Sprinkler Ordinance

Since 1988, over 1,700 SRO rooms have been destroyed due to fire in San Francisco. Some SRO tenants have died in such fires; thousands have lost their only property; and numerous tenants have become homeless for months or years afterward. Evidence shows that when there are sprinklers in every room in a building, fires are most often contained to one or two rooms and rarely destroy an entire building. In August of 2001, the Central City SRO Collaborative worked with the San Francisco supervisors to pass a law requiring all SRO hotels to install sprinklers in every room. CCC has been working closely with city departments to ensure that the Sprinkler Ordinance’s deadlines are met and the safety of SRO tenants’ lives, property, and housing are protected. In November 2003, the Collaborative successfully went with a group of tenants from the National Hotel to the Rent Board in a case about sprinklers. This precedent-setting case found that the tenants were eligible for rent reductions due to their landlord’s irresponsibility in not installing sprinklers in a timely manner.

San Francisco Chronicle article

San Francisco Bay Guardian article