Supporters say the plan would help give small business owners a break as rent prices skyrocket in San Francisco.
Supervisor Connie Chan unveiled a package of legislation aimed at supporting small business owners amid rising commercial rents and helping workers more easily purchase their business if an owner decides to sell it, in San Francisco on July 17, 2026. (Sydney Johnson/KQED)
As small businesses in san francisco In the face of skyrocketing rents and continued economic issues stemming from the pandemic, the city is looking to make it easier for both owners and workers to keep their doors open.
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan on Friday unveiled a package aimed at supporting small business owners and their workers through two pieces of legislation. The first would allow small businesses to unionize to collectively negotiate rent with commercial landlords.
For many small businesses, San Francisco’s astronomically high rent is one of their largest operating expenses. But the city’s rent control policies do not cover commercial properties, making it difficult to stay in business amid the current booming real estate market, driven largely by the rise of artificial intelligence.
“Small businesses often face the risk of being displaced, especially when their commercial rent increases,” Chan said during a news conference Friday in Japantown, which is home to several mom-and-pop shops. “We want our small businesses to stay in our corridors, because that’s really the backbone of our local economy.”
The proposal would allow small business owners to collectively negotiate rents with their landlords and direct public resources, such as legal aid, to commercial tenant unions.
In some commercial corridors, small businesses already work together to negotiate rents, but Chan’s proposal would codify that process by requiring landlords to recognize commercial tenant unions whose members share the same landlords during lease negotiations.
Jon Osaki said the model has been successful in Japantown, where several small businesses collectively negotiated rental prices with landlords during the pandemic, when business was extremely slow.
“The pandemic was so disheartening that many of our small businesses were threatened with forced evictions, even though they were in a situation where they could not operate,” Osaki said. “Small businesses have been the lifeblood of our community.”
Christin Evans, owner of a bookstore and cocktail bar in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, said many small businesses she hears from have had their leases changed to month-to-month as landlords see opportunities to raise rent during the current economic boom.