SF SOS Launches Lies at Leno

As reported by Ted Gullicksen in Thursday’s Beyond Chron, Assemblymember Mark Leno is sponsoring a bill to prevent speculators from using the Ellis Act to displace seniors and other longtime San Franciscans. A study by the San Francisco Tenants Union showed how speculators buy buildings with longterm tenants, and then quickly “go out of business” under the Ellis Act.

Leno’s bill addresses this problem by requiring that people own a building for five years before leaving the business and evicting all of the tenants.

Leno’s common sense approach targets real estate speculators, not homeowners. But speculators are not popular with the public, while homeowners are.

So SF SOS, using the same logic that led it to associate Gerardo Sandoval with the Nazi swastika, decided to lie about Leno’s bill. It sent an e-mail Thursday that encouraged recipients to contact Leno and urge him to drop this “anti-housing” legislation.

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