The Empty Homes Tax that SF voters approved in 2022 is in limbo because landlord groups sued, but Supervisor Jackie Fielder wants to explore possible amendments allowing the city to collect the tax if the courts allow it prior to their final decision.

On the heels of a shocking 2022 City Hall analysis that found that SF had enough vacant housing units to house the homeless population eight times over, then-Supervisor Dean Preston put an “Empty Homes Tax” on the that year’s ballot that could charge landlords between $2,500 and $5,000 a year for units that sat vacant for six months or longer. That measure passed 54%-46%. But landlord groups quickly brought a lawsuit against it, which is still unresolved (and might be for years), and a judge halted collection on the tax until that suit is resolved.  

District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder is on a mission to start collection of that tax until the suit is settled, as the Chronicle explains. At Tuesday’s SF Board of Supervisors meeting, she requested a continuance to explore additional options that would allow the city to start the tax, if the courts allow the city to collect it prior to the case being fully resolved.

“I would like to explore amendments that would potentially avoid having the Empty Homes Tax suspended for years as the case makes its way through the courts, and instead providing a pathway that would allow the city to begin collecting the tax once the courts give us the green light,” Fielder said at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Fielder won a unanimous vote to have a hearing on her amendments, but that doesn’t do anything. Her amendments measure now just goes to the Tuesday, March 18 board meeting, at which it will presumably face a full board vote.

It’s difficult to predict how the lawsuit itself will go. SF Superior Court Judge Charles Haines did not detail his reasoning when he suspended collection of the tax.

It's also difficult to predict how next week’s board vote will go. The supervisors simply tabled the vote until Tuesday's meeting, and while that vote was unanimous, they may have just been being collegial towards Fielder. When it comes to actually applying the hammer and taxing landlords, that might not have as much board support. And Fielder’s amendments and measure would need a two-thirds majority to go into effect.

Related: Report: 10% of San Francisco’s Housing Stock Is Just Sitting Vacant and Empty [SFist]

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist