Rent Board 2012 Gender Analysis Update

RENT BOARD

2012 GENDER ANALYSIS UPDATE

On April 25, 2012, Rent Board Supervisor Jennifer Rakowski provided an update on the agency’s gender equality work at the Commission on the Status of Women Meeting. Here is the report drawn from the minutes of the meeting:

The Rent Board is responsible for overseeing compliance with the Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Ordinance which regulates rents and evictions in San Francisco. Ms. Rakowski stated that Rent Board Clients complete a client satisfaction survey and that is how the agency receives data on the clients that are served. She reported, however, that there has been a decrease in number of clients that complete the form, now available online. Gender demographics is an optional question on the survey and can be skipped. The US Census data for San Francisco shows that the median age of people residing in the City are 55 years of age. Currently, renters in San Francisco are 52% female and 49% male; homeowners are 46% female and 64% males.

In terms of language access, the Rent Board offers its clients 387 documents translated into Chinese and Spanish. Office staff members speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and Spanish. The agency website is also trilingual.

Regarding flexible work options, staff many elect a 9/80 schedule and 41% of the staff telecommute at some point. The agency also offers maternity/paternity leave and a nursing room. As for the office staff, 48% of the staff are female and 42% are male. 86% of all staff have over 5 years of service with the Department.

In February 2009, the Board of Supervisors added to the Rent Ordinance definitions of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault, as well as provisions to expand confidentiality and protections against nuisance evictions for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. In 2009, the Rent Board staff also received training on domestic violence, stalking, and sexual abuse. In 2010, the Board of Supervisors again amended the Rent Ordinance to prevent the eviction of families with school age children during the school year.

Dr. Murase expressed concern about the lack of demographic data on clients and suggested having a conversation of how to capture that data. Commissioner Soo suggested using the data template that the Department designed for 311 data collection. Ms. Rakowski stated that there is tremendous amount of data collected by the agency as required by law and clients are reluctant to complete the optional data.