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This is the strongest vacancy tax in the nation– most notably because it taxes vacant homes per unit, instead of per parcel, a contrast with Oakland. The law is carefully crafted with exceptions for any good faith vacancy, while targeting the hoarding & purposeful prolonged vacancies largely conducted by real estate speculators who are more interested in buying, holding, & selling empty units than providing homes. We expect the law to be upheld on appeal, although we will not know the results of the appeal for some time. We recognize that this is disappointing for the thousands of activists who united behind the Empty Homes Tax. The DSA SF Chapter and Faith in Action Bay Area in particular worked tirelessly to pass this ballot measure. We were proud to pave the way with our groundbreaking residential vacancy report, comparative analysis of other vacancy taxes, public hearings, & other advocacy. The measure passed 55-45% despite facing heavy real estate industry opposition spending.

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This is the strongest vacancy tax in the nation– most notably because it taxes vacant homes per unit, instead of per parcel, a contrast with Oakland. The law is carefully crafted with exceptions for any good faith vacancy, while targeting the hoarding & purposeful prolonged vacancies largely conducted by real estate speculators who are more interested in buying, holding, & selling empty units than providing homes. We expect the law to be upheld on appeal, although we will not know the results of the appeal for some time. We recognize that this is disappointing for the thousands of activists who united behind the Empty Homes Tax. The DSA SF Chapter and Faith in Action Bay Area in particular worked tirelessly to pass this ballot measure. We were proud to pave the way with our groundbreaking residential vacancy report, comparative analysis of other vacancy taxes, public hearings, & other advocacy. The measure passed 55-45% despite facing heavy real estate industry opposition spending.
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Dean Preston (deanpreston@sfba.social)'s status on Monday, 04-Nov-2024 04:31:02 JST Dean Preston

As the Chronicle has reported, a SF trial court judge has verbally ruled against the Empty Homes Tax, although the reasoning and legal basis are unknown at this time because the judge did not specify a reason and has not yet issued a written decision. We do not accept a broken status quo where every night over 10 homes sit vacant for every person who sleeps on our streets. We’re optimistic that the Court of Appeal will follow the will of the voters & uphold the Empty Homes Tax. Full statement:

In conversation about a year ago from sfba.social permalink