New Executive Director Deepa Varma!
Deepa Varma is excited to come on board as the new Executive Director of the Tenants Union. She has been involved in housing justice as as an activist and tenant rights attorney since 2007 in both New York City and San Francisco.
Redevelopment on Massive Scale Moving Forward
The Mayor’s Office is proposing a Affordable Housing Bonus Program that could lead to the greatest wave of displacement since the Redevelopment era of the 1950s. Attend the Planning Commission Hearing on January 28, 2015 at 12 pm, Room 400, City Hall to protest the plan! Learn about this plan at the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council panel discussion on January 14th, 7 pm at the Park Branch Library. More info about why market development is not the answer here.
edit Education Learn More edit Legislation & Advocacy Take Action edit Anti-Eviction Mapping Project Learn More edit Grassroots Organizing & Direct Action Become a Member! 
Building Tenant Power edit
Since 1971, the San Francisco Tenants Union has been fighting for the rights of tenants and for the preservation of affordable housing in San Francisco. The Tenants Union is supported by membership and counseling donations and this enables our advocacy to be uncompromising and not influenced by pressures from government or other funders. We are a 501(c)(4) since we campaign for political candidates. We seek to build a base of tenants throughout the city to establish a political power to create change.
Join the Tenants Union today to help support on going efforts to protect and expand affordable housing in the city. Your membership helps keep the clinic going and drives our advocacy.
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project edit
The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project is a data-visualization, data analysis, and digital storytelling collective documenting the dispossession of San Francisco Bay Area residents in the wake of the Tech Boom 2.0. We seek to create tools that contribute to collective resistance, and that can be used by diverse communities in movement building.
Utilizing maps and digital storytelling, we strive to make the often obscured mechanisms of material, cultural, and affective displacement palpable. We see the eviction epidemic as endemic to a political economy built to privilege corporate interests of real estate and tech, and seek to contribute to a living archive that deconstructs corporate collusion.
Drop-In Tenants’ Rights Counseling Clinic edit
The Tenants Union operates a drop-in counseling clinic for members and nonmembers. Since the Tenants Union is a membership-supported organization, we ask that new tenants become members of the Tenants Union. Members receive a copy of our Tenants Rights Handbook and access to phone counseling. If you do not join, we ask that you make a donation when you come in (but no one is turned away for lack of funds).
Hours for the clinic include daytime, evening and weekend hours. Since the actual hours can vary each week, tenants should check our drop-in schedule or call 415-282-6622 right before coming for the schedule. Counselors are trained to answer virtually any question regarding your rights as a tenant or sub-tenant. Please bring in all your paperwork (notices, letters, rental agreement, etc.).
Please note:
- If you are a master tenant seeking help in evicting a sub-tenant, we cannot provide you with counseling. We suggest you contact the Rent Board.
- If you have been served with a “Summons & Complaint For Unlawful Detainer,” we will not be able to help. Bring it and all your paperwork to the Eviction Defense Collaborative.
Click here for Drop-In Clinic Hours edit
Tenants Rights Handbook edit
The San Francisco Tenants Union publishes an over-320 page handbook yearly. The 17th Edition of the Tenants Rights Handbook is available to members only. The handbook contains comprehensive information on the law, strategies, and resources for tenant rights in San Francisco.
We see the Tenants Rights Handbook as part of a larger organizing strategy to build political power by empowering tenants to learn and understand their rights. Being able to articulate your rights to landlords and politicians helps to assert tenant power in San Francisco.
We encourage you to become a member of the San Francisco Tenants Union and offer the handbook as a tool for tenant self-empowerment and self-determination.
Tenant Times
Latest News
San Francisco Tenants Union
558 Capp Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415-282-6622
info@sftu.org