3 Ways We’re Supporting Renters Right Now

• Strengthen elevator maintenance and tenant protections
• Limit banked rent increases to prevent sudden hikes
• Combat rental scams with enhanced city oversight
• Hold landlords accountable for livable housing conditions

• San Francisco Elevator Ordinance update
• Budget & Legislative Analyst Report on banked rent
• Hearing on rental scams

• Board of Supervisors introduction of legislation
• Upcoming hearing on rental scams

My work to protect tenants & hold landlords accountable

*A Note From District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter*

Housing continues to be the defining crisis of our day. Rents are crushing the very people who make this city run, and keeping out countless members of the next generation who want to live their San Francisco dream.

We must respond to this emergency by both building more homes and supporting existing tenants. Keeping renters in their homes - and ensuring these homes are affordable and in good condition - is a key part of our response to the housing crisis. As a renter raising my family in a rent-controlled apartment, I’m deeply committed to strengthening our rent control laws and creating new protections to improve affordability and quality of life for all renters.

That’s why I recently introduced 3 items at the Board of Supervisors which respond to the increasing pressure that renters find themselves under in today’s hot housing market.

*Elevators*

( https://sfstandard.com/2026/07/29/sf-seniors-broken-elevators-landlords/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com )

First, I’m working on legislation to update and strengthen San Francisco’s elevator ordinance. Before I tell you what the legislation is, I want to tell you why I’m doing this.

It’s because of the tenants at 845 California that I have met over this past year. Almost 100 of my constituents - different ages, different backgrounds - all of whom have had to bond together out of necessity because their elevators have been broken nearly nonstop since February.

An elevator outage might seem like an abstract problem until you hear directly from the people it hurts, so this summer I visited 845 California and met the people impacted by this.

* I met an amazing 94-year old woman who has contributed decades of her life to San Francisco, but is now isolated from the city she loves. * I met a man who suffered cardiac arrest in his apartment — and when the paramedics arrived, he had to walk himself down the stairs, because the elevator was broken. * I met a woman who told me how she struggles to carry her dog in one hand and groceries in the other as she traverses the steep stairs. * I met neighbor after neighbor who shared that they now go out less because of the elevator outages - skipping seeing friends, limiting groceries, and putting off doctor appointments or even surgeries because of the uncertainty.

After I toured the building, I was left dismayed and angry. The property owner clearly needs to answer for their own neglect, but our city can do more too. Our current elevator ordinance is light on specifics and gives bad actors far too much leeway when elevators don’t actually reliably serve tenants.

So I am working with the City Attorney to update San Francisco’s Elevator Ordinance in a number of ways, including increasing elevator maintenance & repair responsibilities, codifying a relocation requirement for vulnerable people (seniors, people with disabilities, pregnant people, etc.) during extended outages, requiring more notices for residents when the elevators are out, and clarifying enforcement options against neglectful landlords who do not maintain their elevators.

I believe that a working elevator in an apartment is not an amenity or a luxury - it’s a core housing service. So this legislation says, simply: *if you profit from a building, you are responsible for keeping it livable*.

*Banked Rent Increases*

Next, I have requested a Budget & Legislative Analyst Report to consider improvements for San Francisco’s policy regarding banked rent increases.

Banked rent is the practice of a landlord skipping an annual allowable rent increase and instead saving - or banking - the unused percentage. Under today’s policy, landlords have the option to add this banked rent increase at a future date to the same tenant with no limits.

This can lead to large rent increases in future years that can be hard to expect or absorb all at once. In today’s hot market, we’re seeing banked rent used as a tool to push tenants out with large rent increases that are untenable.

This is especially concerning around the sales of new buildings, with cases like 1120 Jackson Street in my district where a 92-year old and her neighbors are actively fighting evictions. Banked rent was first used as an incentive for a new owner buying the building as it was marketed as having a “224% rental upside achievable through unit turnover.” Banked rent has been weaponized to bring sudden rent increases that no tenant could absorb overnight.

( https://sfstandard.com/2026/06/22/nob-hill-landlord-evicts-rent-control/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com )

I believe there are guardrails that we should consider which will help us avoid worst case scenarios. Every other city that allows rent banking has guardrails. Every single one — except San Francisco. We have literally been called the 'Wild West of rent banking.'

Our BLA Report will look at limits and protections that other cities have enacted and consider how they might impact San Francisco tenants, property owners, and the overall rental market.

*Rental Scams*

( https://sfstandard.com/2026/08/05/san-francisco-rental-listing-scam/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com )

Finally, I introduced a hearing request on the topic of rental scams, a practice that is becoming more sophisticated and deceptive in this brutal rental market.

San Franciscans searching for housing are increasingly targeted by rental scams: listings for apartments that don't exist, scammers posing as landlords or property managers, requests for deposits or first month's rent before a viewing, and fraudulent subletting schemes that exploit the city's competitive rental market. These scams disproportionately hit renters with the least room for financial loss: students, new arrivals, low-income tenants, and immigrants navigating an unfamiliar housing search process for the first time.

Our hearing will examine the scope of the problem in San Francisco, what protections currently exist for both renters and property owners, and what more the City can do to warn people before money changes hands instead of just supporting victims after the fact.

In a brutal housing market, we need to step up how our city protects renters and longtime tenants. *My message to those who seek to exploit today’s competitive market is clear:*

* *If you own a building, keep the elevator running.* * *If you're going to raise the rent, don't spring years of increases on someone overnight.* * *And if you're advertising an apartment, it should actually exist.*

I look forward to developing these topics into legislation in the months ahead to protect renters across San Francisco. Stay tuned for updates, and please feel free to reach out if you have personal experience with any of these issues that you would be willing to share.

See you in the neighborhood, *Supervisor Danny Sauter*

( https://www.facebook.com/dannysauterd3supervisor/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com ) ( https://x.com/dannysauter?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com ) ( https://www.instagram.com/dannysauterd3/?utm_campaign=website&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com )

Danny Sauter

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244 , San Francisco , CA 94102

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