Title. | |
Purpose. | |
Findings. | |
Definitions. | |
Applicability of this Chapter. | |
Initial Status Determination. | |
Statements of Exemption; Applicability of this Chapter. | |
Requirements for Nonprofit Organizations. | |
Records of Use. | |
Annual Unit Usage Report. | |
Administration. | |
Permit to Convert. | |
One-for-one Replacement. | |
Mandatory Denial of Permit to Convert. | |
Approval and Issuance of Permit to Convert. | |
Appeal of Denial or Approval of Permit to Convert. | |
Rights of Permanent Residents. | |
Demolition. | |
Temporary Change of Occupancy. | |
Unlawful Conversion; Remedies; Fines. | |
Annual Review of Residential Hotel Status. | |
Amortization. | |
Construction. | |
It is the purpose of this ordinance to benefit the general public by minimizing adverse impact on the housing supply and on displaced low income, elderly, and disabled persons resulting from the loss of residential hotel units through their conversion and demolition. This is to be accomplished by establishing the status of residential hotel units, by regulating the demolition and conversion of residential hotel units to other uses, and by appropriate administrative and judicial remedies.
(Added by Ord. 121-90, App. 4/12/90)
The Board of Supervisors finds that:
(a) There is a severe shortage of decent, safe, sanitary and affordable rental housing in the City and County of San Francisco and this shortage affects most severely the elderly, the disabled and low-income persons.
(b) The people of the City and County of San Francisco, cognizant of the housing shortage of San Francisco, on November 4, 1980, adopted a declaration of policy to increase the city's housing supply by 20,000 units.
(c) Many of the elderly, disabled and low-income persons and households reside in residential hotel units.
(d) A study prepared by the Department of City Planning estimated that there were only 26,884 residential hotel units in the City in December of 1979, a decrease of 6,098 such units from 1975. Since enactment of this Chapter, residential hotel units have continued to decrease, at a slower rate: in 1981, there were 20,466 residential hotel units as defined by this Chapter; in 1988, there were 18,723 residential hotel units, a decrease of 1,743 over a period of 7 years. The decrease is caused by vacation, conversion or demolition of residential hotel units. Continued vacation, conversion or demolition of residential hotel units will aggravate the existing shortage of affordable, safe and sanitary housing in the City and County of San Francisco.
(e) As a result of the removal of residential hotel units from the rental housing market, a housing emergency exists within the City and County of San Francisco for its elderly, disabled and low-income households.
(f) Residential hotel units are endangered housing resources and must be protected.
(g) The Board of Supervisors and the Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco recognized this housing emergency and enacted an ordinance which established a moratorium on the demolition or conversion of residential hotel units to any other use. The moratorium ordinance became effective on November 21, 1979.
(h) The conversion of residential hotel units affects those persons who are least able to cope with displacement in San Francisco's housing market.
(i) It is in the public interest that conversion of residential hotel units be regulated and that remedies be provided where unlawful conversion has occurred, in order to protect the resident tenants and to conserve the limited housing resources.
(j) The tourist industry is one of the major industries of the City and County of San Francisco. Tourism is essential for the economic well being of San Francisco. Therefore, it is in the public interest that a certain number of moderately priced tourist hotel units be maintained especially during the annual tourist season between May 1st and September 30th.
(k) Tourist activity has increased steadily in San Francisco since 1983. There are currently approximately 23,000 tourist hotel units in the City and over 3,000 additional such units will be added by 1988 through new construction. However, there are presently only 18,723 residential hotel units and this number is not increasing. In addition, rents for residential hotel units have risen an average of 23 percent annually since 1980, making such units less and less affordable as a housing resource for the elderly, disabled and low-income persons. Since the adoption of this ordinance, hotel owners have begun to leave residential units vacant during the non-tourist season (October 1st - April 30th) in order to rent these units to tourists at high daily rental rates during the tourist season (May 1st - September 30th). This activity, which further reduces the available supply of low and moderate income housing in San Francisco, is not presently prohibited under this Chapter. In order to assure that residential hotel owners do not continue to withhold these available residential units from prospective permanent residents during the non-tourist season, it is necessary to restrict the tourist season rental of vacant residential hotel units. Such a restriction will not interfere with San Francisco's tourism, which remains essential to the economic well-being of the City.
(l) Since enactment of this Chapter, it has become apparent that portions of this Chapter were difficult and extremely costly to interpret and enforce, resulting in an inability to fulfill the essential intent of this Chapter and to prevent illegal conversions.
(m) Certain uses provide both living accommodation and services, such as health care, personal care, and counseling, to residents of the City. Examples of such uses are hospital, skilled nursing facility, AIDS hospice, intermediate care facility, asylum, sanitarium, orphanage, prison, convent, rectory, residential care facility for the elderly, and community care facility. Such facilities are often operated in buildings owned or leased by non-profit organizations and provide needed services to the City’s residents. To subject such facilities to the provisions of this Chapter may deter future development of such facilities. It is desirable that such facilities exist and the City should encourage construction and operation of such facilities.
(n) In addition, a form of housing facilities called “transitional housing” provides housing and supportive services to homeless persons and families and is intended to facilitate the movement of homeless individuals and families to independent living or longer term supportive residences in a reasonable amount of time. Transitional housing has individual living quarters with physical characteristics often similar to a residential hotel (i.e., accommodations which provide privacy to residents) and provides a source of interim housing for homeless individuals and families seeking to live independently.
(o) The City’s public, quasi-public, and private social agencies serving the elderly and needy persons often find it difficult to immediately locate suitable housing units for such persons returning to independent living after hospitalization or upon leaving skilled-nursing or intermediate care facilities within a short time after their discharge from a health facility. Such persons often will require minimum supervision and other interim social service support. The provision of a stable number of housing units for such emergency needs until permanent housing can be secured and supportive services arranged are necessary and desirable for the City. Emergency housing will have physical characteristics similar to “transitional housing” and is often intended to be occupied for a period of less than one month.
(p) The City also wishes to provide positive incentives to encourage residential hotel owners and operators to comply with the terms of this Chapter. Hotel owners have expressed a need to rent certain residential units on a short term basis during the winter months. In an effort to address this need and to encourage compliance with this Chapter, the City wishes to provide an opportunity to hotel owners who have complied with the terms of this Chapter to rent a limited number of residential units to tourists during the winter months.
*Editor’s Note:
Ord. 56-20 repealed Ord. 38-17, restoring the text of this Section as it existed prior to adoption of that ordinance, and then enacted amendments to that text.
For purposes of this Chapter 41, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
Comparable Unit. A unit which is similar in size, services, rental amount, and facilities, and is designated the same category of housing as the existing unit, and is located within the existing neighborhood or within a neighborhood with similar physical and socioeconomic conditions, and is similarly affordable for low income, elderly, and disabled persons.
Conversion. The change or attempted change of the use of a residential unit to a Tourist or Transient use, or the elimination of a residential unit, or the voluntary demolition of a residential hotel. However, a change in the use of a residential hotel unit into a non-commercial use which serves only the needs of the permanent residents, such as a resident’s lounge, community kitchen, or common area, shall not constitute a conversion within the meaning of this Chapter 41, provided that the residential hotel owner establishes that eliminating or re-designating an existing tourist unit instead of a residential unit would be infeasible.
Disabled Person. A recipient of disability benefits.
Elderly Person. A person 62 years of age or older.
Emergency Housing. A project which provides housing and supportive services to elderly or low-income persons upon leaving a health facility and which has its primary purpose facilitating the return of such individuals to independent living. The emergency housing shall provide services and living quarters pursuant to Section 41.13 herein and may be provided as part of a “transitional housing” project.
Hotel. Any building containing six or more guest rooms intended or designed to be used, or which are used, rented, or hired out to be occupied or which are occupied for sleeping purposes and dwelling purposes by guests, whether rent is paid in money, goods, or services. It includes motels, as defined in Section 401 of the Housing Code, but does not include any jail, health facilities as defined in Section 1250 of the California Health and Safety Code, asylum, sanitarium, orphanage, prison convent, rectory, residential care facility for the elderly as defined in Section 1569.2 of the Health and Safety Code, residential facilities as defined in Section 1502 of the Health and Safety Code or other institution in which human beings are housed or detained under legal restraint, or any private club and nonprofit organization in existence on September 23, 1979; provided, however, that nonprofit organizations which operated a residential hotel on September 23, 1979, shall comply with the provisions of Section 41.8 herein.
Interested Party. A permanent resident of a hotel, or his or her authorized representative, or a former tenant of a hotel who vacated a residential unit within the past 90 days preceding the filing of a complaint or court proceeding to enforce the provisions of this Chapter 41. Interested party shall also mean any nonprofit organization, as defined in this Section 41.4, which has the preservation or improvement of housing as a stated purpose in its articles of incorporation and/or bylaws.
Low-Income Household. A household whose income does not exceed 60% of the Area Median Income as set forth in Charter Section 16.110.
Low-Income Housing. Residential units whose rent may not exceed 30% of the gross monthly income of a Low-Income Household as defined above.
Nonprofit Organization. An entity exempt from taxation pursuant to Title 26, Section 501 of the United States Code.
Operator. The lessee or any person or legal entity whether or not the owner, who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a residential hotel and to whom a hotel license is issued for a Residential Hotel.
Owner. Any person or legal entity holding any ownership interest in a Residential Hotel.
Permanent Resident. A person who occupies a guest room for at least 30 consecutive days.
Posting or Post. The display of a notice or information in a conspicuous location at the front desk in the lobby of the hotel, or if there is no lobby, in the public entranceway. No material posted may be removed by any person except as otherwise provided in this Chapter.
Residential Unit. Any guest room as defined in Section 401 of the Housing Code which had been occupied by a permanent resident on September 23, 1979. Any guest room constructed subsequent to September 23, 1979, or not occupied by a permanent resident on September 23, 1979, shall not be subject to the provisions of this Chapter 41; provided however, if designated as a residential unit pursuant to Section 41.6 of this Chapter or constructed as a replacement unit, such residential units shall be subject to the provisions of this Chapter.
Tourist Hotel. Any building containing six or more guest rooms intended or designated to be used for commercial tourist use by providing accommodation to transient guests on a nightly basis or longer. A tourist hotel shall be considered a Hotel use as defined in Planning Code Section 102 and shall not considered1
Group Housing as defined in Planning Code Section 102.
Tourist or Transient Use. For two years after the effective date of Ordinance No. 36-23 in Board of Supervisors File No. 220815, “Tourist or Transient Use” shall mean any use of a guest room for less than a 7-day term of tenancy by a party other than a Permanent Resident. After that two-year period, “Tourist or Transient Use” shall mean any use of a guest room for less than a 30-day term of tenancy by a party other than a Permanent Resident, unless a hotel owner or operator demonstrates, in accordance with the process and factors described in Section 41.23, that a longer time is necessary to recover reasonable investments in the owner or operator’s hotel.
Tourist Unit. A guest room which was not occupied on September 23, 1979, by a permanent resident or is certified as a Tourist Unit pursuant to Sections 41.6, 41.7, or 41.8 below. Designation as a tourist unit under this Chapter 41 shall not supersede any limitations on use pursuant to the Planning Code.
Transitional Housing. A project which provides housing and supportive services to homeless persons and families or Low-Income Households at risk of becoming homeless which has as its purpose facilitating the movement of homeless individuals or at-risk Low-Income Households to independent living within a reasonable amount of time. The Transitional Housing shall provide services and living quarters as approved by the Planning Commission that are similar to the residential unit being replaced pursuant to Section 41.13 herein and shall comply with all relevant provisions of City ordinances and regulations.
(Added by Ord. 121-90, App. 4/12/90; amended by Ord. 38-17,* File No. 161291, App. 2/17/2017, Eff. 3/19/2017; Ord. 102-19,* File No. 190049, App. 5/31/2019, Eff. 7/1/2019; Ord. 56-20, File No. 191258, App. 4/10/2020, Eff. 5/11/2020; Ord. 63-20, File No. 200077, App. 4/24/2020, Eff. 5/25/2020; Ord. 36-23, File No. 220815, App. 3/24/2023, Eff. 4/24/2023)
CODIFICATION NOTE
*Editor’s Note:
Ord. 56-20, except as stated in Section 4 thereof, repealed Ords. 38-17 and 102-19, restoring the text of this Section as it existed prior to adoption of Ord. 38-17. Ord. 56-20 then amended the restored text. Section 4 of Ord. 56-20 provides: “To the extent Ordinance No. 38-17 amended any cross-references to Section 41.4 in the Municipal Code to reflect the removal of the letter designations in Section 41.4, [...] that feature – and only that feature – of Ordinance No. 38-17 is not repealed.”
The provisions of this Chapter shall not apply to:
(a) The change in use of a residential unit where the unit has been found to be unfit for human habitation prior to November 23, 1979 and ordered to be vacated by the Department of Public Health; or
(b) A hotel wherein 95 percent of the guest rooms were tourist units on September 23, 1979; or
(c) A unit which rented for over $1,000 per month on September 23, 1979; or
(d) A hotel in which 95 percent of the total number of guest rooms rented for more than $1,000 per month on September 23, 1979; or
(e) A building which was unlawfully converted to a rooming house or hotel in violation of the provisions of the City Planning Code; or
(f) A building which meets the requirements of Section 41.7(c) below for a claim of exemption for partially-completed conversions; or
(g) A building which meets the requirements of Section 41.7(b) below for a claim of exemption for low-income housing; or
(h) A building which is lawfully approved by the City after September 23, 1979, and is not a replacement unit pursuant to Section 41.13 herein, so long as it is operated by a public entity or a nonprofit organization as a jail, health facilities as defined by Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code, asylum, sanitarium, orphanage, prison, convent, rectory, residential care facility for the elderly as defined in Section 1569.2 of the Health and Safety Code, residential facilities as defined in Section 1502 of Health and Safety Code, or other institution in which human beings are housed or detained under legal restraint.
(Added by Ord. 121-90, App. 4/12/90)
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