As prices skyrocket, San Francisco Mayor declares rent emergency

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie declared a rent emergency on Sept. 10, and said he will support legislative actions that forestall evictions and limit the allowable size of rent increases. Rents in San Francisco are spiking more than anywhere else in the country, with the median rent rising more than 25% in the past year. Landlords have also initiated over 2,400 evictions since January, putting the city on pace to see more renters evicted this year than during any year in the past decade.

Lurie has been credited with bringing vibrancy and optimism back to San Francisco, Heather Knight writes for the New York Times. But San Francisco's renewal has come with a huge injection of tech wealth. Some landlords and apartment owners have even offered longtime residents tens of thousands of dollars to leave their rent-controlled apartments. 

“Mr. Lurie’s emergency declaration will not allow him to bypass laws and regulations the way a disaster declaration might. But Mr. Lurie told The New York Times that it was a way to focus city leaders’ attention on the matter, similar to how he declared a fentanyl emergency on his first day in office in 2025,” the New York Times reports.