I’ve been wrapping my brain around San Francisco’s “no-fault” evictions issues. My solution is for a city to create a transferrable development right (TDR) where for every square foot of development right purchase by a developer that square foot equals one square foot of space a landlord’s right to evict for 10 years.

A broader perspective is this:

- A landlord’s right to evict has value
- The right to build an additional square foot of building has value
- Any right which has been decided upon and regulated has a value
- That right can then be used as a type of currency, Therefore,

- That currency can be purchased by a special “rights bank”
- The right that the bank owns can then be sold at a later date for a different type right that is seen as equal value to the right the bank purchased.

For example:

First, I sell the right to evict the tenants of 4 apartment units for a period of ten years. I use a regulated formula to determine the monetary value of that right in dollars. The dollar value determined by the formula is how much a “rights bank” could pay me to forfeit that right (minus a fee from the rights bank). Let’s say, that dollar value is $200,000.

Five years later, a developer wants to buy the right to build 4 new apartment units on a zoning restricted site. To add the additional area to the development, the developer uses a regulated formula based on a regulated exchange rate which exchanges eviction rights for development rights. Let’s say the exchange rate is the right to build 1 new apartment for the right to evict people from 2 existing apartments (1 eviction = 2 developed apartments). When the dollar value is determined, then the developer pays for the right, or in this case, $100,000 for 4 new apartment units.

This could work for a broad number of rights. Not just development and eviction rights.