Housing Rights Committee, San Francisco

Housing Rights Committee has been a leading tenants rights organization since its inception in 1979. Not only did we help protect rent control after it was passed and limit condo conversions to protect seniors and others from evictions, but we fought hard to limit Ellis Act evictions, reduce the cost of capital improvement passthroughs, and to keep two- and four-unit buildings under rent control.

Housing Rights Committee counselors provide help to over 4,500 tenants a year, advising them on their rights as renters. We offer both call-in and drop-in counseling Monday through Thursday, 1-5pm, 703-8644, 427 South Van Ness/15th. We also answer questions emailed to us via this website. We have a dedicated staff of volunteer counselors who are trained to help tenants identify their options when they are having problems with evictions, illegal rent increases, repair problems, the return of their security deposit, etc.

We also fight hard for Section 8 and Public Housing tenants with our Subsidized Housing Program (we are the only tenants rights organization that offers counseling to these low-income tenants). In fact, we have 2 full-time Subsidized Housing Advocates and a collaboration with Attorneys at Bay Area Legal Aid.We run three counseling sites in the BayView/Hunter's Point area for public housing residents.