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Small San Francisco Landlords Say Legalizing ADU's Is A Catch 22 - YouTube
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when our original series project home
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all around the region people are
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building what are known as in log units
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or granny flats to help with the housing
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crunch and new state laws make them
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easier than ever to build tonight Susie
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Stein will shows us a growing problem
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small landlords who already own those
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units but are struggling to legalize
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them if the walls of this Potrero Hill
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Victorian could talk they'd have quite
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the housing crisis quandary to share we
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kind of like that it was a little bit of
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funky layout I kind of added some charm
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to it we just have a space that can
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really feel like ours and like a home
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this is what affordable housing should
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look like in San Francisco it's a
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beautiful home in a nice neighborhood
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the rent is below market rate the
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tenants and landlord all actually like
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each other and everyone wants to stay
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put but because of conflicting city laws
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this is all about to come apart it's a
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total catch-22 Eric terraria is a small
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landlord in San Francisco this is his
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only rental property upstairs in a
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two-bedroom are two couples including
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Brittney and Frank downstairs in a
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studio are Matt his girlfriend and their
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dog Banksy who crashed the interview a
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couple of times
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Matt's apartment is the apparent problem
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I was pretty shocked when we heard why
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it was considered an illegal unit the
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ceiling is off by a couple of inches so
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are the floorboards and ground water
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access isn't ideal all of which make
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this unit technically illegal something
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they only found out about after a
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neighbor complained they could continue
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to find me I think it's 250 or $350 a
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day for not legalizing it to legalize
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the unit Eric would have to tear up the
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sidewalk out front which would cost at
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least $50,000 and the excavation work
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needed to raise the ceilings would cost
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more than $200,000 it's work tenants
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don't think needs to be done that Eric
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can't afford to do it's extremely
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frustrating for someone who doesn't have
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deep pockets like me his other option is
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to take the unit off the market and
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displace all
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six tenants it's a very scary situation
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my hope is that the city finds ways to
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help make it easier to make any
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accessory dwelling unit be permitted to
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be legal to conflicting San Francisco
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laws are at play here
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the first is David choose ordinance from
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2014 when he was a supervisor that
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ordinance allows landlords to bring
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illegal in law units onto the market
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without a permit a second law that
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passed in 2016
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makes it difficult for landlords to
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remove any unit legal or not from the
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market so Erik would have to be granted
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a hearing by the Planning Commission to
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remove the illegal unit which is
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something he's been waiting two years
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for dealing with the Planning Commission
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and the Planning Department at this
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point in San Francisco's history is sort
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of like playing Russian roulette it's
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incredibly difficult to be a small
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property owner in San Francisco Daniel
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Bernstein is an attorney who regularly
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represents small landlords he says he
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regularly hear stories of mom and pops
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being confused and then deciding renting
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here isn't worth the hassle how many
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small property owners have you seen
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choose to leave the market because of so
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many complications like this I would say
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dozens dozens and there we at risk of
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losing more I would say yes as Bornstein
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points out Erik is taking a legal risk
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either way if he continues to rent an
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illegal unit his tenants could sue him
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so the safest legal option would be to
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displaced tenants even though he doesn't
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want to do that well you're between a
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rock and a hard place so what's a small
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landlord with happy tenants in a city
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experiencing a housing crisis to do it's
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a house of cards and whether it falls
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hinges on Eric's decision to break the
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law or find a way around it what I would
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say to the Planning Commission is if you
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really care about the housing crisis and
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providing affordable housing to the
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citizens and residents of San Francisco
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help me legalize this unit so at last
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check Eric says he did just hear from
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the plan
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Commission and right now it looks like
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the only option is to remove the unit
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and a hearing for that is set for April
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2nd you know we keep hearing about and
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we've done the story a million times
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about counties and cities supposedly
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making it easier right
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for landlords to make these units and
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bring them online but this flies in the
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face of that it sure does and he really
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wants to keep these tenants in place
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everybody happy with the situation it
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looks like there should be a better
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option but right now there isn't and it
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seems like it'd be so much easier for
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the city that's facing pressure to have
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more affordable housing this is already
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existing make it easy then you have to
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build anything and they keep talking
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about how we need to keep people in
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place and this can do that all right
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we'll keep sending your stories and your
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ideas the project home at cbs.com and
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see all of Susie's reporting on our
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website Susie thank you
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