San Francisco — City is aiming to protect rent-controlled units and influence local colleges to build their own housing.
San Francisco — The Los Angeles Times is reporting that a committee of the city board of supervisors has voted to prohibit converting rental apartments into student housing. The city has been taking issue with an increasing number of students moving into neighborhoods near universities, particularly the Academy of Art University, which has bought nine apartment buildings and former hotels and repurposed them to student housing to keep up with its rising enrollment. Buses arrive to pick up and drop off residents.
The move is an attempt to prevent “cannibalizing” the city’s rental housing stock and to encourage universities to provide their own student housing. Dozens of institutions are located in and near San Francisco. Similarly, St. Paul, Minn., recently passed an ordinance preventing conversion of rental properties into student housing. Approximately 140 homes have become housing for students near The University of St. Thomas in an 8-year span.