on the couch. She began to feel like she was living amongst strangers and didn’t have control over who entered or exited her home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said she witnessed drug use and domestic violence while living there, so she moved out. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For the next three years, Srain moved from apartment to apartment to find an affordable place to live. For some of that time, she lived with friends or in her car.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Having to move almost twice a year every year, it can lead to trauma, believe it or not,” Srain said. “I have been sent through the wringer so many times.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The fear of returning to a semi-nomadic lifestyle is part of what’s driving her current push to stay in San Francisco, and especially the neighborhood she’s called home for nearly two years — the longest she’s been in one place in the past decade.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It was in her Bernal Heights apartment where she finally got an opportunity to plant roots and build community. She got to know her neighbors, joined a dodgeball league nearby and volunteered at a nearby bookstore. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“This is one of the first places I’ve ever felt comfortable. I felt at home,” she said. “I know my neighbors, whether they’re on this street or down a few blocks. I’ve never had this before.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She also got involved in advocating for tenants rights. Srain became a community organizer with the nonprofit Faith in Action, which champions tenants’ rights, affordable housing and efforts to reduce homelessness. Earlier this year, she canvassed for a rent control measure the group supports that’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12090248/redwood-city-to-vote-on-rent-control-in-november\">headed to the November ballot in Redwood City\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Through that work, she spoke with small landlords and homeowners about the problems they face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01227_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101628\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01227_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01227_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260609-housingcrisisharlowsrain-TV-01227_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Harlow Srain poses for a portrait on the balcony of her housing unit in San Francisco on June 9, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I can understand that some homeowners are totally oblivious to the rental crisis because they have their own issues owning a home,” she said. “It has become really expensive with rising property taxes, [insurance], PG&E. It’s beginning to become unmanageable to own a home for some people.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She developed sympathy for small mom-and-pop landlords, who own just a building or two and face their own set of affordability issues. While cold-calling, she found they were more willing to explain how they set their rents and the profit they made on each unit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In one such call in January, Srain spoke with an older landlord who walked her through his costs to maintain a Pacifica apartment he was renting out, including details about his water bill, property taxes and how much profit he made. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It was only around $100 to $200 [in profit],” she said. “I was like, ‘Wow, this guy really walked me through this!’ That’s impressive.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But not all landlords are willing to entertain Srain’s questions. Of the hundreds she called, she said only around 50 actually picked up the phone and were willing to talk. Many times, she’s found they were unwilling to divulge their experiences. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And no one has been willing to lower the rent. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Griffiths said he understands Srain’s struggle. “I think, ethically, most people believe that housing is a human right.” But he said the United States — even California — doesn’t have enough housing to provide that right to everyone.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You can’t put the responsibility of saying, ‘Well, everybody should be housed, and it’s the landlord’s responsibility,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Fairweather argued that, if anyone is to blame, it’s local governments that largely control how much housing can be built. San Francisco, she said, has long \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12033966/sfs-single-family-home-neighborhoods-apartments-65-story-towers-downtown\">restricted development in certain neighborhoods, and while\u003c/a> city leaders have agreed to allow more housing in those parts of town, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12062042/report-projects-weak-housing-production-under-san-francisco-zoning-plan-over-next-20-years\">reports suggest\u003c/a> it may not make a dent in the city’s housing affordability crisis.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>In San Francisco, the problem is so far gone that we can’t just say ‘Get rid of single-family zoning,’ and everything will be fixed,” Fairweather said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Then again, she said, the reality is that there may never be enough apartments in San Francisco for everyone who would like to live there. “There’s no mathematical way around that. There are going to be some people who are left moving to other places because there physically aren’t enough units for everybody.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Srain knows her best option might be to move out of San Francisco to the East Bay, where it’s cheaper — something families have done for generations as the city has grown more expensive. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But she said that reality points to a broken system. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There are people living through so much worse right now in the Bay Area,” she said. “No one deserves that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "displaced-tenants-from-oakland-apartment-fire-say-they-lost-everything",
"title": "Displaced Tenants From Oakland Apartment Fire Say They Lost Everything",
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"headTitle": "Displaced Tenants From Oakland Apartment Fire Say They Lost Everything | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>José Pabon and his wife were eating in their \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/east-oakland\">East Oakland\u003c/a> apartment in the early hours of Friday morning when he said they heard a loud boom coming from down the hall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He ran out of their unit to look for the source of the noise, and said he found the hallway “already on fire.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We grabbed our daughter and ran out,” he told KQED in Spanish on Monday. “We started to yell because everything was already full of black smoke. People were yelling, and going out and asking for help.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Just after midnight, flames quickly tore through the four-story apartment building on the 5100 block of Bancroft Avenue, displacing dozens of residents and causing significant damage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260928-Oakland-Fire-Folo-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101638\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260928-Oakland-Fire-Folo-02-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260928-Oakland-Fire-Folo-02-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260928-Oakland-Fire-Folo-02-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Oakland Fire Department firefighters rescued people on multiple floors of a three-alarm fire in an apartment building at 5142 Bancroft Ave. in East Oakland on Sept. 25, 2026. (Courtesy of the Oakland Fire Department via Facebook)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>According to fire chief Damon Covington, crews arrived at the scene of the three-alarm fire just after 12:30 a.m. to find “heavy smoke and fire from all four floors.” He said firefighters performed rescues on multiple levels. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In total, around 70 people occupying 19 of the building’s 21 units were evacuated, and four were transported to local medical centers with injuries.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The city has set up a temporary shelter for tenants, and the Housing and Community Development Department is working with individuals and families to find longer-term shelter, according to spokesperson Sean Maher. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But many tenants who fled their apartments quickly now find themselves without their belongings or homes to return to. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Pabon said he was able to go back into his unit with a firefighter to grab a few things — a cell phone, car keys and some documents, but the rest is lost. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I got out with only my pants, without shoes or anything,” said Alberto Martin, who was asleep in the apartment he shared with three roommates before the sound of an explosion woke him up early Friday. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The fire was almost up to the windows,” he recalled Monday, on the verge of tears. “When we went to leave, the waves of fire were almost reaching us.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Parks and Recreation Department Supervisor Angelica Lopez said her department has been able to provide some clothing and basic essentials from emergency buckets that they keep at city recreation centers, and is working with partner organizations like St. Vincent DePaul to collect and distribute donations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since Friday, about 22 residents have been staying at the city’s temporary shelter, while some have opted to sleep in their cars and come in only for meals, and others have found their own places to stay, according to Lopez.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said the Red Cross was able to provide cots, and the center is serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Lopez said the shelter doesn’t yet have a closing date, and will remain available to all displaced tenants for the time being. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Pabon and his wife, who are both delivery drivers, said they stayed home from work on Monday while they try to determine what comes next for their family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re not in the headspace to work,” he said in Spanish. “We are worried because we do not know what is going to happen to us right now.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Martin, who usually works in construction, also planned to remain at the shelter so that he could attend a meeting with city officials, where he hoped to get more information about housing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Let’s see what God says, because here, one can’t say [what’s going to happen],” he told KQED in Spanish. “We don’t know who can help us.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The cause of the fire is under investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the fire started late Friday night – it has been updated to reflect that this incident occurred around midnight in the early hours of Friday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We grabbed our daughter and ran out,” he told KQED in Spanish on Monday. “We started to yell because everything was already full of black smoke. People were yelling, and going out and asking for help.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Just after midnight, flames quickly tore through the four-story apartment building on the 5100 block of Bancroft Avenue, displacing dozens of residents and causing significant damage.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to fire chief Damon Covington, crews arrived at the scene of the three-alarm fire just after 12:30 a.m. to find “heavy smoke and fire from all four floors.” He said firefighters performed rescues on multiple levels. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>According to fire chief Damon Covington, crews arrived at the scene of the three-alarm fire just after 12:30 a.m. to find “heavy smoke and fire from all four floors.” He said firefighters performed rescues on multiple levels. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In total, around 70 people occupying 19 of the building’s 21 units were evacuated, and four were transported to local medical centers with injuries.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The city has set up a temporary shelter for tenants, and the Housing and Community Development Department is working with individuals and families to find longer-term shelter, according to spokesperson Sean Maher. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But many tenants who fled their apartments quickly now find themselves without their belongings or homes to return to. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Pabon said he was able to go back into his unit with a firefighter to grab a few things — a cell phone, car keys and some documents, but the rest is lost. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I got out with only my pants, without shoes or anything,” said Alberto Martin, who was asleep in the apartment he shared with three roommates before the sound of an explosion woke him up early Friday. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I got out with only my pants, without shoes or anything,” said Alberto Martin, who was asleep in the apartment he shared with three roommates before the sound of an explosion woke him up early Friday. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The fire was almost up to the windows,” he recalled Monday, on the verge of tears. “When we went to leave, the waves of fire were almost reaching us.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Parks and Recreation Department Supervisor Angelica Lopez said her department has been able to provide some clothing and basic essentials from emergency buckets that they keep at city recreation centers, and is working with partner organizations like St. Vincent DePaul to collect and distribute donations. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Since Friday, about 22 residents have been staying at the city’s temporary shelter, while some have opted to sleep in their cars and come in only for meals, and others have found their own places to stay, according to Lopez.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>She said the Red Cross was able to provide cots, and the center is serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Lopez said the shelter doesn’t yet have a closing date, and will remain available to all displaced tenants for the time being. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>She said the Red Cross was able to provide cots, and the center is serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Lopez said the shelter doesn’t yet have a closing date, and will remain available to all displaced tenants for the time being. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Pabon and his wife, who are both delivery drivers, said they stayed home from work on Monday while they try to determine what comes next for their family.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We’re not in the headspace to work,” he said in Spanish. “We are worried because we do not know what is going to happen to us right now.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Martin, who usually works in construction, also planned to remain at the shelter so that he could attend a meeting with city officials, where he hoped to get more information about housing.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Martin, who usually works in construction, also planned to remain at the shelter so that he could attend a meeting with city officials, where he hoped to get more information about housing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Let’s see what God says, because here, one can’t say [what’s going to happen],” he told KQED in Spanish. “We don’t know who can help us.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Let’s see what God says, because here, one can’t say [what’s going to happen],” he told KQED in Spanish. “We don’t know who can help us.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The cause of the fire is under investigation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the fire started late Friday night – it has been updated to reflect that this incident occurred around midnight in the early hours of Friday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the fire started late Friday night – it has been updated to reflect that this incident occurred around midnight in the early hours of Friday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "Since Friday’s blaze, many tenants have either sought shelter at the Red Cross or in their cars, with the cause of the fire still under investigation.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>José Pabon and his wife were eating in their \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/east-oakland\">East Oakland\u003c/a> apartment in the early hours of Friday morning when he said they heard a loud boom coming from down the hall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He ran out of their unit to look for the source of the noise, and said he found the hallway “already on fire.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We grabbed our daughter and ran out,” he told KQED in Spanish on Monday. “We started to yell because everything was already full of black smoke. People were yelling, and going out and asking for help.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Just after midnight, flames quickly tore through the four-story apartment building on the 5100 block of Bancroft Avenue, displacing dozens of residents and causing significant damage.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260928-Oakland-Fire-Folo-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12101638\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260928-Oakland-Fire-Folo-02-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260928-Oakland-Fire-Folo-02-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/260928-Oakland-Fire-Folo-02-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Oakland Fire Department firefighters rescued people on multiple floors of a three-alarm fire in an apartment building at 5142 Bancroft Ave. in East Oakland on Sept. 25, 2026. (Courtesy of the Oakland Fire Department via Facebook)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>According to fire chief Damon Covington, crews arrived at the scene of the three-alarm fire just after 12:30 a.m. to find “heavy smoke and fire from all four floors.” He said firefighters performed rescues on multiple levels. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In total, around 70 people occupying 19 of the building’s 21 units were evacuated, and four were transported to local medical centers with injuries.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The city has set up a temporary shelter for tenants, and the Housing and Community Development Department is working with individuals and families to find longer-term shelter, according to spokesperson Sean Maher. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But many tenants who fled their apartments quickly now find themselves without their belongings or homes to return to. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Pabon said he was able to go back into his unit with a firefighter to grab a few things — a cell phone, car keys and some documents, but the rest is lost. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I got out with only my pants, without shoes or anything,” said Alberto Martin, who was asleep in the apartment he shared with three roommates before the sound of an explosion woke him up early Friday. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The fire was almost up to the windows,” he recalled Monday, on the verge of tears. “When we went to leave, the waves of fire were almost reaching us.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Parks and Recreation Department Supervisor Angelica Lopez said her department has been able to provide some clothing and basic essentials from emergency buckets that they keep at city recreation centers, and is working with partner organizations like St. Vincent DePaul to collect and distribute donations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Since Friday, about 22 residents have been staying at the city’s temporary shelter, while some have opted to sleep in their cars and come in only for meals, and others have found their own places to stay, according to Lopez.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>She said the Red Cross was able to provide cots, and the center is serving breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Lopez said the shelter doesn’t yet have a closing date, and will remain available to all displaced tenants for the time being. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Pabon and his wife, who are both delivery drivers, said they stayed home from work on Monday while they try to determine what comes next for their family.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We’re not in the headspace to work,” he said in Spanish. “We are worried because we do not know what is going to happen to us right now.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Martin, who usually works in construction, also planned to remain at the shelter so that he could attend a meeting with city officials, where he hoped to get more information about housing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Let’s see what God says, because here, one can’t say [what’s going to happen],” he told KQED in Spanish. “We don’t know who can help us.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The cause of the fire is under investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the fire started late Friday night – it has been updated to reflect that this incident occurred around midnight in the early hours of Friday.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "cities-often-squabble-over-homelessness-a-new-california-law-forces-one-community-to-try-something-different",
"title": "Cities Often Squabble Over Homelessness. A New California Law Forces One Community to Try Something Different",
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"headTitle": "Cities Often Squabble Over Homelessness. A New California Law Forces One Community to Try Something Different | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature is forcing the city and county of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sacramento\">Sacramento\u003c/a> to try something unusual in their fight against homelessness, and both critics and supporters of the controversial plan say it could have broad implications for the rest of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb802\">Senate Bill 802\u003c/a> on Sunday, which requires Sacramento, as well as all smaller cities within the county, to coordinate and form a joint powers authority that will lead the region’s homelessness response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Homelessness does not stop at jurisdictional boundaries,” Newsom wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Sign-msg-SB-802.pdf\">signing message\u003c/a>, “and no city or county can solve this crisis alone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A joint powers authority is a public partnership where two or more local governments or agencies team up to jointly manage something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, the idea is that this new framework will allow the cities and county to better communicate and work together on homelessness – hopefully leading to more people getting off the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say it’s a no-brainer, and they hope it will be an example to fix an age-old problem playing out in regions across the state: Cities and counties must work well together to effectively address homelessness, but they often don’t. On the other hand, opponents say forcing local governments to work together sets a bad precedent: Cooperation works best if it’s voluntary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062672\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062672\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-44-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-44-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-44-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-44-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a rally in support of Proposition 50 at IBEW Local 6 in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, this new experiment in co-governance is highly atypical for a number of reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one thing, this appears to be the first time the California Legislature has forced anyone to form a joint powers authority. Typically, those agreements are voluntary. In Sacramento, local jurisdictions chafing under this new mandate worry the new law will embolden the Legislature to do this again in other regions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This would be unprecedented, so it could have ramifications in 57 other counties,” said Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, who opposes the legislation. The county is threatening to sue the state to stop its implementation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, while it’s not uncommon for local governments to form joint powers authorities to manage other things that cross city boundaries — such as sewers or public transit — it’s very rare for this type of structure to govern a region’s homelessness response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, there were only \u003ca href=\"https://records.cityofsacramento.org/ViewDoc.aspx?ID=s6tFBnt4W+JMwYxfWbaMShVZ45n8cfdC\">three examples\u003c/a> in all of California, according to Joe Colletti, chief executive officer of the nonprofit research organization HUB for Urban Initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most well-known is the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/05/la-homeless-agency/\">Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority\u003c/a>, which recently has been \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/lahsa-bows-out-federal-roles-including-homeless-count-annual\">reduced\u003c/a> to a shell of its former self as a result of one headline-making \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2026/09/la-homeless-services-federal-charges/\">crisis\u003c/a> after \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2026/06/lahsa-hud-funding/\">another\u003c/a>. In the rest of the state, a region’s homelessness response usually is led by a county or nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Squabbling between cities and counties\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This legislation was controversial from the beginning. It took \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/angelique-ashby-165434\">Sen. Angelique Ashby\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Sacramento and former city councilmember, two years of tense negotiations and multiple amendments to get it across the finish line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final version allows the county and participating cities to keep control of their own funds, rather than pooling everything together — a major sticking point for the local governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sacramento region needed this legislation, Ashby argued during a recent committee hearing, because its various agencies have eight boards and nearly 90 board members working separately on homelessness without coordinating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is duplicated and inconsistent services, leaving people who are homeless in Sacramento County with no idea where they should go for help, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[aside postID=news_12100741 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/NationalWeatherServiceGetty-1920x1272.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a problem the city and county have tried to fix for more than two decades. In 2010, the county board of supervisors and city council approved resolutions that supported creating a joint powers authority, but it didn’t happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two separate grand jury reports, one in 2019 and another in 2023, said the region’s homelessness response was dysfunctional and recommended better coordination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hardly an issue unique to Sacramento. Across California, cities typically provide shelter beds, while counties are responsible for the other services homeless residents need, such as mental health and addiction treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because counties receive state funding for social services, and cities don’t. So, neither can effectively address homelessness unless they work together. But, frequently, they don’t. Instead, they \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/05/la-homeless-agency/\">often squabble\u003c/a> over who should pay for what, and who isn’t doing their fair share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fighting between neighboring cities is common, too. As unhoused people move across city lines, local governments argue over who should have to provide shelter beds and other resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a major frustration for former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. His constituents saw people on the street in mental health crisis, suffering. Voters demanded he do something, but his hands were largely tied, he said, as he had no control over the county’s mental health services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was just a major gulf between my accountability to the people and my authority to be able to actually make the difference that the people expected,” Steinberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12101493\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12101493\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/GettyImages-938822306-scaled-e1790376038997.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1321\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg speaks to members of the media about the investigation of the shooting death of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California on March 27, 2018. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During his time in office, which ended in 2024, Steinberg negotiated a partnership between the city and the county. But it lacked a governance structure that would have forced them to make decisions together. That’s the missing piece that this law brings to the table, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the new law, the city and county of Sacramento, as well as Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Folsom, have until January 2028 to finalize their joint powers authority. They recently convened a joint task force of elected officials, and have started working together on homelessness issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s some lingering tension. While the city of Sacramento is on board with the legislation, the county and the city of Folsom are opposed. Neither is against the idea of collaboration, but they don’t like that it’s being forced upon them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an unnecessary cost,” county Supervisor Kennedy said. “It’s an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy, it’s an unnecessary burden that’s just going to slow down processes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staffing and running the new joint powers authority is expected to have an annual price tag of anywhere between the mid-hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the low millions, according to a Senate analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Examples in Los Angeles and Solano counties\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the Sacramento region gears up to create this new power structure, it has two main examples it can turn to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One, in Los Angeles, is a cautionary tale. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint powers authority between the city and county, was the target of recent audits criticizing its handling of homelessness funds. A downward spiral followed. LA County pulled its funding from the authority and the Trump administration now is prosecuting homeless services providers that it alleges \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2026/09/la-homeless-services-federal-charges/\">misused money from the agency\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kennedy said the parallels between LA and Sacramento’s new agency worry him “very much,” and clearly show that a joint powers authority is hardly a panacea for homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Steinberg believes the new Sacramento agency can do better. The LA agency didn’t have enough authority, and as a result, the city and county weren’t governing effectively together, he said. He hopes that will be different in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12101495\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12101495 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/GettyImages-2286687889-scaled-e1790376676446.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los Angeles, CA – July 22: Skid Row in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. The area spans approximately 50 blocks and has the highest density of homeless people in the country. \u003ccite>(Hans Gutknecht-The Los Angeles Daily News/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The other example Sacramento leaders can turn to is in Solano County, which created the current version of its joint powers authority in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local leaders pushed for a collaborative agency after hearing reports that other cities were dropping off their homeless residents at parking lots in Fairfield, assuming that services would be available because it’s the county seat, said Doriss Panduro, a Fairfield city councilmember and chair of the joint powers authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the authority is made up of two elected officials from each city and the county, and they meet once a month to discuss how to spend money and how many people are receiving services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a big undertaking,” Panduro said. “We started the work in 2021, 2022, and here we are four years later just getting paid staff on board. It’s been a big lift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she said, it’s been worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, the county and all the cities involved in the joint powers authority applied together for state funding to clear one encampment along a flood control basin in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though Vallejo would be the only city to get that money, it arguably would benefit everyone since it targets the largest encampment in the county, Panduro said. And Vallejo wouldn’t have had the resources to manage the state grant without the support of everyone else, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Homelessness is such a big issue, and I think finding an out-of-the-box way to approach it, for me, I can only say it’s a positive,” she said. “Everyone felt like we had been doing the same things over and over and nothing was changing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2026/09/sacramento-county-city-jpa-homelessness/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "New legislation forces the city and county of Sacramento to collaborate on homelessness. Stakeholders say it could have repercussions California-wide.",
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"title": "Cities Often Squabble Over Homelessness. A New California Law Forces One Community to Try Something Different | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c!-- Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ -->\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published by \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters\u003c/a>. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/subscribe-to-calmatters/\">Sign up\u003c/a> for their newsletters.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislature is forcing the city and county of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/sacramento\">Sacramento\u003c/a> to try something unusual in their fight against homelessness, and both critics and supporters of the controversial plan say it could have broad implications for the rest of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/bills/ca_202520260sb802\">Senate Bill 802\u003c/a> on Sunday, which requires Sacramento, as well as all smaller cities within the county, to coordinate and form a joint powers authority that will lead the region’s homelessness response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Homelessness does not stop at jurisdictional boundaries,” Newsom wrote in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Sign-msg-SB-802.pdf\">signing message\u003c/a>, “and no city or county can solve this crisis alone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A joint powers authority is a public partnership where two or more local governments or agencies team up to jointly manage something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, the idea is that this new framework will allow the cities and county to better communicate and work together on homelessness – hopefully leading to more people getting off the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters say it’s a no-brainer, and they hope it will be an example to fix an age-old problem playing out in regions across the state: Cities and counties must work well together to effectively address homelessness, but they often don’t. On the other hand, opponents say forcing local governments to work together sets a bad precedent: Cooperation works best if it’s voluntary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062672\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062672\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-44-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-44-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-44-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251103-NewsomProp50Rally-44-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a rally in support of Proposition 50 at IBEW Local 6 in San Francisco on Nov. 3, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, this new experiment in co-governance is highly atypical for a number of reasons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For one thing, this appears to be the first time the California Legislature has forced anyone to form a joint powers authority. Typically, those agreements are voluntary. In Sacramento, local jurisdictions chafing under this new mandate worry the new law will embolden the Legislature to do this again in other regions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This would be unprecedented, so it could have ramifications in 57 other counties,” said Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, who opposes the legislation. The county is threatening to sue the state to stop its implementation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, while it’s not uncommon for local governments to form joint powers authorities to manage other things that cross city boundaries — such as sewers or public transit — it’s very rare for this type of structure to govern a region’s homelessness response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, there were only \u003ca href=\"https://records.cityofsacramento.org/ViewDoc.aspx?ID=s6tFBnt4W+JMwYxfWbaMShVZ45n8cfdC\">three examples\u003c/a> in all of California, according to Joe Colletti, chief executive officer of the nonprofit research organization HUB for Urban Initiatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most well-known is the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/05/la-homeless-agency/\">Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority\u003c/a>, which recently has been \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/lahsa-bows-out-federal-roles-including-homeless-count-annual\">reduced\u003c/a> to a shell of its former self as a result of one headline-making \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2026/09/la-homeless-services-federal-charges/\">crisis\u003c/a> after \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2026/06/lahsa-hud-funding/\">another\u003c/a>. In the rest of the state, a region’s homelessness response usually is led by a county or nonprofit.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Squabbling between cities and counties\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This legislation was controversial from the beginning. It took \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.digitaldemocracy.org/legislators/angelique-ashby-165434\">Sen. Angelique Ashby\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Sacramento and former city councilmember, two years of tense negotiations and multiple amendments to get it across the finish line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final version allows the county and participating cities to keep control of their own funds, rather than pooling everything together — a major sticking point for the local governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Sacramento region needed this legislation, Ashby argued during a recent committee hearing, because its various agencies have eight boards and nearly 90 board members working separately on homelessness without coordinating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The result is duplicated and inconsistent services, leaving people who are homeless in Sacramento County with no idea where they should go for help, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a problem the city and county have tried to fix for more than two decades. In 2010, the county board of supervisors and city council approved resolutions that supported creating a joint powers authority, but it didn’t happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two separate grand jury reports, one in 2019 and another in 2023, said the region’s homelessness response was dysfunctional and recommended better coordination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hardly an issue unique to Sacramento. Across California, cities typically provide shelter beds, while counties are responsible for the other services homeless residents need, such as mental health and addiction treatment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s because counties receive state funding for social services, and cities don’t. So, neither can effectively address homelessness unless they work together. But, frequently, they don’t. Instead, they \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/05/la-homeless-agency/\">often squabble\u003c/a> over who should pay for what, and who isn’t doing their fair share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fighting between neighboring cities is common, too. As unhoused people move across city lines, local governments argue over who should have to provide shelter beds and other resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a major frustration for former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. His constituents saw people on the street in mental health crisis, suffering. Voters demanded he do something, but his hands were largely tied, he said, as he had no control over the county’s mental health services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was just a major gulf between my accountability to the people and my authority to be able to actually make the difference that the people expected,” Steinberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12101493\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12101493\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/GettyImages-938822306-scaled-e1790376038997.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1321\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg speaks to members of the media about the investigation of the shooting death of Stephon Clark in Sacramento, California on March 27, 2018. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During his time in office, which ended in 2024, Steinberg negotiated a partnership between the city and the county. But it lacked a governance structure that would have forced them to make decisions together. That’s the missing piece that this law brings to the table, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the new law, the city and county of Sacramento, as well as Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Citrus Heights and Folsom, have until January 2028 to finalize their joint powers authority. They recently convened a joint task force of elected officials, and have started working together on homelessness issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s some lingering tension. While the city of Sacramento is on board with the legislation, the county and the city of Folsom are opposed. Neither is against the idea of collaboration, but they don’t like that it’s being forced upon them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an unnecessary cost,” county Supervisor Kennedy said. “It’s an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy, it’s an unnecessary burden that’s just going to slow down processes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Staffing and running the new joint powers authority is expected to have an annual price tag of anywhere between the mid-hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the low millions, according to a Senate analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Examples in Los Angeles and Solano counties\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the Sacramento region gears up to create this new power structure, it has two main examples it can turn to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One, in Los Angeles, is a cautionary tale. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint powers authority between the city and county, was the target of recent audits criticizing its handling of homelessness funds. A downward spiral followed. LA County pulled its funding from the authority and the Trump administration now is prosecuting homeless services providers that it alleges \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2026/09/la-homeless-services-federal-charges/\">misused money from the agency\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kennedy said the parallels between LA and Sacramento’s new agency worry him “very much,” and clearly show that a joint powers authority is hardly a panacea for homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Steinberg believes the new Sacramento agency can do better. The LA agency didn’t have enough authority, and as a result, the city and county weren’t governing effectively together, he said. He hopes that will be different in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12101495\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12101495 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/09/GettyImages-2286687889-scaled-e1790376676446.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los Angeles, CA – July 22: Skid Row in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. The area spans approximately 50 blocks and has the highest density of homeless people in the country. \u003ccite>(Hans Gutknecht-The Los Angeles Daily News/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The other example Sacramento leaders can turn to is in Solano County, which created the current version of its joint powers authority in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local leaders pushed for a collaborative agency after hearing reports that other cities were dropping off their homeless residents at parking lots in Fairfield, assuming that services would be available because it’s the county seat, said Doriss Panduro, a Fairfield city councilmember and chair of the joint powers authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the authority is made up of two elected officials from each city and the county, and they meet once a month to discuss how to spend money and how many people are receiving services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a big undertaking,” Panduro said. “We started the work in 2021, 2022, and here we are four years later just getting paid staff on board. It’s been a big lift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she said, it’s been worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, the county and all the cities involved in the joint powers authority applied together for state funding to clear one encampment along a flood control basin in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though Vallejo would be the only city to get that money, it arguably would benefit everyone since it targets the largest encampment in the county, Panduro said. And Vallejo wouldn’t have had the resources to manage the state grant without the support of everyone else, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Homelessness is such a big issue, and I think finding an out-of-the-box way to approach it, for me, I can only say it’s a positive,” she said. “Everyone felt like we had been doing the same things over and over and nothing was changing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2026/09/sacramento-county-city-jpa-homelessness/\">originally published on CalMatters\u003c/a> and was republished under the \u003ca href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives\u003c/a> license.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "even-in-a-hot-rental-market-what-renters-shouldnt-settle-on-when-looking-for-new-home",
"title": "Even in a Hot Rental Market, What Renters Shouldn’t Settle on When Looking for a New Home",
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"headTitle": "Even in a Hot Rental Market, What Renters Shouldn’t Settle on When Looking for a New Home | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Looking for a rental property in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> is not for the faint of heart — a fact Beyond Deng has come to understand very well.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The 26-year-old policy researcher has a few days left to find a new home, after his landlord sold the Mission District apartment Deng shares with two friends. To stay in the city, Deng is now searching for a new home in one of the country’s hottest rental markets. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the sky-high prices and intense competition weren’t even the biggest surprises, he said: “It was how \u003cem>little \u003c/em>I would get for so much that I would have to pay.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1391\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/GettyImages-2250030108-scaled-e1789077751622.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12078788\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An apartment-for-rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building on Dec. 4, 2025, in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Fueled in part by the AI boom, rents in San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/06/04/oakland-artificial-intelligence-ai-housing-rents-san-francisco/\">have risen\u003c/a> this year faster than anywhere else in the country — bringing with them \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12095536/after-the-18000-scam-how-can-bay-area-renters-protect-themselves\">a new breed of scams\u003c/a> — and the rest of the Bay Area is also \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/rent-price-apartment-oakland-22329281.php\">feeling the heat\u003c/a>. The few remaining options on the market, however, are forcing many renters to scale down their expectations \u003cem>even more\u003c/em> to find a home in the region.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One spot Deng considered was a \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/b/1000-1010-bush-street-san-francisco-ca-CkNrCG/\">110-square-foot room\u003c/a> with only a sink and a closet. The kitchen and bathroom were shared by more than a dozen other residents. Monthly rent for the property was listed at $1,400. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If I’m going to pay that much, let me just gather all my things, go back down South and try to find a whole house,” Houston-raised Deng joked.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A compromise too far?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other renters are looking into homes where tenants are already jostling for limited amenities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Álvaro Galván, a data scientist who just found a new rental spot, recalled visiting a three-bedroom home in the Excelsior District shared by seven people during his own search. When he asked about the TV in the living room, Galván said the existing tenants told him, “That’s our TV.” Meaning: “They could use the TV — but me, as their subtenant — could not,” he recalled.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>High prices and endless competition may encourage you to look for fewer amenities than you’d like, said San Francisco-based attorney and tenants’ rights advocate Joshua Ezrin. But there are actually “basic state rules governing habitability,” he warned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12051134\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in San Francisco’s Nob Hill on July 29, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And you should be very careful, he added, “about entering into any type of lease with a landlord that is knowingly renting a unit that is violating these basic state rules.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Think you could hypothetically live in a rented room with no natural lighting — and where the bathroom is located \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1ss42dp/is_there_a_place_to_warn_fellow_renters_of_bad/\">in a different building\u003c/a>? The law says something different, said Ora Prochovnick, director of litigation for the San Francisco renters’ rights group, Eviction Defense Collaborative. “You \u003cem>do \u003c/em>have rights and protections as a tenant,” she stressed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what legal experts recommend tenants should remember when looking for a new rental home in California — especially when a limited budget and a tight market might be forcing you to limit your expectations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does the law say homes in California need to have?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are several laws that detail what all living spaces — “dwelling” is the official term used —in California must have. These rules apply when you own the home you live in, or when you are renting a house, apartment or an individual room.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The home “has to be fit for a human being to live in,” said Prochovnick from Eviction Defense Collaborative. “It’s a pretty low bar to meet — but it is a requirement.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One law \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=17920.3.\">requires\u003c/a> all dwellings (including hotel rooms) to have the following:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>sink\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>A working \u003cstrong>heating system\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>toilet\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Shower \u003c/strong>or \u003cstrong>bathtub\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Electricity\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>ventilation system\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Some form of \u003cstrong>natural light\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.1.\">another law\u003c/a> specific to rental agreements goes even further: landlords have an \u003cem>immediate \u003c/em>obligation to comply with the standards above if they expect individuals to live in this home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As of this year, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12067581/in-2026-all-rental-homes-in-california-will-need-to-have-these-2-things\">also requires\u003c/a> rental homes to have a \u003cstrong>fridge \u003cem>and \u003c/em>a stove \u003c/strong>— and property owners must repair or replace them if they stop working.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If the home didn’t have a heater or fridge when you moved in, you can still ask your landlord to meet the state’s obligations after you’ve begun living there, as there’s no time limit on invoking these rights.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Tenants don’t waive their rights if there are problems when they move in,” Prochovnick said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And if you are renting an individual room in a house or large building but that room does not include its own private bathroom or kitchen, your landlord must grant you access to the bathroom and kitchen of that property. You have access to the shared amenities even if the space you are paying for does not explicitly include them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How can you flag problems \u003cem>before \u003c/em>you move in?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Renters absolutely have a right to ask property owners to follow state regulations even if they haven’t signed a lease yet, Prochovnick said. But she also acknowledged that some people may feel unsure — to put it mildly — about bringing issues up with a landlord during an interview or a crowded open house.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Yes, there’s a lot of competition for every unit, and you don’t want the landlord to think you’re a troublemaker from day one,” she said. “But this is something we have to weigh: How bad are the problems that you want to point them out now — or later?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And how a property owner responds to you asking a question about what the apartment has — or lacks — can also be an opportunity for you to learn how they may deal with future needs, added Ezrin, the San Francisco-based attorney.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12040031\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign on a house in San Francisco’s Mission District on March 31, 2020. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Are these going to be folks that will be responsive to your repair and maintenance requests?” he questioned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ezrin recommended that you get a record — in writing — from a prospective landlord outlining what problems will be fixed: “either in the lease itself, in a lease addendum or in some separate side agreement before you execute the lease.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Why is this important? So you have something in writing verifying the problem actually exists, Ezrin explained. This also means you’re putting the landlord “on notice of the issue,” he said, so that they can move forward with necessary repairs before you move into the home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There are folks who have no other options based on financial limitations and what the market has available,” he acknowledged. “So sometimes you’re going to concede points that you might not want to.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, “you should be very careful about entering into any type of lease with a landlord that knowingly is renting a unit that is violating the basic state rules governing habitability,” Ezrin warned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How small is \u003cem>too\u003c/em> small?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another thing many Bay Area tenants might grudgingly sacrifice to find a place that’s in their budget: space. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Craigslist, there are hundreds of \u003ca href=\"http://craigslist.org/search/city/san-francisco-ca?cat=roo&max_price=1500&min_price=0&postal=94110&radius=10#search=2~gallery~27\">Bay Area listings\u003c/a> for homes with three or more people already sharing the space — and of course, some San Franciscans are even paying $700 per month for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080289/700-a-month-sleeping-pods-make-sf-more-affordable-but-at-what-cost\">a bunk bed\u003c/a> in a room with 30 other adults.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But even in a very crowded home, state law requires minimum physical requirements for those inhabitants. The ceiling height must be at least 7 feet, 6 inches. “You have to be able to stand up straight without bumping your head,” said Prochovnick.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12058552\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building in San Francisco’s Nob Hill on July 29, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>State law also \u003ca href=\"https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/paloalto/latest/paloalto_ca/0-0-0-87716\">dictates\u003c/a> that every dwelling must be a minimum of 70 square feet, she said — which includes bedrooms. And if you’re renting just a bed in a room that’s shared with other people, the room where you all sleep in must be bigger than 70 square feet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You also have a right to privacy within the space that you are paying for. Even if you are renting a room in a friend or family member’s home, they cannot enter your bedroom without a proper reason and proper notice, Prochovnick said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One of those reasons could be that you have invited your landlord to enter your room, or there’s an emergency. Otherwise, your landlord can \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1954.&lawCode=CIV\">come in only\u003c/a> to:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Make necessary or agreed-upon repairs.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Inspect the room’s condition at the start or end of your lease.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Show the space to a potential tenant.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And if any of these conditions apply, your landlord still needs to let you know — in writing — that they’ll be entering at least 24 hours in advance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Knowing what the state requires can help you understand what your privacy would look like in any rental home you’re looking at.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Think ahead of time: What will be your private space?” said Prochovnick. If you’ve rented only a bedroom in the landlord’s home, your right to privacy applies \u003cem>only \u003c/em>to that bedroom, she added. “The landlord doesn’t have to give you notice if they’re coming in the garage or the stairway.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you feel that a home you’re looking to rent already has a lot of people living in it, have a clear understanding of who you have a lease with — is it the landlord or another tenant? If it’s another tenant, check what the main (or “original”) lease says about the maximum number of occupants in the home, Prochovnick advised.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You might feel like bringing in a roommate is just bringing in a roommate,” she said. “But legally that’s subletting, and that could be a violation of your lease if you’re not doing it with prior written consent from the landlord.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Fueled in part by the AI boom, rents in San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/06/04/oakland-artificial-intelligence-ai-housing-rents-san-francisco/\">have risen\u003c/a> this year faster than anywhere else in the country — bringing with them \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12095536/after-the-18000-scam-how-can-bay-area-renters-protect-themselves\">a new breed of scams\u003c/a> — and the rest of the Bay Area is also \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/rent-price-apartment-oakland-22329281.php\">feeling the heat\u003c/a>. The few remaining options on the market, however, are forcing many renters to scale down their expectations \u003cem>even more\u003c/em> to find a home in the region.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Fueled in part by the AI boom, rents in San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/06/04/oakland-artificial-intelligence-ai-housing-rents-san-francisco/\">have risen\u003c/a> this year faster than anywhere else in the country — bringing with them \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12095536/after-the-18000-scam-how-can-bay-area-renters-protect-themselves\">a new breed of scams\u003c/a> — and the rest of the Bay Area is also \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/rent-price-apartment-oakland-22329281.php\">feeling the heat\u003c/a>. The few remaining options on the market, however, are forcing many renters to scale down their expectations \u003cem>even more\u003c/em> to find a home in the region.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One spot Deng considered was a \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/b/1000-1010-bush-street-san-francisco-ca-CkNrCG/\">110-square-foot room\u003c/a> with only a sink and a closet. The kitchen and bathroom were shared by more than a dozen other residents. Monthly rent for the property was listed at $1,400. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>One spot Deng considered was a \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/b/1000-1010-bush-street-san-francisco-ca-CkNrCG/\">110-square-foot room\u003c/a> with only a sink and a closet. The kitchen and bathroom were shared by more than a dozen other residents. Monthly rent for the property was listed at $1,400. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“If I’m going to pay that much, let me just gather all my things, go back down South and try to find a whole house,” Houston-raised Deng joked.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“If I’m going to pay that much, let me just gather all my things, go back down South and try to find a whole house,” Houston-raised Deng joked.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "A compromise too far?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A compromise too far?\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A compromise too far?\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Other renters are looking into homes where tenants are already jostling for limited amenities. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Other renters are looking into homes where tenants are already jostling for limited amenities. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Álvaro Galván, a data scientist who just found a new rental spot, recalled visiting a three-bedroom home in the Excelsior District shared by seven people during his own search. When he asked about the TV in the living room, Galván said the existing tenants told him, “That’s our TV.” Meaning: “They could use the TV — but me, as their subtenant — could not,” he recalled.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Álvaro Galván, a data scientist who just found a new rental spot, recalled visiting a three-bedroom home in the Excelsior District shared by seven people during his own search. When he asked about the TV in the living room, Galván said the existing tenants told him, “That’s our TV.” Meaning: “They could use the TV — but me, as their subtenant — could not,” he recalled.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>High prices and endless competition may encourage you to look for fewer amenities than you’d like, said San Francisco-based attorney and tenants’ rights advocate Joshua Ezrin. But there are actually “basic state rules governing habitability,” he warned.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>High prices and endless competition may encourage you to look for fewer amenities than you’d like, said San Francisco-based attorney and tenants’ rights advocate Joshua Ezrin. But there are actually “basic state rules governing habitability,” he warned.\u003c/p>\n"
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12051134\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in San Francisco’s Nob Hill on July 29, 2021.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12051134\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in San Francisco’s Nob Hill on July 29, 2021.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And you should be very careful, he added, “about entering into any type of lease with a landlord that is knowingly renting a unit that is violating these basic state rules.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And you should be very careful, he added, “about entering into any type of lease with a landlord that is knowingly renting a unit that is violating these basic state rules.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Think you could hypothetically live in a rented room with no natural lighting — and where the bathroom is located \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1ss42dp/is_there_a_place_to_warn_fellow_renters_of_bad/\">in a different building\u003c/a>? The law says something different, said Ora Prochovnick, director of litigation for the San Francisco renters’ rights group, Eviction Defense Collaborative. “You \u003cem>do \u003c/em>have rights and protections as a tenant,” she stressed.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Think you could hypothetically live in a rented room with no natural lighting — and where the bathroom is located \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1ss42dp/is_there_a_place_to_warn_fellow_renters_of_bad/\">in a different building\u003c/a>? The law says something different, said Ora Prochovnick, director of litigation for the San Francisco renters’ rights group, Eviction Defense Collaborative. “You \u003cem>do \u003c/em>have rights and protections as a tenant,” she stressed.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what legal experts recommend tenants should remember when looking for a new rental home in California — especially when a limited budget and a tight market might be forcing you to limit your expectations. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what legal experts recommend tenants should remember when looking for a new rental home in California — especially when a limited budget and a tight market might be forcing you to limit your expectations. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "What does the law say homes in California need to have?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does the law say homes in California need to have?\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does the law say homes in California need to have?\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There are several laws that detail what all living spaces — “dwelling” is the official term used —in California must have. These rules apply when you own the home you live in, or when you are renting a house, apartment or an individual room.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>There are several laws that detail what all living spaces — “dwelling” is the official term used —in California must have. These rules apply when you own the home you live in, or when you are renting a house, apartment or an individual room.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The home “has to be fit for a human being to live in,” said Prochovnick from Eviction Defense Collaborative. “It’s a pretty low bar to meet — but it is a requirement.”\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The home “has to be fit for a human being to live in,” said Prochovnick from Eviction Defense Collaborative. “It’s a pretty low bar to meet — but it is a requirement.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One law \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=17920.3.\">requires\u003c/a> all dwellings (including hotel rooms) to have the following:\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One law \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=17920.3.\">requires\u003c/a> all dwellings (including hotel rooms) to have the following:\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003c/ul>\n",
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"\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>sink\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n",
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"\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>sink\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/list-item",
"attrs": [],
"innerBlocks": [],
"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>A working \u003cstrong>heating system\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n",
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"\n\u003cli>A working \u003cstrong>heating system\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n"
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{
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"attrs": [],
"innerBlocks": [],
"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>toilet\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n",
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"\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>toilet\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Shower \u003c/strong>or \u003cstrong>bathtub\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Shower \u003c/strong>or \u003cstrong>bathtub\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Electricity\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Electricity\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n"
]
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>ventilation system\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n",
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"\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>ventilation system\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n"
]
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>Some form of \u003cstrong>natural light\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cli>Some form of \u003cstrong>natural light\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.1.\">another law\u003c/a> specific to rental agreements goes even further: landlords have an \u003cem>immediate \u003c/em>obligation to comply with the standards above if they expect individuals to live in this home. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.1.\">another law\u003c/a> specific to rental agreements goes even further: landlords have an \u003cem>immediate \u003c/em>obligation to comply with the standards above if they expect individuals to live in this home. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As of this year, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12067581/in-2026-all-rental-homes-in-california-will-need-to-have-these-2-things\">also requires\u003c/a> rental homes to have a \u003cstrong>fridge \u003cem>and \u003c/em>a stove \u003c/strong>— and property owners must repair or replace them if they stop working.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>As of this year, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12067581/in-2026-all-rental-homes-in-california-will-need-to-have-these-2-things\">also requires\u003c/a> rental homes to have a \u003cstrong>fridge \u003cem>and \u003c/em>a stove \u003c/strong>— and property owners must repair or replace them if they stop working.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If the home didn’t have a heater or fridge when you moved in, you can still ask your landlord to meet the state’s obligations after you’ve begun living there, as there’s no time limit on invoking these rights.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>If the home didn’t have a heater or fridge when you moved in, you can still ask your landlord to meet the state’s obligations after you’ve begun living there, as there’s no time limit on invoking these rights.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Tenants don’t waive their rights if there are problems when they move in,” Prochovnick said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Tenants don’t waive their rights if there are problems when they move in,” Prochovnick said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And if you are renting an individual room in a house or large building but that room does not include its own private bathroom or kitchen, your landlord must grant you access to the bathroom and kitchen of that property. You have access to the shared amenities even if the space you are paying for does not explicitly include them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And if you are renting an individual room in a house or large building but that room does not include its own private bathroom or kitchen, your landlord must grant you access to the bathroom and kitchen of that property. You have access to the shared amenities even if the space you are paying for does not explicitly include them.\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "How can you flag problems before you move in?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How can you flag problems \u003cem>before \u003c/em>you move in?\u003c/h2>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How can you flag problems \u003cem>before \u003c/em>you move in?\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Renters absolutely have a right to ask property owners to follow state regulations even if they haven’t signed a lease yet, Prochovnick said. But she also acknowledged that some people may feel unsure — to put it mildly — about bringing issues up with a landlord during an interview or a crowded open house.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Renters absolutely have a right to ask property owners to follow state regulations even if they haven’t signed a lease yet, Prochovnick said. But she also acknowledged that some people may feel unsure — to put it mildly — about bringing issues up with a landlord during an interview or a crowded open house.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Yes, there’s a lot of competition for every unit, and you don’t want the landlord to think you’re a troublemaker from day one,” she said. “But this is something we have to weigh: How bad are the problems that you want to point them out now — or later?”\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“Yes, there’s a lot of competition for every unit, and you don’t want the landlord to think you’re a troublemaker from day one,” she said. “But this is something we have to weigh: How bad are the problems that you want to point them out now — or later?”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And how a property owner responds to you asking a question about what the apartment has — or lacks — can also be an opportunity for you to learn how they may deal with future needs, added Ezrin, the San Francisco-based attorney.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>And how a property owner responds to you asking a question about what the apartment has — or lacks — can also be an opportunity for you to learn how they may deal with future needs, added Ezrin, the San Francisco-based attorney.\u003c/p>\n"
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12040031\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign on a house in San Francisco’s Mission District on March 31, 2020.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12040031\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign on a house in San Francisco’s Mission District on March 31, 2020.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Are these going to be folks that will be responsive to your repair and maintenance requests?” he questioned.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ezrin recommended that you get a record — in writing — from a prospective landlord outlining what problems will be fixed: “either in the lease itself, in a lease addendum or in some separate side agreement before you execute the lease.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ezrin recommended that you get a record — in writing — from a prospective landlord outlining what problems will be fixed: “either in the lease itself, in a lease addendum or in some separate side agreement before you execute the lease.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Why is this important? So you have something in writing verifying the problem actually exists, Ezrin explained. This also means you’re putting the landlord “on notice of the issue,” he said, so that they can move forward with necessary repairs before you move into the home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Why is this important? So you have something in writing verifying the problem actually exists, Ezrin explained. This also means you’re putting the landlord “on notice of the issue,” he said, so that they can move forward with necessary repairs before you move into the home.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There are folks who have no other options based on financial limitations and what the market has available,” he acknowledged. “So sometimes you’re going to concede points that you might not want to.” \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“There are folks who have no other options based on financial limitations and what the market has available,” he acknowledged. “So sometimes you’re going to concede points that you might not want to.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, “you should be very careful about entering into any type of lease with a landlord that knowingly is renting a unit that is violating the basic state rules governing habitability,” Ezrin warned.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, “you should be very careful about entering into any type of lease with a landlord that knowingly is renting a unit that is violating the basic state rules governing habitability,” Ezrin warned.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Another thing many Bay Area tenants might grudgingly sacrifice to find a place that’s in their budget: space. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Another thing many Bay Area tenants might grudgingly sacrifice to find a place that’s in their budget: space. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On Craigslist, there are hundreds of \u003ca href=\"http://craigslist.org/search/city/san-francisco-ca?cat=roo&max_price=1500&min_price=0&postal=94110&radius=10#search=2~gallery~27\">Bay Area listings\u003c/a> for homes with three or more people already sharing the space — and of course, some San Franciscans are even paying $700 per month for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080289/700-a-month-sleeping-pods-make-sf-more-affordable-but-at-what-cost\">a bunk bed\u003c/a> in a room with 30 other adults.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On Craigslist, there are hundreds of \u003ca href=\"http://craigslist.org/search/city/san-francisco-ca?cat=roo&max_price=1500&min_price=0&postal=94110&radius=10#search=2~gallery~27\">Bay Area listings\u003c/a> for homes with three or more people already sharing the space — and of course, some San Franciscans are even paying $700 per month for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080289/700-a-month-sleeping-pods-make-sf-more-affordable-but-at-what-cost\">a bunk bed\u003c/a> in a room with 30 other adults.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But even in a very crowded home, state law requires minimum physical requirements for those inhabitants. The ceiling height must be at least 7 feet, 6 inches. “You have to be able to stand up straight without bumping your head,” said Prochovnick.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But even in a very crowded home, state law requires minimum physical requirements for those inhabitants. The ceiling height must be at least 7 feet, 6 inches. “You have to be able to stand up straight without bumping your head,” said Prochovnick.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12058552\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building in San Francisco’s Nob Hill on July 29, 2021.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12058552\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building in San Francisco’s Nob Hill on July 29, 2021.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>State law also \u003ca href=\"https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/paloalto/latest/paloalto_ca/0-0-0-87716\">dictates\u003c/a> that every dwelling must be a minimum of 70 square feet, she said — which includes bedrooms. And if you’re renting just a bed in a room that’s shared with other people, the room where you all sleep in must be bigger than 70 square feet.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>State law also \u003ca href=\"https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/paloalto/latest/paloalto_ca/0-0-0-87716\">dictates\u003c/a> that every dwelling must be a minimum of 70 square feet, she said — which includes bedrooms. And if you’re renting just a bed in a room that’s shared with other people, the room where you all sleep in must be bigger than 70 square feet.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>You also have a right to privacy within the space that you are paying for. Even if you are renting a room in a friend or family member’s home, they cannot enter your bedroom without a proper reason and proper notice, Prochovnick said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One of those reasons could be that you have invited your landlord to enter your room, or there’s an emergency. Otherwise, your landlord can \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1954.&lawCode=CIV\">come in only\u003c/a> to:\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One of those reasons could be that you have invited your landlord to enter your room, or there’s an emergency. Otherwise, your landlord can \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1954.&lawCode=CIV\">come in only\u003c/a> to:\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And if any of these conditions apply, your landlord still needs to let you know — in writing — that they’ll be entering at least 24 hours in advance.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And if any of these conditions apply, your landlord still needs to let you know — in writing — that they’ll be entering at least 24 hours in advance.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Knowing what the state requires can help you understand what your privacy would look like in any rental home you’re looking at.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Think ahead of time: What will be your private space?” said Prochovnick. If you’ve rented only a bedroom in the landlord’s home, your right to privacy applies \u003cem>only \u003c/em>to that bedroom, she added. “The landlord doesn’t have to give you notice if they’re coming in the garage or the stairway.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Think ahead of time: What will be your private space?” said Prochovnick. If you’ve rented only a bedroom in the landlord’s home, your right to privacy applies \u003cem>only \u003c/em>to that bedroom, she added. “The landlord doesn’t have to give you notice if they’re coming in the garage or the stairway.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If you feel that a home you’re looking to rent already has a lot of people living in it, have a clear understanding of who you have a lease with — is it the landlord or another tenant? If it’s another tenant, check what the main (or “original”) lease says about the maximum number of occupants in the home, Prochovnick advised.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>If you feel that a home you’re looking to rent already has a lot of people living in it, have a clear understanding of who you have a lease with — is it the landlord or another tenant? If it’s another tenant, check what the main (or “original”) lease says about the maximum number of occupants in the home, Prochovnick advised.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“You might feel like bringing in a roommate is just bringing in a roommate,” she said. “But legally that’s subletting, and that could be a violation of your lease if you’re not doing it with prior written consent from the landlord.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“You might feel like bringing in a roommate is just bringing in a roommate,” she said. “But legally that’s subletting, and that could be a violation of your lease if you’re not doing it with prior written consent from the landlord.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "Less space, natural light and, sometimes, no bathroom — many Bay Area renters are seeing fewer homes within their budget. But legal experts say there are some compromises you shouldn’t have to make, even if you're desperate to secure a spot.\n",
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"title": "Even in a Hot Rental Market, What Renters Shouldn’t Settle on When Looking for a New Home | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Looking for a rental property in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> is not for the faint of heart — a fact Beyond Deng has come to understand very well.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The 26-year-old policy researcher has a few days left to find a new home, after his landlord sold the Mission District apartment Deng shares with two friends. To stay in the city, Deng is now searching for a new home in one of the country’s hottest rental markets. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the sky-high prices and intense competition weren’t even the biggest surprises, he said: “It was how \u003cem>little \u003c/em>I would get for so much that I would have to pay.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1391\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/GettyImages-2250030108-scaled-e1789077751622.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12078788\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An apartment-for-rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building on Dec. 4, 2025, in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Fueled in part by the AI boom, rents in San Francisco \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/06/04/oakland-artificial-intelligence-ai-housing-rents-san-francisco/\">have risen\u003c/a> this year faster than anywhere else in the country — bringing with them \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12095536/after-the-18000-scam-how-can-bay-area-renters-protect-themselves\">a new breed of scams\u003c/a> — and the rest of the Bay Area is also \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/rent-price-apartment-oakland-22329281.php\">feeling the heat\u003c/a>. The few remaining options on the market, however, are forcing many renters to scale down their expectations \u003cem>even more\u003c/em> to find a home in the region.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One spot Deng considered was a \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/b/1000-1010-bush-street-san-francisco-ca-CkNrCG/\">110-square-foot room\u003c/a> with only a sink and a closet. The kitchen and bathroom were shared by more than a dozen other residents. Monthly rent for the property was listed at $1,400. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If I’m going to pay that much, let me just gather all my things, go back down South and try to find a whole house,” Houston-raised Deng joked.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A compromise too far?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other renters are looking into homes where tenants are already jostling for limited amenities. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Álvaro Galván, a data scientist who just found a new rental spot, recalled visiting a three-bedroom home in the Excelsior District shared by seven people during his own search. When he asked about the TV in the living room, Galván said the existing tenants told him, “That’s our TV.” Meaning: “They could use the TV — but me, as their subtenant — could not,” he recalled.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>High prices and endless competition may encourage you to look for fewer amenities than you’d like, said San Francisco-based attorney and tenants’ rights advocate Joshua Ezrin. But there are actually “basic state rules governing habitability,” he warned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12051134\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/018_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in San Francisco’s Nob Hill on July 29, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And you should be very careful, he added, “about entering into any type of lease with a landlord that is knowingly renting a unit that is violating these basic state rules.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Think you could hypothetically live in a rented room with no natural lighting — and where the bathroom is located \u003ca href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1ss42dp/is_there_a_place_to_warn_fellow_renters_of_bad/\">in a different building\u003c/a>? The law says something different, said Ora Prochovnick, director of litigation for the San Francisco renters’ rights group, Eviction Defense Collaborative. “You \u003cem>do \u003c/em>have rights and protections as a tenant,” she stressed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what legal experts recommend tenants should remember when looking for a new rental home in California — especially when a limited budget and a tight market might be forcing you to limit your expectations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does the law say homes in California need to have?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are several laws that detail what all living spaces — “dwelling” is the official term used —in California must have. These rules apply when you own the home you live in, or when you are renting a house, apartment or an individual room.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The home “has to be fit for a human being to live in,” said Prochovnick from Eviction Defense Collaborative. “It’s a pretty low bar to meet — but it is a requirement.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One law \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC§ionNum=17920.3.\">requires\u003c/a> all dwellings (including hotel rooms) to have the following:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>sink\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>A working \u003cstrong>heating system\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>toilet\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Shower \u003c/strong>or \u003cstrong>bathtub\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Electricity\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>A \u003cstrong>ventilation system\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Some form of \u003cstrong>natural light\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1941.1.\">another law\u003c/a> specific to rental agreements goes even further: landlords have an \u003cem>immediate \u003c/em>obligation to comply with the standards above if they expect individuals to live in this home. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As of this year, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12067581/in-2026-all-rental-homes-in-california-will-need-to-have-these-2-things\">also requires\u003c/a> rental homes to have a \u003cstrong>fridge \u003cem>and \u003c/em>a stove \u003c/strong>— and property owners must repair or replace them if they stop working.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If the home didn’t have a heater or fridge when you moved in, you can still ask your landlord to meet the state’s obligations after you’ve begun living there, as there’s no time limit on invoking these rights.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Tenants don’t waive their rights if there are problems when they move in,” Prochovnick said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And if you are renting an individual room in a house or large building but that room does not include its own private bathroom or kitchen, your landlord must grant you access to the bathroom and kitchen of that property. You have access to the shared amenities even if the space you are paying for does not explicitly include them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How can you flag problems \u003cem>before \u003c/em>you move in?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Renters absolutely have a right to ask property owners to follow state regulations even if they haven’t signed a lease yet, Prochovnick said. But she also acknowledged that some people may feel unsure — to put it mildly — about bringing issues up with a landlord during an interview or a crowded open house.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Yes, there’s a lot of competition for every unit, and you don’t want the landlord to think you’re a troublemaker from day one,” she said. “But this is something we have to weigh: How bad are the problems that you want to point them out now — or later?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And how a property owner responds to you asking a question about what the apartment has — or lacks — can also be an opportunity for you to learn how they may deal with future needs, added Ezrin, the San Francisco-based attorney.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12040031\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/05/002_KQED_SanFrancisco_RentStrike_03312020_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign on a house in San Francisco’s Mission District on March 31, 2020. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Are these going to be folks that will be responsive to your repair and maintenance requests?” he questioned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ezrin recommended that you get a record — in writing — from a prospective landlord outlining what problems will be fixed: “either in the lease itself, in a lease addendum or in some separate side agreement before you execute the lease.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Why is this important? So you have something in writing verifying the problem actually exists, Ezrin explained. This also means you’re putting the landlord “on notice of the issue,” he said, so that they can move forward with necessary repairs before you move into the home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There are folks who have no other options based on financial limitations and what the market has available,” he acknowledged. “So sometimes you’re going to concede points that you might not want to.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nonetheless, “you should be very careful about entering into any type of lease with a landlord that knowingly is renting a unit that is violating the basic state rules governing habitability,” Ezrin warned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How small is \u003cem>too\u003c/em> small?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another thing many Bay Area tenants might grudgingly sacrifice to find a place that’s in their budget: space. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Craigslist, there are hundreds of \u003ca href=\"http://craigslist.org/search/city/san-francisco-ca?cat=roo&max_price=1500&min_price=0&postal=94110&radius=10#search=2~gallery~27\">Bay Area listings\u003c/a> for homes with three or more people already sharing the space — and of course, some San Franciscans are even paying $700 per month for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080289/700-a-month-sleeping-pods-make-sf-more-affordable-but-at-what-cost\">a bunk bed\u003c/a> in a room with 30 other adults.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But even in a very crowded home, state law requires minimum physical requirements for those inhabitants. The ceiling height must be at least 7 feet, 6 inches. “You have to be able to stand up straight without bumping your head,” said Prochovnick.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12058552\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/012_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A for-rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building in San Francisco’s Nob Hill on July 29, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>State law also \u003ca href=\"https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/paloalto/latest/paloalto_ca/0-0-0-87716\">dictates\u003c/a> that every dwelling must be a minimum of 70 square feet, she said — which includes bedrooms. And if you’re renting just a bed in a room that’s shared with other people, the room where you all sleep in must be bigger than 70 square feet.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>You also have a right to privacy within the space that you are paying for. Even if you are renting a room in a friend or family member’s home, they cannot enter your bedroom without a proper reason and proper notice, Prochovnick said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One of those reasons could be that you have invited your landlord to enter your room, or there’s an emergency. Otherwise, your landlord can \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1954.&lawCode=CIV\">come in only\u003c/a> to:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Make necessary or agreed-upon repairs.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Inspect the room’s condition at the start or end of your lease.\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>Show the space to a potential tenant.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And if any of these conditions apply, your landlord still needs to let you know — in writing — that they’ll be entering at least 24 hours in advance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Knowing what the state requires can help you understand what your privacy would look like in any rental home you’re looking at.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Think ahead of time: What will be your private space?” said Prochovnick. If you’ve rented only a bedroom in the landlord’s home, your right to privacy applies \u003cem>only \u003c/em>to that bedroom, she added. “The landlord doesn’t have to give you notice if they’re coming in the garage or the stairway.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you feel that a home you’re looking to rent already has a lot of people living in it, have a clear understanding of who you have a lease with — is it the landlord or another tenant? If it’s another tenant, check what the main (or “original”) lease says about the maximum number of occupants in the home, Prochovnick advised.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You might feel like bringing in a roommate is just bringing in a roommate,” she said. “But legally that’s subletting, and that could be a violation of your lease if you’re not doing it with prior written consent from the landlord.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-francisco-housing-group-files-lawsuit-opposing-marina-safeway-project",
"title": "San Francisco Housing Group Files Lawsuit Opposing Marina Safeway Project",
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"headTitle": "San Francisco Housing Group Files Lawsuit Opposing Marina Safeway Project | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Opponents of a high-rise housing and commercial building proposal on the footprint of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12092328/can-wealthy-san-francisco-residents-stop-a-massive-housing-redevelopment-project\">Marina District’s Safeway\u003c/a> have filed a lawsuit against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, their latest effort to stop the controversial development.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The YesAND Foundation, a new housing nonprofit in the city, along with four Marina District residents, allege that the city is unlawfully pushing the proposal through a streamlined approval process under a state housing law, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923146/these-california-affordable-housing-bills-could-create-more-than-a-million-apartments-if-labor-unions-can-agree-on-terms\">Assembly Bill 2011\u003c/a>, that it is not eligible to use. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Federal Court last week, also contends that the city exempted the project’s developer, Align Real Estate, from performing hazardous-waste assessments on the site.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Neighborhood organizations followed the established process first,” said Lori Brooke, a member of YesAND and NeighborsUnited SF, a coalition of neighborhood businesses and organizations that also joined the suit. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1186\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED-160x95.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED-1536x911.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Safeway at 15 Marina Blvd. in San Francisco, where developer Align Real Estate has proposed 848 apartments. \u003cbr> (Courtesy of Arquitectonica)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Brooke said that residents have written to the planning and public health departments, and they spent months asking for an environmental assessment, all without success. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They turned to a legal suit after the city decided in August that the building plans from Align could move forward for approval through a ministerial process that skirts public hearings and environmental reviews, as long as certain criteria are met. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We were not asking for a veto,” she said. “We were asking for proper review and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. When both are denied, the courts become the only option left.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Last December, Align applied to demolish the Safeway at 11 and 15 Marina Blvd. and replace it with a two-tower mixed-use commercial and housing development. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The proposal was met with swift opposition from neighbors and has split local officials, some of whom say it would tower over the surrounding neighborhood and could obstruct Bay views. The 18-plus-story glass towers, right on the waterline of the affluent Marina District, would be especially stark. Erin Roach, the president of the Marina Community Association, previously told KQED that the building would be “roughly six times taller than anything around it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who represents the area, have both previously opposed the project. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherrill and a coalition of residents asked the city in June to find the site ineligible for development under AB 2011, arguing that the law requires at least 75% of the site’s perimeter to adjoin to parcels developed with “urban uses,” while they said Fort Mason and another city-owned parcel surrounding the Safeway are restricted for maritime and recreational use.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The planning department wrote in response that it considers the site surrounded by urban uses. Planning Director Sarah Dennis Phillips also wrote in a July 20 letter that the property is not on a list of hazardous waste sites in the state. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other city supervisors, along with state Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, both of whom worked on AB 2011, have expressed support for the project, which would provide more than 800 new residential units, including 86 affordable homes — as the city races to meet lofty state goals to build \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/news/2025-03-19/why-and-where-san-francisco-needs-allow-more-homes-housing-element-primer\">82,000 housing units\u003c/a> by 2031.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The streamlined approval process created by the law exempts projects from Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors votes, as well as a California Environmental Quality Act review. The project also uses California’s “density bonus” law that lets developers override local zoning requirements and build taller, so long as they include affordable units.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs are asking a judge to reverse the city’s streamlining decision and require Align to comply with and complete all health and safety requirements before the project can move forward. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Blue trucks with 'pg and e' logo on them sit parked in a lot with the white and black blurry pattern of a fence in the foreground\" class=\"wp-image-11943199\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">PG&E trucks sit inside a Mission District facility owned by the utility. (Sheraz Sadiq/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The legal challenge also accuses the city and PG&E, which operated a manufactured gas plant and steam electric plant on the site, of creating a public nuisance. It furthermore alleges negligence for failing to fully investigate or remediate contamination as a result of its former facilities’ operations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The suit names Align, the city’s Planning and Public Health departments, PG&E and Safeway parent company Albertson’s.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the city attorney’s office said it would review the complaint and respond in court once the office was served. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>PG&E said in a statement that it had not yet reviewed the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The city is expected to make its final administrative determination on Align’s proposal next month.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Neighborhood organizations followed the established process first,” said Lori Brooke, a member of YesAND and NeighborsUnited SF, a coalition of neighborhood businesses and organizations that also joined the suit. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED-160x95.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED-1536x911.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Safeway at 15 Marina Blvd. in San Francisco, where developer Align Real Estate has proposed 848 apartments. \u003cbr>\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of Arquitectonica)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092738\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Safeway at 15 Marina Blvd. in San Francisco, where developer Align Real Estate has proposed 848 apartments. \u003cbr>\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Courtesy of Arquitectonica)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Brooke said that residents have written to the planning and public health departments, and they spent months asking for an environmental assessment, all without success. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They turned to a legal suit after the city decided in August that the building plans from Align could move forward for approval through a ministerial process that skirts public hearings and environmental reviews, as long as certain criteria are met. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We were not asking for a veto,” she said. “We were asking for proper review and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. When both are denied, the courts become the only option left.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Last December, Align applied to demolish the Safeway at 11 and 15 Marina Blvd. and replace it with a two-tower mixed-use commercial and housing development. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The proposal was met with swift opposition from neighbors and has split local officials, some of whom say it would tower over the surrounding neighborhood and could obstruct Bay views. The 18-plus-story glass towers, right on the waterline of the affluent Marina District, would be especially stark. Erin Roach, the president of the Marina Community Association, previously told KQED that the building would be “roughly six times taller than anything around it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who represents the area, have both previously opposed the project. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sherrill and a coalition of residents asked the city in June to find the site ineligible for development under AB 2011, arguing that the law requires at least 75% of the site’s perimeter to adjoin to parcels developed with “urban uses,” while they said Fort Mason and another city-owned parcel surrounding the Safeway are restricted for maritime and recreational use.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The planning department wrote in response that it considers the site surrounded by urban uses. Planning Director Sarah Dennis Phillips also wrote in a July 20 letter that the property is not on a list of hazardous waste sites in the state. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The planning department wrote in response that it considers the site surrounded by urban uses. Planning Director Sarah Dennis Phillips also wrote in a July 20 letter that the property is not on a list of hazardous waste sites in the state. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Other city supervisors, along with state Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, both of whom worked on AB 2011, have expressed support for the project, which would provide more than 800 new residential units, including 86 affordable homes — as the city races to meet lofty state goals to build \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/news/2025-03-19/why-and-where-san-francisco-needs-allow-more-homes-housing-element-primer\">82,000 housing units\u003c/a> by 2031.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Other city supervisors, along with state Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, both of whom worked on AB 2011, have expressed support for the project, which would provide more than 800 new residential units, including 86 affordable homes — as the city races to meet lofty state goals to build \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/news/2025-03-19/why-and-where-san-francisco-needs-allow-more-homes-housing-element-primer\">82,000 housing units\u003c/a> by 2031.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The streamlined approval process created by the law exempts projects from Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors votes, as well as a California Environmental Quality Act review. The project also uses California’s “density bonus” law that lets developers override local zoning requirements and build taller, so long as they include affordable units.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The streamlined approval process created by the law exempts projects from Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors votes, as well as a California Environmental Quality Act review. The project also uses California’s “density bonus” law that lets developers override local zoning requirements and build taller, so long as they include affordable units.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs are asking a judge to reverse the city’s streamlining decision and require Align to comply with and complete all health and safety requirements before the project can move forward. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs are asking a judge to reverse the city’s streamlining decision and require Align to comply with and complete all health and safety requirements before the project can move forward. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The legal challenge also accuses the city and PG&E, which operated a manufactured gas plant and steam electric plant on the site, of creating a public nuisance. It furthermore alleges negligence for failing to fully investigate or remediate contamination as a result of its former facilities’ operations.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The legal challenge also accuses the city and PG&E, which operated a manufactured gas plant and steam electric plant on the site, of creating a public nuisance. It furthermore alleges negligence for failing to fully investigate or remediate contamination as a result of its former facilities’ operations.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The suit names Align, the city’s Planning and Public Health departments, PG&E and Safeway parent company Albertson’s.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the city attorney’s office said it would review the complaint and respond in court once the office was served. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The city is expected to make its final administrative determination on Align’s proposal next month.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The new nonprofit is asking a judge to stall a controversial 800-unit planned development ahead of a city decision on the project next month.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Opponents of a high-rise housing and commercial building proposal on the footprint of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12092328/can-wealthy-san-francisco-residents-stop-a-massive-housing-redevelopment-project\">Marina District’s Safeway\u003c/a> have filed a lawsuit against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, their latest effort to stop the controversial development.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The YesAND Foundation, a new housing nonprofit in the city, along with four Marina District residents, allege that the city is unlawfully pushing the proposal through a streamlined approval process under a state housing law, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923146/these-california-affordable-housing-bills-could-create-more-than-a-million-apartments-if-labor-unions-can-agree-on-terms\">Assembly Bill 2011\u003c/a>, that it is not eligible to use. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Federal Court last week, also contends that the city exempted the project’s developer, Align Real Estate, from performing hazardous-waste assessments on the site.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Neighborhood organizations followed the established process first,” said Lori Brooke, a member of YesAND and NeighborsUnited SF, a coalition of neighborhood businesses and organizations that also joined the suit. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1186\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12092738\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED-160x95.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260727-MARINA-SAFEWAY-05-KQED-1536x911.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Safeway at 15 Marina Blvd. in San Francisco, where developer Align Real Estate has proposed 848 apartments. \u003cbr> (Courtesy of Arquitectonica)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Brooke said that residents have written to the planning and public health departments, and they spent months asking for an environmental assessment, all without success. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They turned to a legal suit after the city decided in August that the building plans from Align could move forward for approval through a ministerial process that skirts public hearings and environmental reviews, as long as certain criteria are met. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We were not asking for a veto,” she said. “We were asking for proper review and a meaningful opportunity to be heard. When both are denied, the courts become the only option left.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Last December, Align applied to demolish the Safeway at 11 and 15 Marina Blvd. and replace it with a two-tower mixed-use commercial and housing development. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The proposal was met with swift opposition from neighbors and has split local officials, some of whom say it would tower over the surrounding neighborhood and could obstruct Bay views. The 18-plus-story glass towers, right on the waterline of the affluent Marina District, would be especially stark. Erin Roach, the president of the Marina Community Association, previously told KQED that the building would be “roughly six times taller than anything around it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Stephen Sherrill, who represents the area, have both previously opposed the project. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherrill and a coalition of residents asked the city in June to find the site ineligible for development under AB 2011, arguing that the law requires at least 75% of the site’s perimeter to adjoin to parcels developed with “urban uses,” while they said Fort Mason and another city-owned parcel surrounding the Safeway are restricted for maritime and recreational use.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The planning department wrote in response that it considers the site surrounded by urban uses. Planning Director Sarah Dennis Phillips also wrote in a July 20 letter that the property is not on a list of hazardous waste sites in the state. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Other city supervisors, along with state Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, both of whom worked on AB 2011, have expressed support for the project, which would provide more than 800 new residential units, including 86 affordable homes — as the city races to meet lofty state goals to build \u003ca href=\"https://www.spur.org/news/2025-03-19/why-and-where-san-francisco-needs-allow-more-homes-housing-element-primer\">82,000 housing units\u003c/a> by 2031.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The streamlined approval process created by the law exempts projects from Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors votes, as well as a California Environmental Quality Act review. The project also uses California’s “density bonus” law that lets developers override local zoning requirements and build taller, so long as they include affordable units.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The plaintiffs are asking a judge to reverse the city’s streamlining decision and require Align to comply with and complete all health and safety requirements before the project can move forward. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Blue trucks with 'pg and e' logo on them sit parked in a lot with the white and black blurry pattern of a fence in the foreground\" class=\"wp-image-11943199\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/03/RS34908_P1100952-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">PG&E trucks sit inside a Mission District facility owned by the utility. (Sheraz Sadiq/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The legal challenge also accuses the city and PG&E, which operated a manufactured gas plant and steam electric plant on the site, of creating a public nuisance. It furthermore alleges negligence for failing to fully investigate or remediate contamination as a result of its former facilities’ operations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The suit names Align, the city’s Planning and Public Health departments, PG&E and Safeway parent company Albertson’s.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the city attorney’s office said it would review the complaint and respond in court once the office was served. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>PG&E said in a statement that it had not yet reviewed the lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The city is expected to make its final administrative determination on Align’s proposal next month.\u003cbr>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s AI boom is making the rental market more competitive than ever. Prospective tenants face intense pressure to stand out, leaving them susceptible to substandard living conditions or outright scams. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-megaphone wp-block-embed-megaphone\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6264762819\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Part 1: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12099253/as-ai-booms-daniel-lurie-declares-rent-emergency-in-san-francisco\">As AI Booms, Daniel Lurie Declares ‘Rent Emergency’ in San Francisco \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12095536/after-the-18000-scam-how-can-bay-area-renters-protect-themselves\">After the $18,000 Scam, How Can Bay Area Renters Protect Themselves? | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Episode transcript\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This transcript is computer-generated. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Beyond Deng is packing up the Mission District apartment he’d been living in for the last few years. He has yet to find his next landing spot, but he’s got a big deadline looming over him. On Friday, he’ll have to be out of this apartment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beyond Deng: \u003c/strong>I wake up every single morning in my bed that’s now on the floor because we did it to sell our bed frame. And I think I’m just, damn, where am I going to be next week?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Earlier this summer, Deng’s landlord announced that they were selling the apartment building, throwing Deng and everyone else in the building into San Francisco’s crazy rental market.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beyond Deng: \u003c/strong>So the last month and a half, we’ve been through this whole tedious, arduous journey on learning more about how we can project ourselves as tenants to now try to face this brutal landscape of the rental market.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The AI boom has injected even more money into an already competitive rental market. So renters like Deng are now facing a desperate situation. Some are willing to pay extra, others are accepting substandard living conditions, and some are even falling for scams.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>People are accepting things that they otherwise wouldn’t, in these circumstances. It’s making renters more vulnerable. This is a landlord’s market right now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 1: \u003c/strong>What makes San Francisco special is being threatened right now. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Daniel Lurie:\u003c/strong> When San Franciscans sit down at the kitchen table at night, many are asking another question. Can I still afford to live here?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 2: \u003c/strong>The listings are pretty sparse to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 3: \u003c/strong>I really hope we’re not being priced out of our move to the city.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 4: \u003c/strong>It was so competitive that we’re moving to the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Today, in part two of the Bay’s series on San Francisco’s AI-fueled rental crisis, KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí tells us about how far some renters are willing to go to stay in San Francisco. I wonder if you can just tell me about like the range of crazy things that you’re hearing renters settle for in this rental market right now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>People are accepting things that they otherwise wouldn’t. It’s not a new thing that you find someone in San Francisco or the Bay Area who has four, five, six roommates. But things start getting a little strange when you start hearing folks having to visit places with no kitchen, no bathroom, no sunlight. On Reddit, one user shared that he went to visit a spot. He walked around the room and then he’s like, where am I supposed to go use the restroom? And the landlord was like, oh, well, there’s a gym down the street. You should get a membership.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Oh my god. San Francisco has always been a very expensive place to live, a difficult place to rent in, and we talked in our last episode of The Bay about how this is just a unique moment in the city because of just the sheer wealth that is being injected into the city with the AI boom, but how is this competition and this pressure in the rental market right now changing renters’ behavior?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>We know that in San Francisco, there’s always been a market for living spaces that offer the minimum. But now we’re seeing people who are, you know, have full-time jobs, who are professionals, who let’s say would be in most other places in the country in very comfortable circumstances, having to then also compete for the same exact spaces. As a renter, you don’t have any guarantee that a landlord’s even going to look at message right on Zillow or Craigslist, whatever. One way to stand out is to offer more. You know, if the listing was, hey, this is for 4,000, you’re gonna have some people emailing the landlord being, hey, I’m willing to pay 5,000. If I set my homie up in a closet, they might say, oh, this good, man, I’ll settle here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>People feel desperate and sometimes just think any four walls and ceiling and a floor is worth it and they’ll put up with a lot of problems.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>As part of my reporting, I spoke to Ora Prochovnick. She is the Director of Litigation at the San Francisco Eviction Defense Collaborative. This is a renter’s rights group. She’s seen how in this tight market, people are making desperate choices to find a home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>The escalating anxiety around, if you find a place that’s at all desirable and within your ballpark about what you can afford, you know that in one afternoon, at least 20 other tenants are gonna be putting in their applications to compete with yours.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, people are desperate. People are desperate to stay here and find a way to make it work here in San Francisco. And so, I mean it sounds like people are kind of not just going through crazy lengths in order to stay there, but are also more vulnerable, as you say. And another part of your reporting too is that folks have been more susceptible to scams.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>When competition is this intense, this is both anecdotal and this is something that I’ve seen again and again, especially on Craigslist, are scams.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was super excited to see the listing because it was a two bed, one and a half bath. And that was exactly what my roommate and I were looking for.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>I spoke to Alvin Tran who lives in San Francisco and he got a 10% rent increase. You know, with his bestie, he starts looking for a new spot and they’re looking everywhere and they find a spot on Craigslist.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>Photos and the description, the place looks huge. There’s a lot of sunlight and it was in an ideal location. It was within our top three neighborhoods that we were looking for and it within our budget.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He emails the contact on Craigslist. The person on Craiglist who put up the listing says, fantastic, why don’t you come to the open house?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>So when I arrived at the open house, I saw that there were around six or seven other parties there and people have already mentioned that they have already applied online on Zillow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He sees the competition and he’s like, okay, obviously, you know, he’s proactive as soon as they get home, let me email the person I’ve been talking to on Craigslist, makes his interest very clear. He says, hey, I’m ready to put money down.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was feeling a little bit pressured on how do I make myself stand out? How do I be able to kind of secure this apartment?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He and his roomie were asked to put down $18,000 together. It was $6,000 for the first month of rent, another $6000 for last month of the rent, and an additional $6k for a deposit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was super excited to finally get confirmation that we were approved and that lease included a signed signature. So I assumed that everything went well and this is the end.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Of a journey. And it turns out that the person he sent the money to on Craigslist was not the landlord. What this scammer had done was, you know, he had seen other listings on Zillow and other places and created a fake one on Craigslist and sent Alvin to the open house that the real landlord was doing. So he intercepted what would otherwise been a regular normal interaction between Alvin and the real landlord.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I tried texting the number that I had. I tried calling and emailing. I even tried knocking on the door, but never got any response.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>The person he sent the money to just disappeared, blocked Alvin, you know, stop taking his calls, stop responding his emails, but obviously he was able to like keep the money, right? Because it was done through a bank wire, bank transfer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was just shocked and floored that it turned out to be a scam. And then that sadness turned into frustration and then devastation because I then now realized that I have wired a big chunk of money to the wrong person and to a scammer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So Alvin lost $18,000 through this scam. And I think maybe some people might hear this, Carlos, and have very little empathy for Alvin, because, I mean, Craigslist scams are not new, but also $18000 is a lot of money. I mean what stands out to you about his situation?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Yeah, yeah. Alvin told me, he’s like, what was his blind spot? And what he shared was like, if he had just, maybe at the open house, talked with the landlord and was like hey, wanna confirm? Is this your email or is this your phone number? This wouldn’t have happened. But his mind was elsewhere. His mind, as he told me was to get this place soon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I know that in my case, when I was there in person, I had already been texting and emailing who I thought was the property owner. So I didn’t think to confirm or ask for his contact information in person. But I think had I just done that and gone the extra mile to verify this whole scam would have fallen apart.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>The incentive for scammers to get involved in the Bay Area rental market is huge. They’re hearing that people in San Francisco are willing to put down 18,000, 20,000 25,000 right? You know, with deposit, everything. Scammers are gonna be so like, they love that. They’re like, what, I can just do this and I get this huge payload. So that’s scary. And then the second thing is that, point out that if folks who are better off are getting this amount of pressure, are getting screwed over by this rental market, That is not good news for everyone else.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>We’ll have more with KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí right after this break. By the way, if you appreciate the local deep dives that we bring you on the bay, consider supporting the work we do by becoming a KQED Sustaining Member. We can’t do this work without you. Just go to donate.kqed.org/podcasts. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I wanna transition Carlos into what this means for people who are in the rental market right now and how to go about navigating this what feels like an impossible situation. So are your only options basically to pay 4,000 for a one bedroom, accept a bad living situation or get scammed?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>That’s something really important to have in mind right now, that no matter how desperate you have, the state of California guarantees you basic rights as tenants. Any place that you’re paying for, you, ECG, my landlord in this situation, are legally required to provide these things to me as your tenants. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra:\u003c/strong> What are those things? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí:\u003c/strong> Right, so these are some things that sound incredibly basic, but for example, a sink, a working heating system, a toilet. And as of this year, California also updated the set of rules to include a fridge and a stove. So if I’m paying rent for an apartment for a room, you need to guarantee that that I have access to a fridge and a stove. Something super super important that I think it seems like a you know for some people I mentioned to you know they even laugh when I say this but sunlight, natural sunlight you need access to natural sunlight. And the fact that this is in California’s legal code represents decades and decades of tenant activism. You know, that could be for a later story, but there’s a huge significance to mental health to just basic wellbeing, knowing that you wake up and if you want, you can raise the curtains or you can just open the window and have access to fresh air and sunlight.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So landlords owe you basic things as a tenant, but what about how to avoid scams like Alvin’s situation?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>There’s a few small things that you can do to just kind of immediately spot a scam. And in Alvin’s case, the $18,000 that he was asked for, that should have been the first red flag. And Ora had a lot to say about that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>California limits the amount of money that landlords are allowed to charge at the start of a tenancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Landlords, especially, you know, at the big level where they own multiple properties, they can’t charge you more than one month of rent and then a deposit. And in Alvin’s case, it was $6,000 for first month of rental, $6000 for last month of rent, and then $6K for an additional deposit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So if they ask you for any more than that?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Red flag because it’s well one it’s illegal so it’s either you have a landlord that doesn’t read the law which is okay that’s already a problem or two a scammer that doesn’ know anything about California rental law and something that everyone I spoke to told me is avoid a wire transfer which is unfortunately what Alvin you know ended up doing he sent the $18,000 via wire transfer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>It’s never a good idea to do, unfortunately, what was done in this case. Don’t wire money, don’t use crypto, don’t us those digital apps that we’ve all come to love like Venmo and Zelle because you’re not protected when you use those tools.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Once you send that money out, there’s no way for you to get it back, versus if I sign you a check, or even if I pay you through my credit card, I still have a chance to be able to cancel that and get that money back.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, one thing I’m struggling with here, Carlos, is the fact that I think you could be as aware of your rights as a tenant as possible. You could be read up on California state law, but it sounds like there are enough renters in the market right now who are willing to settle for less. I mean what advice would you give to people right now on how to navigate San Francisco’s rental market?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>We’ve been in a landlord’s market before. There’s a lot of circumstances, right, out of our control where the AI boom goes next. But we have to also remember that individual actions add up to a collective result. You know, like we normalize landlords charging $4,000, $5,000. We’re putting ourselves in a position where we as tenants collectively will have less power. You gotta make these rights worth it somehow, right? Like you gotta fight for them if they’re not, you know, rights are only there if you fight for them, if you stand up for them, if you use them, if you work them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Carlos, thank you so much for sharing your reporting. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Thank you ECG.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, a community reporter for KQED. By the way, this episode is the first in a series of stories we’re doing here on the Bay about how AI is affecting the Bay Area’s rental crisis. We’ll leave a link to the first episode in our show notes. This episode was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. Gabriela Glueck is our producer. She scored this episode and added all the tape. Music courtesy of Audio Network. If you wanna get in touch with us here at The Bay, feel free to send us an email. We’re at thebayatkqed.org. Support for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. And I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. Peace.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>Part 1: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12099253/as-ai-booms-daniel-lurie-declares-rent-emergency-in-san-francisco\">As AI Booms, Daniel Lurie Declares ‘Rent Emergency’ in San Francisco \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12095536/after-the-18000-scam-how-can-bay-area-renters-protect-themselves\">After the $18,000 Scam, How Can Bay Area Renters Protect Themselves? | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This transcript is computer-generated. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Beyond Deng is packing up the Mission District apartment he’d been living in for the last few years. He has yet to find his next landing spot, but he’s got a big deadline looming over him. On Friday, he’ll have to be out of this apartment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Beyond Deng is packing up the Mission District apartment he’d been living in for the last few years. He has yet to find his next landing spot, but he’s got a big deadline looming over him. On Friday, he’ll have to be out of this apartment.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beyond Deng: \u003c/strong>I wake up every single morning in my bed that’s now on the floor because we did it to sell our bed frame. And I think I’m just, damn, where am I going to be next week?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beyond Deng: \u003c/strong>I wake up every single morning in my bed that’s now on the floor because we did it to sell our bed frame. And I think I’m just, damn, where am I going to be next week?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Earlier this summer, Deng’s landlord announced that they were selling the apartment building, throwing Deng and everyone else in the building into San Francisco’s crazy rental market.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Earlier this summer, Deng’s landlord announced that they were selling the apartment building, throwing Deng and everyone else in the building into San Francisco’s crazy rental market.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beyond Deng: \u003c/strong>So the last month and a half, we’ve been through this whole tedious, arduous journey on learning more about how we can project ourselves as tenants to now try to face this brutal landscape of the rental market.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beyond Deng: \u003c/strong>So the last month and a half, we’ve been through this whole tedious, arduous journey on learning more about how we can project ourselves as tenants to now try to face this brutal landscape of the rental market.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The AI boom has injected even more money into an already competitive rental market. So renters like Deng are now facing a desperate situation. Some are willing to pay extra, others are accepting substandard living conditions, and some are even falling for scams.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The AI boom has injected even more money into an already competitive rental market. So renters like Deng are now facing a desperate situation. Some are willing to pay extra, others are accepting substandard living conditions, and some are even falling for scams.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>People are accepting things that they otherwise wouldn’t, in these circumstances. It’s making renters more vulnerable. This is a landlord’s market right now.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>People are accepting things that they otherwise wouldn’t, in these circumstances. It’s making renters more vulnerable. This is a landlord’s market right now.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 1: \u003c/strong>What makes San Francisco special is being threatened right now. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Daniel Lurie:\u003c/strong> When San Franciscans sit down at the kitchen table at night, many are asking another question. Can I still afford to live here?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Daniel Lurie:\u003c/strong> When San Franciscans sit down at the kitchen table at night, many are asking another question. Can I still afford to live here?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 2: \u003c/strong>The listings are pretty sparse to begin with.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 3: \u003c/strong>I really hope we’re not being priced out of our move to the city.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 4: \u003c/strong>It was so competitive that we’re moving to the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Today, in part two of the Bay’s series on San Francisco’s AI-fueled rental crisis, KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí tells us about how far some renters are willing to go to stay in San Francisco. I wonder if you can just tell me about like the range of crazy things that you’re hearing renters settle for in this rental market right now.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Today, in part two of the Bay’s series on San Francisco’s AI-fueled rental crisis, KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí tells us about how far some renters are willing to go to stay in San Francisco. I wonder if you can just tell me about like the range of crazy things that you’re hearing renters settle for in this rental market right now.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>People are accepting things that they otherwise wouldn’t. It’s not a new thing that you find someone in San Francisco or the Bay Area who has four, five, six roommates. But things start getting a little strange when you start hearing folks having to visit places with no kitchen, no bathroom, no sunlight. On Reddit, one user shared that he went to visit a spot. He walked around the room and then he’s like, where am I supposed to go use the restroom? And the landlord was like, oh, well, there’s a gym down the street. You should get a membership.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>People are accepting things that they otherwise wouldn’t. It’s not a new thing that you find someone in San Francisco or the Bay Area who has four, five, six roommates. But things start getting a little strange when you start hearing folks having to visit places with no kitchen, no bathroom, no sunlight. On Reddit, one user shared that he went to visit a spot. He walked around the room and then he’s like, where am I supposed to go use the restroom? And the landlord was like, oh, well, there’s a gym down the street. You should get a membership.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Oh my god. San Francisco has always been a very expensive place to live, a difficult place to rent in, and we talked in our last episode of The Bay about how this is just a unique moment in the city because of just the sheer wealth that is being injected into the city with the AI boom, but how is this competition and this pressure in the rental market right now changing renters’ behavior?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Oh my god. San Francisco has always been a very expensive place to live, a difficult place to rent in, and we talked in our last episode of The Bay about how this is just a unique moment in the city because of just the sheer wealth that is being injected into the city with the AI boom, but how is this competition and this pressure in the rental market right now changing renters’ behavior?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>We know that in San Francisco, there’s always been a market for living spaces that offer the minimum. But now we’re seeing people who are, you know, have full-time jobs, who are professionals, who let’s say would be in most other places in the country in very comfortable circumstances, having to then also compete for the same exact spaces. As a renter, you don’t have any guarantee that a landlord’s even going to look at message right on Zillow or Craigslist, whatever. One way to stand out is to offer more. You know, if the listing was, hey, this is for 4,000, you’re gonna have some people emailing the landlord being, hey, I’m willing to pay 5,000. If I set my homie up in a closet, they might say, oh, this good, man, I’ll settle here.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>We know that in San Francisco, there’s always been a market for living spaces that offer the minimum. But now we’re seeing people who are, you know, have full-time jobs, who are professionals, who let’s say would be in most other places in the country in very comfortable circumstances, having to then also compete for the same exact spaces. As a renter, you don’t have any guarantee that a landlord’s even going to look at message right on Zillow or Craigslist, whatever. One way to stand out is to offer more. You know, if the listing was, hey, this is for 4,000, you’re gonna have some people emailing the landlord being, hey, I’m willing to pay 5,000. If I set my homie up in a closet, they might say, oh, this good, man, I’ll settle here.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>People feel desperate and sometimes just think any four walls and ceiling and a floor is worth it and they’ll put up with a lot of problems.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>People feel desperate and sometimes just think any four walls and ceiling and a floor is worth it and they’ll put up with a lot of problems.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>As part of my reporting, I spoke to Ora Prochovnick. She is the Director of Litigation at the San Francisco Eviction Defense Collaborative. This is a renter’s rights group. She’s seen how in this tight market, people are making desperate choices to find a home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>As part of my reporting, I spoke to Ora Prochovnick. She is the Director of Litigation at the San Francisco Eviction Defense Collaborative. This is a renter’s rights group. She’s seen how in this tight market, people are making desperate choices to find a home.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>The escalating anxiety around, if you find a place that’s at all desirable and within your ballpark about what you can afford, you know that in one afternoon, at least 20 other tenants are gonna be putting in their applications to compete with yours.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>The escalating anxiety around, if you find a place that’s at all desirable and within your ballpark about what you can afford, you know that in one afternoon, at least 20 other tenants are gonna be putting in their applications to compete with yours.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, people are desperate. People are desperate to stay here and find a way to make it work here in San Francisco. And so, I mean it sounds like people are kind of not just going through crazy lengths in order to stay there, but are also more vulnerable, as you say. And another part of your reporting too is that folks have been more susceptible to scams.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, people are desperate. People are desperate to stay here and find a way to make it work here in San Francisco. And so, I mean it sounds like people are kind of not just going through crazy lengths in order to stay there, but are also more vulnerable, as you say. And another part of your reporting too is that folks have been more susceptible to scams.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>When competition is this intense, this is both anecdotal and this is something that I’ve seen again and again, especially on Craigslist, are scams.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>When competition is this intense, this is both anecdotal and this is something that I’ve seen again and again, especially on Craigslist, are scams.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was super excited to see the listing because it was a two bed, one and a half bath. And that was exactly what my roommate and I were looking for.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was super excited to see the listing because it was a two bed, one and a half bath. And that was exactly what my roommate and I were looking for.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>I spoke to Alvin Tran who lives in San Francisco and he got a 10% rent increase. You know, with his bestie, he starts looking for a new spot and they’re looking everywhere and they find a spot on Craigslist.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>I spoke to Alvin Tran who lives in San Francisco and he got a 10% rent increase. You know, with his bestie, he starts looking for a new spot and they’re looking everywhere and they find a spot on Craigslist.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>Photos and the description, the place looks huge. There’s a lot of sunlight and it was in an ideal location. It was within our top three neighborhoods that we were looking for and it within our budget.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>Photos and the description, the place looks huge. There’s a lot of sunlight and it was in an ideal location. It was within our top three neighborhoods that we were looking for and it within our budget.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He emails the contact on Craigslist. The person on Craiglist who put up the listing says, fantastic, why don’t you come to the open house?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He emails the contact on Craigslist. The person on Craiglist who put up the listing says, fantastic, why don’t you come to the open house?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>So when I arrived at the open house, I saw that there were around six or seven other parties there and people have already mentioned that they have already applied online on Zillow.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He sees the competition and he’s like, okay, obviously, you know, he’s proactive as soon as they get home, let me email the person I’ve been talking to on Craigslist, makes his interest very clear. He says, hey, I’m ready to put money down.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He sees the competition and he’s like, okay, obviously, you know, he’s proactive as soon as they get home, let me email the person I’ve been talking to on Craigslist, makes his interest very clear. He says, hey, I’m ready to put money down.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was feeling a little bit pressured on how do I make myself stand out? How do I be able to kind of secure this apartment?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was feeling a little bit pressured on how do I make myself stand out? How do I be able to kind of secure this apartment?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He and his roomie were asked to put down $18,000 together. It was $6,000 for the first month of rent, another $6000 for last month of the rent, and an additional $6k for a deposit.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He and his roomie were asked to put down $18,000 together. It was $6,000 for the first month of rent, another $6000 for last month of the rent, and an additional $6k for a deposit.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was super excited to finally get confirmation that we were approved and that lease included a signed signature. So I assumed that everything went well and this is the end.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was super excited to finally get confirmation that we were approved and that lease included a signed signature. So I assumed that everything went well and this is the end.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Of a journey. And it turns out that the person he sent the money to on Craigslist was not the landlord. What this scammer had done was, you know, he had seen other listings on Zillow and other places and created a fake one on Craigslist and sent Alvin to the open house that the real landlord was doing. So he intercepted what would otherwise been a regular normal interaction between Alvin and the real landlord.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Of a journey. And it turns out that the person he sent the money to on Craigslist was not the landlord. What this scammer had done was, you know, he had seen other listings on Zillow and other places and created a fake one on Craigslist and sent Alvin to the open house that the real landlord was doing. So he intercepted what would otherwise been a regular normal interaction between Alvin and the real landlord.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I tried texting the number that I had. I tried calling and emailing. I even tried knocking on the door, but never got any response.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I tried texting the number that I had. I tried calling and emailing. I even tried knocking on the door, but never got any response.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>The person he sent the money to just disappeared, blocked Alvin, you know, stop taking his calls, stop responding his emails, but obviously he was able to like keep the money, right? Because it was done through a bank wire, bank transfer.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was just shocked and floored that it turned out to be a scam. And then that sadness turned into frustration and then devastation because I then now realized that I have wired a big chunk of money to the wrong person and to a scammer.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was just shocked and floored that it turned out to be a scam. And then that sadness turned into frustration and then devastation because I then now realized that I have wired a big chunk of money to the wrong person and to a scammer.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So Alvin lost $18,000 through this scam. And I think maybe some people might hear this, Carlos, and have very little empathy for Alvin, because, I mean, Craigslist scams are not new, but also $18000 is a lot of money. I mean what stands out to you about his situation?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So Alvin lost $18,000 through this scam. And I think maybe some people might hear this, Carlos, and have very little empathy for Alvin, because, I mean, Craigslist scams are not new, but also $18000 is a lot of money. I mean what stands out to you about his situation?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Yeah, yeah. Alvin told me, he’s like, what was his blind spot? And what he shared was like, if he had just, maybe at the open house, talked with the landlord and was like hey, wanna confirm? Is this your email or is this your phone number? This wouldn’t have happened. But his mind was elsewhere. His mind, as he told me was to get this place soon.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Yeah, yeah. Alvin told me, he’s like, what was his blind spot? And what he shared was like, if he had just, maybe at the open house, talked with the landlord and was like hey, wanna confirm? Is this your email or is this your phone number? This wouldn’t have happened. But his mind was elsewhere. His mind, as he told me was to get this place soon.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I know that in my case, when I was there in person, I had already been texting and emailing who I thought was the property owner. So I didn’t think to confirm or ask for his contact information in person. But I think had I just done that and gone the extra mile to verify this whole scam would have fallen apart.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I know that in my case, when I was there in person, I had already been texting and emailing who I thought was the property owner. So I didn’t think to confirm or ask for his contact information in person. But I think had I just done that and gone the extra mile to verify this whole scam would have fallen apart.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>The incentive for scammers to get involved in the Bay Area rental market is huge. They’re hearing that people in San Francisco are willing to put down 18,000, 20,000 25,000 right? You know, with deposit, everything. Scammers are gonna be so like, they love that. They’re like, what, I can just do this and I get this huge payload. So that’s scary. And then the second thing is that, point out that if folks who are better off are getting this amount of pressure, are getting screwed over by this rental market, That is not good news for everyone else.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>The incentive for scammers to get involved in the Bay Area rental market is huge. They’re hearing that people in San Francisco are willing to put down 18,000, 20,000 25,000 right? You know, with deposit, everything. Scammers are gonna be so like, they love that. They’re like, what, I can just do this and I get this huge payload. So that’s scary. And then the second thing is that, point out that if folks who are better off are getting this amount of pressure, are getting screwed over by this rental market, That is not good news for everyone else.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>We’ll have more with KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí right after this break. By the way, if you appreciate the local deep dives that we bring you on the bay, consider supporting the work we do by becoming a KQED Sustaining Member. We can’t do this work without you. Just go to donate.kqed.org/podcasts. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>We’ll have more with KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí right after this break. By the way, if you appreciate the local deep dives that we bring you on the bay, consider supporting the work we do by becoming a KQED Sustaining Member. We can’t do this work without you. Just go to donate.kqed.org/podcasts. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I wanna transition Carlos into what this means for people who are in the rental market right now and how to go about navigating this what feels like an impossible situation. So are your only options basically to pay 4,000 for a one bedroom, accept a bad living situation or get scammed?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I wanna transition Carlos into what this means for people who are in the rental market right now and how to go about navigating this what feels like an impossible situation. So are your only options basically to pay 4,000 for a one bedroom, accept a bad living situation or get scammed?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>That’s something really important to have in mind right now, that no matter how desperate you have, the state of California guarantees you basic rights as tenants. Any place that you’re paying for, you, ECG, my landlord in this situation, are legally required to provide these things to me as your tenants. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>That’s something really important to have in mind right now, that no matter how desperate you have, the state of California guarantees you basic rights as tenants. Any place that you’re paying for, you, ECG, my landlord in this situation, are legally required to provide these things to me as your tenants. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí:\u003c/strong> Right, so these are some things that sound incredibly basic, but for example, a sink, a working heating system, a toilet. And as of this year, California also updated the set of rules to include a fridge and a stove. So if I’m paying rent for an apartment for a room, you need to guarantee that that I have access to a fridge and a stove. Something super super important that I think it seems like a you know for some people I mentioned to you know they even laugh when I say this but sunlight, natural sunlight you need access to natural sunlight. And the fact that this is in California’s legal code represents decades and decades of tenant activism. You know, that could be for a later story, but there’s a huge significance to mental health to just basic wellbeing, knowing that you wake up and if you want, you can raise the curtains or you can just open the window and have access to fresh air and sunlight.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí:\u003c/strong> Right, so these are some things that sound incredibly basic, but for example, a sink, a working heating system, a toilet. And as of this year, California also updated the set of rules to include a fridge and a stove. So if I’m paying rent for an apartment for a room, you need to guarantee that that I have access to a fridge and a stove. Something super super important that I think it seems like a you know for some people I mentioned to you know they even laugh when I say this but sunlight, natural sunlight you need access to natural sunlight. And the fact that this is in California’s legal code represents decades and decades of tenant activism. You know, that could be for a later story, but there’s a huge significance to mental health to just basic wellbeing, knowing that you wake up and if you want, you can raise the curtains or you can just open the window and have access to fresh air and sunlight.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So landlords owe you basic things as a tenant, but what about how to avoid scams like Alvin’s situation?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So landlords owe you basic things as a tenant, but what about how to avoid scams like Alvin’s situation?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>There’s a few small things that you can do to just kind of immediately spot a scam. And in Alvin’s case, the $18,000 that he was asked for, that should have been the first red flag. And Ora had a lot to say about that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>There’s a few small things that you can do to just kind of immediately spot a scam. And in Alvin’s case, the $18,000 that he was asked for, that should have been the first red flag. And Ora had a lot to say about that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>California limits the amount of money that landlords are allowed to charge at the start of a tenancy.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Landlords, especially, you know, at the big level where they own multiple properties, they can’t charge you more than one month of rent and then a deposit. And in Alvin’s case, it was $6,000 for first month of rental, $6000 for last month of rent, and then $6K for an additional deposit.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Landlords, especially, you know, at the big level where they own multiple properties, they can’t charge you more than one month of rent and then a deposit. And in Alvin’s case, it was $6,000 for first month of rental, $6000 for last month of rent, and then $6K for an additional deposit.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So if they ask you for any more than that?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Red flag because it’s well one it’s illegal so it’s either you have a landlord that doesn’t read the law which is okay that’s already a problem or two a scammer that doesn’ know anything about California rental law and something that everyone I spoke to told me is avoid a wire transfer which is unfortunately what Alvin you know ended up doing he sent the $18,000 via wire transfer.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Red flag because it’s well one it’s illegal so it’s either you have a landlord that doesn’t read the law which is okay that’s already a problem or two a scammer that doesn’ know anything about California rental law and something that everyone I spoke to told me is avoid a wire transfer which is unfortunately what Alvin you know ended up doing he sent the $18,000 via wire transfer.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>It’s never a good idea to do, unfortunately, what was done in this case. Don’t wire money, don’t use crypto, don’t us those digital apps that we’ve all come to love like Venmo and Zelle because you’re not protected when you use those tools.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>It’s never a good idea to do, unfortunately, what was done in this case. Don’t wire money, don’t use crypto, don’t us those digital apps that we’ve all come to love like Venmo and Zelle because you’re not protected when you use those tools.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Once you send that money out, there’s no way for you to get it back, versus if I sign you a check, or even if I pay you through my credit card, I still have a chance to be able to cancel that and get that money back.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Once you send that money out, there’s no way for you to get it back, versus if I sign you a check, or even if I pay you through my credit card, I still have a chance to be able to cancel that and get that money back.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, one thing I’m struggling with here, Carlos, is the fact that I think you could be as aware of your rights as a tenant as possible. You could be read up on California state law, but it sounds like there are enough renters in the market right now who are willing to settle for less. I mean what advice would you give to people right now on how to navigate San Francisco’s rental market?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, one thing I’m struggling with here, Carlos, is the fact that I think you could be as aware of your rights as a tenant as possible. You could be read up on California state law, but it sounds like there are enough renters in the market right now who are willing to settle for less. I mean what advice would you give to people right now on how to navigate San Francisco’s rental market?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>We’ve been in a landlord’s market before. There’s a lot of circumstances, right, out of our control where the AI boom goes next. But we have to also remember that individual actions add up to a collective result. You know, like we normalize landlords charging $4,000, $5,000. We’re putting ourselves in a position where we as tenants collectively will have less power. You gotta make these rights worth it somehow, right? Like you gotta fight for them if they’re not, you know, rights are only there if you fight for them, if you stand up for them, if you use them, if you work them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>We’ve been in a landlord’s market before. There’s a lot of circumstances, right, out of our control where the AI boom goes next. But we have to also remember that individual actions add up to a collective result. You know, like we normalize landlords charging $4,000, $5,000. We’re putting ourselves in a position where we as tenants collectively will have less power. You gotta make these rights worth it somehow, right? Like you gotta fight for them if they’re not, you know, rights are only there if you fight for them, if you stand up for them, if you use them, if you work them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Carlos, thank you so much for sharing your reporting. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Carlos, thank you so much for sharing your reporting. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Thank you ECG.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Thank you ECG.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, a community reporter for KQED. By the way, this episode is the first in a series of stories we’re doing here on the Bay about how AI is affecting the Bay Area’s rental crisis. We’ll leave a link to the first episode in our show notes. This episode was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. Gabriela Glueck is our producer. She scored this episode and added all the tape. Music courtesy of Audio Network. If you wanna get in touch with us here at The Bay, feel free to send us an email. We’re at thebayatkqed.org. Support for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. And I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. Peace.\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s AI boom is making the rental market more competitive than ever. Prospective tenants face intense pressure to stand out, leaving them susceptible to substandard living conditions or outright scams. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-megaphone wp-block-embed-megaphone\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6264762819\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>Part 1: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12099253/as-ai-booms-daniel-lurie-declares-rent-emergency-in-san-francisco\">As AI Booms, Daniel Lurie Declares ‘Rent Emergency’ in San Francisco \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12095536/after-the-18000-scam-how-can-bay-area-renters-protect-themselves\">After the $18,000 Scam, How Can Bay Area Renters Protect Themselves? | KQED\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u003cstrong>Episode transcript\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This transcript is computer-generated. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Beyond Deng is packing up the Mission District apartment he’d been living in for the last few years. He has yet to find his next landing spot, but he’s got a big deadline looming over him. On Friday, he’ll have to be out of this apartment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beyond Deng: \u003c/strong>I wake up every single morning in my bed that’s now on the floor because we did it to sell our bed frame. And I think I’m just, damn, where am I going to be next week?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Earlier this summer, Deng’s landlord announced that they were selling the apartment building, throwing Deng and everyone else in the building into San Francisco’s crazy rental market.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beyond Deng: \u003c/strong>So the last month and a half, we’ve been through this whole tedious, arduous journey on learning more about how we can project ourselves as tenants to now try to face this brutal landscape of the rental market.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The AI boom has injected even more money into an already competitive rental market. So renters like Deng are now facing a desperate situation. Some are willing to pay extra, others are accepting substandard living conditions, and some are even falling for scams.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>People are accepting things that they otherwise wouldn’t, in these circumstances. It’s making renters more vulnerable. This is a landlord’s market right now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 1: \u003c/strong>What makes San Francisco special is being threatened right now. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Daniel Lurie:\u003c/strong> When San Franciscans sit down at the kitchen table at night, many are asking another question. Can I still afford to live here?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 2: \u003c/strong>The listings are pretty sparse to begin with.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 3: \u003c/strong>I really hope we’re not being priced out of our move to the city.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Speaker 4: \u003c/strong>It was so competitive that we’re moving to the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Today, in part two of the Bay’s series on San Francisco’s AI-fueled rental crisis, KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí tells us about how far some renters are willing to go to stay in San Francisco. I wonder if you can just tell me about like the range of crazy things that you’re hearing renters settle for in this rental market right now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>People are accepting things that they otherwise wouldn’t. It’s not a new thing that you find someone in San Francisco or the Bay Area who has four, five, six roommates. But things start getting a little strange when you start hearing folks having to visit places with no kitchen, no bathroom, no sunlight. On Reddit, one user shared that he went to visit a spot. He walked around the room and then he’s like, where am I supposed to go use the restroom? And the landlord was like, oh, well, there’s a gym down the street. You should get a membership.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Oh my god. San Francisco has always been a very expensive place to live, a difficult place to rent in, and we talked in our last episode of The Bay about how this is just a unique moment in the city because of just the sheer wealth that is being injected into the city with the AI boom, but how is this competition and this pressure in the rental market right now changing renters’ behavior?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>We know that in San Francisco, there’s always been a market for living spaces that offer the minimum. But now we’re seeing people who are, you know, have full-time jobs, who are professionals, who let’s say would be in most other places in the country in very comfortable circumstances, having to then also compete for the same exact spaces. As a renter, you don’t have any guarantee that a landlord’s even going to look at message right on Zillow or Craigslist, whatever. One way to stand out is to offer more. You know, if the listing was, hey, this is for 4,000, you’re gonna have some people emailing the landlord being, hey, I’m willing to pay 5,000. If I set my homie up in a closet, they might say, oh, this good, man, I’ll settle here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>People feel desperate and sometimes just think any four walls and ceiling and a floor is worth it and they’ll put up with a lot of problems.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>As part of my reporting, I spoke to Ora Prochovnick. She is the Director of Litigation at the San Francisco Eviction Defense Collaborative. This is a renter’s rights group. She’s seen how in this tight market, people are making desperate choices to find a home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>The escalating anxiety around, if you find a place that’s at all desirable and within your ballpark about what you can afford, you know that in one afternoon, at least 20 other tenants are gonna be putting in their applications to compete with yours.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, people are desperate. People are desperate to stay here and find a way to make it work here in San Francisco. And so, I mean it sounds like people are kind of not just going through crazy lengths in order to stay there, but are also more vulnerable, as you say. And another part of your reporting too is that folks have been more susceptible to scams.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>When competition is this intense, this is both anecdotal and this is something that I’ve seen again and again, especially on Craigslist, are scams.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was super excited to see the listing because it was a two bed, one and a half bath. And that was exactly what my roommate and I were looking for.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>I spoke to Alvin Tran who lives in San Francisco and he got a 10% rent increase. You know, with his bestie, he starts looking for a new spot and they’re looking everywhere and they find a spot on Craigslist.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>Photos and the description, the place looks huge. There’s a lot of sunlight and it was in an ideal location. It was within our top three neighborhoods that we were looking for and it within our budget.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He emails the contact on Craigslist. The person on Craiglist who put up the listing says, fantastic, why don’t you come to the open house?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>So when I arrived at the open house, I saw that there were around six or seven other parties there and people have already mentioned that they have already applied online on Zillow.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He sees the competition and he’s like, okay, obviously, you know, he’s proactive as soon as they get home, let me email the person I’ve been talking to on Craigslist, makes his interest very clear. He says, hey, I’m ready to put money down.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was feeling a little bit pressured on how do I make myself stand out? How do I be able to kind of secure this apartment?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>He and his roomie were asked to put down $18,000 together. It was $6,000 for the first month of rent, another $6000 for last month of the rent, and an additional $6k for a deposit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was super excited to finally get confirmation that we were approved and that lease included a signed signature. So I assumed that everything went well and this is the end.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Of a journey. And it turns out that the person he sent the money to on Craigslist was not the landlord. What this scammer had done was, you know, he had seen other listings on Zillow and other places and created a fake one on Craigslist and sent Alvin to the open house that the real landlord was doing. So he intercepted what would otherwise been a regular normal interaction between Alvin and the real landlord.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I tried texting the number that I had. I tried calling and emailing. I even tried knocking on the door, but never got any response.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>The person he sent the money to just disappeared, blocked Alvin, you know, stop taking his calls, stop responding his emails, but obviously he was able to like keep the money, right? Because it was done through a bank wire, bank transfer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I was just shocked and floored that it turned out to be a scam. And then that sadness turned into frustration and then devastation because I then now realized that I have wired a big chunk of money to the wrong person and to a scammer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So Alvin lost $18,000 through this scam. And I think maybe some people might hear this, Carlos, and have very little empathy for Alvin, because, I mean, Craigslist scams are not new, but also $18000 is a lot of money. I mean what stands out to you about his situation?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Yeah, yeah. Alvin told me, he’s like, what was his blind spot? And what he shared was like, if he had just, maybe at the open house, talked with the landlord and was like hey, wanna confirm? Is this your email or is this your phone number? This wouldn’t have happened. But his mind was elsewhere. His mind, as he told me was to get this place soon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alvin Tran: \u003c/strong>I know that in my case, when I was there in person, I had already been texting and emailing who I thought was the property owner. So I didn’t think to confirm or ask for his contact information in person. But I think had I just done that and gone the extra mile to verify this whole scam would have fallen apart.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>The incentive for scammers to get involved in the Bay Area rental market is huge. They’re hearing that people in San Francisco are willing to put down 18,000, 20,000 25,000 right? You know, with deposit, everything. Scammers are gonna be so like, they love that. They’re like, what, I can just do this and I get this huge payload. So that’s scary. And then the second thing is that, point out that if folks who are better off are getting this amount of pressure, are getting screwed over by this rental market, That is not good news for everyone else.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>We’ll have more with KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí right after this break. By the way, if you appreciate the local deep dives that we bring you on the bay, consider supporting the work we do by becoming a KQED Sustaining Member. We can’t do this work without you. Just go to donate.kqed.org/podcasts. We’ll be right back.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I wanna transition Carlos into what this means for people who are in the rental market right now and how to go about navigating this what feels like an impossible situation. So are your only options basically to pay 4,000 for a one bedroom, accept a bad living situation or get scammed?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>That’s something really important to have in mind right now, that no matter how desperate you have, the state of California guarantees you basic rights as tenants. Any place that you’re paying for, you, ECG, my landlord in this situation, are legally required to provide these things to me as your tenants. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra:\u003c/strong> What are those things? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí:\u003c/strong> Right, so these are some things that sound incredibly basic, but for example, a sink, a working heating system, a toilet. And as of this year, California also updated the set of rules to include a fridge and a stove. So if I’m paying rent for an apartment for a room, you need to guarantee that that I have access to a fridge and a stove. Something super super important that I think it seems like a you know for some people I mentioned to you know they even laugh when I say this but sunlight, natural sunlight you need access to natural sunlight. And the fact that this is in California’s legal code represents decades and decades of tenant activism. You know, that could be for a later story, but there’s a huge significance to mental health to just basic wellbeing, knowing that you wake up and if you want, you can raise the curtains or you can just open the window and have access to fresh air and sunlight.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So landlords owe you basic things as a tenant, but what about how to avoid scams like Alvin’s situation?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>There’s a few small things that you can do to just kind of immediately spot a scam. And in Alvin’s case, the $18,000 that he was asked for, that should have been the first red flag. And Ora had a lot to say about that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>California limits the amount of money that landlords are allowed to charge at the start of a tenancy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Landlords, especially, you know, at the big level where they own multiple properties, they can’t charge you more than one month of rent and then a deposit. And in Alvin’s case, it was $6,000 for first month of rental, $6000 for last month of rent, and then $6K for an additional deposit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So if they ask you for any more than that?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Red flag because it’s well one it’s illegal so it’s either you have a landlord that doesn’t read the law which is okay that’s already a problem or two a scammer that doesn’ know anything about California rental law and something that everyone I spoke to told me is avoid a wire transfer which is unfortunately what Alvin you know ended up doing he sent the $18,000 via wire transfer.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ora Prochovnick: \u003c/strong>It’s never a good idea to do, unfortunately, what was done in this case. Don’t wire money, don’t use crypto, don’t us those digital apps that we’ve all come to love like Venmo and Zelle because you’re not protected when you use those tools.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Once you send that money out, there’s no way for you to get it back, versus if I sign you a check, or even if I pay you through my credit card, I still have a chance to be able to cancel that and get that money back.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, one thing I’m struggling with here, Carlos, is the fact that I think you could be as aware of your rights as a tenant as possible. You could be read up on California state law, but it sounds like there are enough renters in the market right now who are willing to settle for less. I mean what advice would you give to people right now on how to navigate San Francisco’s rental market?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>We’ve been in a landlord’s market before. There’s a lot of circumstances, right, out of our control where the AI boom goes next. But we have to also remember that individual actions add up to a collective result. You know, like we normalize landlords charging $4,000, $5,000. We’re putting ourselves in a position where we as tenants collectively will have less power. You gotta make these rights worth it somehow, right? Like you gotta fight for them if they’re not, you know, rights are only there if you fight for them, if you stand up for them, if you use them, if you work them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, Carlos, thank you so much for sharing your reporting. I appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí: \u003c/strong>Thank you ECG.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, a community reporter for KQED. By the way, this episode is the first in a series of stories we’re doing here on the Bay about how AI is affecting the Bay Area’s rental crisis. We’ll leave a link to the first episode in our show notes. This episode was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. Gabriela Glueck is our producer. She scored this episode and added all the tape. Music courtesy of Audio Network. If you wanna get in touch with us here at The Bay, feel free to send us an email. We’re at thebayatkqed.org. Support for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco, Northern California Local. And I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. Peace.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco-Northern California Local.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-francisco-mayor-lurie-infuses-30-million-in-reforms-to-tackle-rent-emergency",
"title": "San Francisco Mayor Lurie Infuses $30 Million in Reforms to Tackle ‘Rent Emergency’",
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"headTitle": "San Francisco Mayor Lurie Infuses $30 Million in Reforms to Tackle ‘Rent Emergency’ | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>Blasting the “rent emergency” driving up evictions across \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a $30 million package of reforms on Thursday morning to keep families in their homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Today, most San Franciscans feel our city is finally moving in the right direction, but many are also asking whether they can still afford to live here,” Lurie said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-unveils-sweeping-package-with-immediate-actions-to-address-san-franciscos-rent-emergency\">statement\u003c/a> memorializing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/SLkYNFthvlo\">speech\u003c/a> he gave this morning in the city’s Alamo Square Park. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Signs of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12098307/the-price-of-raising-kids-in-the-bay\">affordability crisis in San Francisco\u003c/a> are everywhere. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data\">new data\u003c/a> from online rental service Apartment List, the city led the nation in “fastest year-over-year rent growth,” at 11%. San José, it should be noted, is in second place at 7.9% growth.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Citing the wave of high-paying tech jobs and ensuing housing frenzy \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">sparked by the AI boom\u003c/a>, the company said that San Francisco rents are up a \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/rent-report/ca/san-francisco\">staggering\u003c/a> 25.6% in just the last year — numbers that it said are “far outpacing all other markets in the country.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It is absolutely an emergency,” Meg Heisler, policy director San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, said in an interview Thursday with KQED, underscoring the need for “enforcement that reflects the gravity of the crisis we’re in.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1391\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/GettyImages-2250030108-scaled-e1789077751622.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12078788\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An apartment for rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building on Dec. 4, 2025, in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“But we also know that most tenants are forced out before they ever get to court,” Heisler said, pointing to harassment, eviction threats and illegal rent increases. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That is a whole universe of things that we think need to be addressed in addition to any proposals put forward today,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco already \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11971908/as-california-evictions-boom-whether-tenants-get-lawyers-depends-on-where-they-live\">provides an attorney\u003c/a> to all tenants facing eviction, but the reform package that Lurie announced on Thursday earmarks $3 million to expand the right to counsel for 400 San Francisco households who previously would have received only partial representation, according to the city’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Compared with those who receive “limited-scope representation,” Lurie’s office said tenants who receive “full-scope legal representation were 39% more likely to remain in their homes.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another tack of the new reforms addresses discriminatory or other illegal renting practices, something City Attorney David Chiu laid out at the press conference with the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Everyday San Franciscans cannot afford to live here, and even those paying astronomical rents are getting evicted,” Chiu said in a statement. “This is not sustainable, and renters need help. Our renter protection laws can only help if tenants know about them and they are enforced. My office is bringing a renewed focus on weeding out systemic bad behavior that forces people out of their homes.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To drive awareness for both tenants and owners of what housing laws mandate, primarily about evictions, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development is launching a $1 million education campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder is behind a new reform aimed at stopping evictions for renters who have fallen only a bit behind on rent. Unless the tenant is one month late or more, the new law would bar their eviction on the basis of nonpayment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another prong of the reform package gives a 25% bump to payouts for displaced tenants under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/117540/the-ellis-act-and-san-francisco-evictions-a-primer\">Ellis Act\u003c/a>, amounting to nearly $3,000 per person.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For tenant advocates at the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, however, they want to see the Ellis Act fully repealed, along with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/costa-hawkins\">Costa Hawkins\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Speaking on KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101915202/sf-renters-face-buyout-offers-and-evictions-as-ai-boom-sends-prices-soaring\">Forum\u003c/a> this week, eviction defense lawyer Tuesday Thornton said that the Ellis Act “incentivizes landlords to empty out buildings and essentially convert rent-controlled units to housing for the rich.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088408\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People rally in front of 1120 Jackson St. in San Francisco to protest evictions and rent hikes proposed by the property’s new owner, on June 22, 2026. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If tenants organize, they can fight,” she said. “They can stay housed for longer, but the Ellis Act does need to be repealed or reformed to stop incentivizing these kinds of evictions.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Lurie billed the tenant-protection package on Thursday as a component of his Family Opportunity Agenda, the two pillars of which are childcare assistance and affordable housing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most of the $30 million infusion from the city will go toward filling the gap of \u003ca href=\"https://sfha.org/about/news-updates/end-emergency-housing-voucher-ehv-program\">expiring\u003c/a> federal vouchers that have been a lifeline to more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/data--emergency-housing-vouchers\">900 people\u003c/a> in San Francisco since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump and his U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that the $5 billion voucher program would expire at the end of 2026, four years earlier than originally envisioned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Lurie said Thursday that some 650 “extremely low-income households” will benefit now from the $27 million being unlocked by the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Apartment Association, which advocates for landlords, said it has fought with the city in the past over reforms that encroach illegally on state law, and may do so again here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12069627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “For Rent” sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in Nob Hill in San Francisco on July 29, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“SFAA has been in conversation with members of the Board of Supervisors on many aspects of the legislative package, and remains committed to striking the right balance between offering reasonable tenant protections and enhancing awareness about existing laws,” Charley Goss, the group’s government affairs spokesperson, said in a statement. “The city should do so without inappropriately punishing rental property owners for an issue beyond their control — that San Francisco’s housing shortage has created high asking rents.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Landlords frame the lack of housing in the city as the root of the crisis, with San Francisco delivering just 2,000 to 3,000 new units a year, inching toward its goal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993902/san-francisco-mayoral-candidates-agree-bold-action-is-needed-on-housing-what-are-their-proposals\">82,000 new homes by 2031\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The city has not been building enough housing that it needs to meet the growing demand,” Joshua Howard, executive vice president of the California Apartment Association, told Forum. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, costs from regulatory compliance, rent control, maintenance, insurance and construction “are rising at more than 1.6%, which is the annual allowable rent increase from the Rent Board,” Howard said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thornton, the tenant advocate, balked at the claim of landlords not being able to keep up with costs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Rent-controlled units that are subject to the Rent Board’s jurisdiction in San Francisco — owners of those units are able to pass on operation and maintenance costs to their tenants, but they have to prove that their costs actually exceed the amount of allowable rent increase that year,” she said. “Landlords are able to capture those amounts.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Howard, speaking for the landlord group, meanwhile put an asterisk on that $4,000 monthly rent figure for a one-bedroom apartment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Noting that such averages are skewed by the “larger, newer Class A properties,” Howard quoted U.S. Census Bureau figures that show median rent in San Francisco is about $2,476 a month.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Census Bureau data tells us that, on average, the San Francisco renter household is spending 24% to 25% of its income on rent,” Howard said. “That is far below the HUD standard of 30% and the national average of 30%. So we can talk about affordability. Let’s talk about the data, but let’s also recognize that San Francisco renters, on average, spend a smaller share of their household income on rent than renters nationally.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thornton said, on the other hand, that those figures underscore the difficulty that service workers and public sector employees face in a city where average incomes are so high. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If you need $160,000 to live in a one-bedroom, who are we building a city for?” she said. “I don’t think that that’s something to celebrate. I think that’s telling a really horrifying story of displacement. And I want to live in a city where everyone can thrive. I don’t think it’s a functional society if people are terrified of losing their housing at any moment.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Blasting the “rent emergency” driving up evictions across \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a $30 million package of reforms on Thursday morning to keep families in their homes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Today, most San Franciscans feel our city is finally moving in the right direction, but many are also asking whether they can still afford to live here,” Lurie said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-unveils-sweeping-package-with-immediate-actions-to-address-san-franciscos-rent-emergency\">statement\u003c/a> memorializing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/SLkYNFthvlo\">speech\u003c/a> he gave this morning in the city’s Alamo Square Park. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Today, most San Franciscans feel our city is finally moving in the right direction, but many are also asking whether they can still afford to live here,” Lurie said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-unveils-sweeping-package-with-immediate-actions-to-address-san-franciscos-rent-emergency\">statement\u003c/a> memorializing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/SLkYNFthvlo\">speech\u003c/a> he gave this morning in the city’s Alamo Square Park. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Signs of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12098307/the-price-of-raising-kids-in-the-bay\">affordability crisis in San Francisco\u003c/a> are everywhere. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data\">new data\u003c/a> from online rental service Apartment List, the city led the nation in “fastest year-over-year rent growth,” at 11%. San José, it should be noted, is in second place at 7.9% growth.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Signs of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12098307/the-price-of-raising-kids-in-the-bay\">affordability crisis in San Francisco\u003c/a> are everywhere. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data\">new data\u003c/a> from online rental service Apartment List, the city led the nation in “fastest year-over-year rent growth,” at 11%. San José, it should be noted, is in second place at 7.9% growth.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Citing the wave of high-paying tech jobs and ensuing housing frenzy \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">sparked by the AI boom\u003c/a>, the company said that San Francisco rents are up a \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/rent-report/ca/san-francisco\">staggering\u003c/a> 25.6% in just the last year — numbers that it said are “far outpacing all other markets in the country.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Citing the wave of high-paying tech jobs and ensuing housing frenzy \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">sparked by the AI boom\u003c/a>, the company said that San Francisco rents are up a \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/rent-report/ca/san-francisco\">staggering\u003c/a> 25.6% in just the last year — numbers that it said are “far outpacing all other markets in the country.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It is absolutely an emergency,” Meg Heisler, policy director San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, said in an interview Thursday with KQED, underscoring the need for “enforcement that reflects the gravity of the crisis we’re in.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/GettyImages-2250030108-scaled-e1789077751622.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12078788\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An apartment for rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building on Dec. 4, 2025, in San Francisco, California. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“But we also know that most tenants are forced out before they ever get to court,” Heisler said, pointing to harassment, eviction threats and illegal rent increases. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“That is a whole universe of things that we think need to be addressed in addition to any proposals put forward today,” she added.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>San Francisco already \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11971908/as-california-evictions-boom-whether-tenants-get-lawyers-depends-on-where-they-live\">provides an attorney\u003c/a> to all tenants facing eviction, but the reform package that Lurie announced on Thursday earmarks $3 million to expand the right to counsel for 400 San Francisco households who previously would have received only partial representation, according to the city’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>San Francisco already \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11971908/as-california-evictions-boom-whether-tenants-get-lawyers-depends-on-where-they-live\">provides an attorney\u003c/a> to all tenants facing eviction, but the reform package that Lurie announced on Thursday earmarks $3 million to expand the right to counsel for 400 San Francisco households who previously would have received only partial representation, according to the city’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Compared with those who receive “limited-scope representation,” Lurie’s office said tenants who receive “full-scope legal representation were 39% more likely to remain in their homes.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Another tack of the new reforms addresses discriminatory or other illegal renting practices, something City Attorney David Chiu laid out at the press conference with the mayor.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Everyday San Franciscans cannot afford to live here, and even those paying astronomical rents are getting evicted,” Chiu said in a statement. “This is not sustainable, and renters need help. Our renter protection laws can only help if tenants know about them and they are enforced. My office is bringing a renewed focus on weeding out systemic bad behavior that forces people out of their homes.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To drive awareness for both tenants and owners of what housing laws mandate, primarily about evictions, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development is launching a $1 million education campaign.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder is behind a new reform aimed at stopping evictions for renters who have fallen only a bit behind on rent. Unless the tenant is one month late or more, the new law would bar their eviction on the basis of nonpayment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder is behind a new reform aimed at stopping evictions for renters who have fallen only a bit behind on rent. Unless the tenant is one month late or more, the new law would bar their eviction on the basis of nonpayment.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Another prong of the reform package gives a 25% bump to payouts for displaced tenants under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/117540/the-ellis-act-and-san-francisco-evictions-a-primer\">Ellis Act\u003c/a>, amounting to nearly $3,000 per person.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Another prong of the reform package gives a 25% bump to payouts for displaced tenants under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/117540/the-ellis-act-and-san-francisco-evictions-a-primer\">Ellis Act\u003c/a>, amounting to nearly $3,000 per person.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For tenant advocates at the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, however, they want to see the Ellis Act fully repealed, along with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/costa-hawkins\">Costa Hawkins\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For tenant advocates at the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, however, they want to see the Ellis Act fully repealed, along with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/costa-hawkins\">Costa Hawkins\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Speaking on KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101915202/sf-renters-face-buyout-offers-and-evictions-as-ai-boom-sends-prices-soaring\">Forum\u003c/a> this week, eviction defense lawyer Tuesday Thornton said that the Ellis Act “incentivizes landlords to empty out buildings and essentially convert rent-controlled units to housing for the rich.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088408\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People rally in front of 1120 Jackson St. in San Francisco to protest evictions and rent hikes proposed by the property’s new owner, on June 22, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088408\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People rally in front of 1120 Jackson St. in San Francisco to protest evictions and rent hikes proposed by the property’s new owner, on June 22, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“If tenants organize, they can fight,” she said. “They can stay housed for longer, but the Ellis Act does need to be repealed or reformed to stop incentivizing these kinds of evictions.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“If tenants organize, they can fight,” she said. “They can stay housed for longer, but the Ellis Act does need to be repealed or reformed to stop incentivizing these kinds of evictions.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Lurie billed the tenant-protection package on Thursday as a component of his Family Opportunity Agenda, the two pillars of which are childcare assistance and affordable housing. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Most of the $30 million infusion from the city will go toward filling the gap of \u003ca href=\"https://sfha.org/about/news-updates/end-emergency-housing-voucher-ehv-program\">expiring\u003c/a> federal vouchers that have been a lifeline to more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/data--emergency-housing-vouchers\">900 people\u003c/a> in San Francisco since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump and his U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that the $5 billion voucher program would expire at the end of 2026, four years earlier than originally envisioned.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Most of the $30 million infusion from the city will go toward filling the gap of \u003ca href=\"https://sfha.org/about/news-updates/end-emergency-housing-voucher-ehv-program\">expiring\u003c/a> federal vouchers that have been a lifeline to more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/data--emergency-housing-vouchers\">900 people\u003c/a> in San Francisco since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump and his U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that the $5 billion voucher program would expire at the end of 2026, four years earlier than originally envisioned.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Lurie said Thursday that some 650 “extremely low-income households” will benefit now from the $27 million being unlocked by the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Lurie said Thursday that some 650 “extremely low-income households” will benefit now from the $27 million being unlocked by the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Apartment Association, which advocates for landlords, said it has fought with the city in the past over reforms that encroach illegally on state law, and may do so again here.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Apartment Association, which advocates for landlords, said it has fought with the city in the past over reforms that encroach illegally on state law, and may do so again here.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12069627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “For Rent” sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in Nob Hill in San Francisco on July 29, 2021.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12069627\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “For Rent” sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in Nob Hill in San Francisco on July 29, 2021.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“SFAA has been in conversation with members of the Board of Supervisors on many aspects of the legislative package, and remains committed to striking the right balance between offering reasonable tenant protections and enhancing awareness about existing laws,” Charley Goss, the group’s government affairs spokesperson, said in a statement. “The city should do so without inappropriately punishing rental property owners for an issue beyond their control — that San Francisco’s housing shortage has created high asking rents.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“SFAA has been in conversation with members of the Board of Supervisors on many aspects of the legislative package, and remains committed to striking the right balance between offering reasonable tenant protections and enhancing awareness about existing laws,” Charley Goss, the group’s government affairs spokesperson, said in a statement. “The city should do so without inappropriately punishing rental property owners for an issue beyond their control — that San Francisco’s housing shortage has created high asking rents.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Landlords frame the lack of housing in the city as the root of the crisis, with San Francisco delivering just 2,000 to 3,000 new units a year, inching toward its goal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993902/san-francisco-mayoral-candidates-agree-bold-action-is-needed-on-housing-what-are-their-proposals\">82,000 new homes by 2031\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Landlords frame the lack of housing in the city as the root of the crisis, with San Francisco delivering just 2,000 to 3,000 new units a year, inching toward its goal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993902/san-francisco-mayoral-candidates-agree-bold-action-is-needed-on-housing-what-are-their-proposals\">82,000 new homes by 2031\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The city has not been building enough housing that it needs to meet the growing demand,” Joshua Howard, executive vice president of the California Apartment Association, told Forum. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The city has not been building enough housing that it needs to meet the growing demand,” Joshua Howard, executive vice president of the California Apartment Association, told Forum. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, costs from regulatory compliance, rent control, maintenance, insurance and construction “are rising at more than 1.6%, which is the annual allowable rent increase from the Rent Board,” Howard said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, costs from regulatory compliance, rent control, maintenance, insurance and construction “are rising at more than 1.6%, which is the annual allowable rent increase from the Rent Board,” Howard said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Thornton, the tenant advocate, balked at the claim of landlords not being able to keep up with costs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Rent-controlled units that are subject to the Rent Board’s jurisdiction in San Francisco — owners of those units are able to pass on operation and maintenance costs to their tenants, but they have to prove that their costs actually exceed the amount of allowable rent increase that year,” she said. “Landlords are able to capture those amounts.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Rent-controlled units that are subject to the Rent Board’s jurisdiction in San Francisco — owners of those units are able to pass on operation and maintenance costs to their tenants, but they have to prove that their costs actually exceed the amount of allowable rent increase that year,” she said. “Landlords are able to capture those amounts.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Howard, speaking for the landlord group, meanwhile put an asterisk on that $4,000 monthly rent figure for a one-bedroom apartment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Noting that such averages are skewed by the “larger, newer Class A properties,” Howard quoted U.S. Census Bureau figures that show median rent in San Francisco is about $2,476 a month.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Noting that such averages are skewed by the “larger, newer Class A properties,” Howard quoted U.S. Census Bureau figures that show median rent in San Francisco is about $2,476 a month.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Census Bureau data tells us that, on average, the San Francisco renter household is spending 24% to 25% of its income on rent,” Howard said. “That is far below the HUD standard of 30% and the national average of 30%. So we can talk about affordability. Let’s talk about the data, but let’s also recognize that San Francisco renters, on average, spend a smaller share of their household income on rent than renters nationally.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Census Bureau data tells us that, on average, the San Francisco renter household is spending 24% to 25% of its income on rent,” Howard said. “That is far below the HUD standard of 30% and the national average of 30%. So we can talk about affordability. Let’s talk about the data, but let’s also recognize that San Francisco renters, on average, spend a smaller share of their household income on rent than renters nationally.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Thornton said, on the other hand, that those figures underscore the difficulty that service workers and public sector employees face in a city where average incomes are so high. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“If you need $160,000 to live in a one-bedroom, who are we building a city for?” she said. “I don’t think that that’s something to celebrate. I think that’s telling a really horrifying story of displacement. And I want to live in a city where everyone can thrive. I don’t think it’s a functional society if people are terrified of losing their housing at any moment.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“If you need $160,000 to live in a one-bedroom, who are we building a city for?” she said. “I don’t think that that’s something to celebrate. I think that’s telling a really horrifying story of displacement. And I want to live in a city where everyone can thrive. I don’t think it’s a functional society if people are terrified of losing their housing at any moment.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "The move is part of a broader affordability push by city officials, even as the tech industry’s AI boom displaces working families. ",
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"title": "San Francisco Mayor Lurie Infuses $30 Million in Reforms to Tackle ‘Rent Emergency’ | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Blasting the “rent emergency” driving up evictions across \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a $30 million package of reforms on Thursday morning to keep families in their homes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Today, most San Franciscans feel our city is finally moving in the right direction, but many are also asking whether they can still afford to live here,” Lurie said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-unveils-sweeping-package-with-immediate-actions-to-address-san-franciscos-rent-emergency\">statement\u003c/a> memorializing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/live/SLkYNFthvlo\">speech\u003c/a> he gave this morning in the city’s Alamo Square Park. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Signs of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12098307/the-price-of-raising-kids-in-the-bay\">affordability crisis in San Francisco\u003c/a> are everywhere. According to \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/national-rent-data\">new data\u003c/a> from online rental service Apartment List, the city led the nation in “fastest year-over-year rent growth,” at 11%. San José, it should be noted, is in second place at 7.9% growth.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Citing the wave of high-paying tech jobs and ensuing housing frenzy \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12097632/chatbots-data-centers-and-surveillance-5-silicon-valley-bills-land-on-newsoms-desk\">sparked by the AI boom\u003c/a>, the company said that San Francisco rents are up a \u003ca href=\"https://www.apartmentlist.com/rent-report/ca/san-francisco\">staggering\u003c/a> 25.6% in just the last year — numbers that it said are “far outpacing all other markets in the country.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It is absolutely an emergency,” Meg Heisler, policy director San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, said in an interview Thursday with KQED, underscoring the need for “enforcement that reflects the gravity of the crisis we’re in.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1391\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/GettyImages-2250030108-scaled-e1789077751622.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12078788\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An apartment for rent sign hangs outside of an apartment building on Dec. 4, 2025, in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“But we also know that most tenants are forced out before they ever get to court,” Heisler said, pointing to harassment, eviction threats and illegal rent increases. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That is a whole universe of things that we think need to be addressed in addition to any proposals put forward today,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco already \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11971908/as-california-evictions-boom-whether-tenants-get-lawyers-depends-on-where-they-live\">provides an attorney\u003c/a> to all tenants facing eviction, but the reform package that Lurie announced on Thursday earmarks $3 million to expand the right to counsel for 400 San Francisco households who previously would have received only partial representation, according to the city’s announcement.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Compared with those who receive “limited-scope representation,” Lurie’s office said tenants who receive “full-scope legal representation were 39% more likely to remain in their homes.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another tack of the new reforms addresses discriminatory or other illegal renting practices, something City Attorney David Chiu laid out at the press conference with the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Everyday San Franciscans cannot afford to live here, and even those paying astronomical rents are getting evicted,” Chiu said in a statement. “This is not sustainable, and renters need help. Our renter protection laws can only help if tenants know about them and they are enforced. My office is bringing a renewed focus on weeding out systemic bad behavior that forces people out of their homes.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To drive awareness for both tenants and owners of what housing laws mandate, primarily about evictions, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development is launching a $1 million education campaign.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder is behind a new reform aimed at stopping evictions for renters who have fallen only a bit behind on rent. Unless the tenant is one month late or more, the new law would bar their eviction on the basis of nonpayment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Another prong of the reform package gives a 25% bump to payouts for displaced tenants under the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/117540/the-ellis-act-and-san-francisco-evictions-a-primer\">Ellis Act\u003c/a>, amounting to nearly $3,000 per person.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For tenant advocates at the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, however, they want to see the Ellis Act fully repealed, along with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/costa-hawkins\">Costa Hawkins\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Speaking on KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101915202/sf-renters-face-buyout-offers-and-evictions-as-ai-boom-sends-prices-soaring\">Forum\u003c/a> this week, eviction defense lawyer Tuesday Thornton said that the Ellis Act “incentivizes landlords to empty out buildings and essentially convert rent-controlled units to housing for the rich.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12088408\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/260622-SF-CHINATOWN-TENANT-RALLY-MD-08-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">People rally in front of 1120 Jackson St. in San Francisco to protest evictions and rent hikes proposed by the property’s new owner, on June 22, 2026. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If tenants organize, they can fight,” she said. “They can stay housed for longer, but the Ellis Act does need to be repealed or reformed to stop incentivizing these kinds of evictions.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Lurie billed the tenant-protection package on Thursday as a component of his Family Opportunity Agenda, the two pillars of which are childcare assistance and affordable housing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most of the $30 million infusion from the city will go toward filling the gap of \u003ca href=\"https://sfha.org/about/news-updates/end-emergency-housing-voucher-ehv-program\">expiring\u003c/a> federal vouchers that have been a lifeline to more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/data--emergency-housing-vouchers\">900 people\u003c/a> in San Francisco since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump and his U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that the $5 billion voucher program would expire at the end of 2026, four years earlier than originally envisioned.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Lurie said Thursday that some 650 “extremely low-income households” will benefit now from the $27 million being unlocked by the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Apartment Association, which advocates for landlords, said it has fought with the city in the past over reforms that encroach illegally on state law, and may do so again here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12069627\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/024_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A “For Rent” sign hangs in the window of an apartment building in Nob Hill in San Francisco on July 29, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“SFAA has been in conversation with members of the Board of Supervisors on many aspects of the legislative package, and remains committed to striking the right balance between offering reasonable tenant protections and enhancing awareness about existing laws,” Charley Goss, the group’s government affairs spokesperson, said in a statement. “The city should do so without inappropriately punishing rental property owners for an issue beyond their control — that San Francisco’s housing shortage has created high asking rents.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Landlords frame the lack of housing in the city as the root of the crisis, with San Francisco delivering just 2,000 to 3,000 new units a year, inching toward its goal of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993902/san-francisco-mayoral-candidates-agree-bold-action-is-needed-on-housing-what-are-their-proposals\">82,000 new homes by 2031\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The city has not been building enough housing that it needs to meet the growing demand,” Joshua Howard, executive vice president of the California Apartment Association, told Forum. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, costs from regulatory compliance, rent control, maintenance, insurance and construction “are rising at more than 1.6%, which is the annual allowable rent increase from the Rent Board,” Howard said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thornton, the tenant advocate, balked at the claim of landlords not being able to keep up with costs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Rent-controlled units that are subject to the Rent Board’s jurisdiction in San Francisco — owners of those units are able to pass on operation and maintenance costs to their tenants, but they have to prove that their costs actually exceed the amount of allowable rent increase that year,” she said. “Landlords are able to capture those amounts.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Howard, speaking for the landlord group, meanwhile put an asterisk on that $4,000 monthly rent figure for a one-bedroom apartment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Noting that such averages are skewed by the “larger, newer Class A properties,” Howard quoted U.S. Census Bureau figures that show median rent in San Francisco is about $2,476 a month.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Census Bureau data tells us that, on average, the San Francisco renter household is spending 24% to 25% of its income on rent,” Howard said. “That is far below the HUD standard of 30% and the national average of 30%. So we can talk about affordability. Let’s talk about the data, but let’s also recognize that San Francisco renters, on average, spend a smaller share of their household income on rent than renters nationally.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Thornton said, on the other hand, that those figures underscore the difficulty that service workers and public sector employees face in a city where average incomes are so high. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“If you need $160,000 to live in a one-bedroom, who are we building a city for?” she said. “I don’t think that that’s something to celebrate. I think that’s telling a really horrifying story of displacement. And I want to live in a city where everyone can thrive. I don’t think it’s a functional society if people are terrified of losing their housing at any moment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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},
"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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