San Francisco evictions hit 10-year high, court becomes last stop
A Tuesday in Department 501 can end with one more week at home or a sheriff’s lockout the next day. San Francisco’s eviction pipeline is surging again.
At 400 McAllister Street, a Tuesday in Department 501 can decide whether a tenant gets one more week in the apartment or faces a sheriff’s lockout the next day. San Francisco’s Real Property Court, where hearings are held by videoconference and the public can listen in, has become the city’s last stop for renters trying to hold on.
The pressure is showing up in the numbers. San Francisco recorded 924 lockouts in 2025, a 10-year high and a 15 percent jump from 804 in 2023, the year after the city lifted its COVID-related eviction ban. Through 2026 so far, the pace is already running hotter. At the same time, the San Francisco Rent Board says eviction notices climbed from 797 in the year ending February 29, 2024, to 1,033 in the year ending February 28, 2025, then to 1,488 in the year ending February 28, 2026.
That escalation turns the courthouse into a narrow checkpoint rather than a real buffer. San Francisco Superior Court says limited unlawful detainer records have been remotely accessible since April 20, 2020, and mandatory e-filing for limited unlawful detainer cases began July 1, 2020. Those changes made the process more digitally reachable, but they did not change the basic math for tenants who arrive in court already days away from losing their homes.
Help does exist, but the timing is unforgiving. Eviction Defense Collaborative says it assists tenants in person on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The San Francisco Sheriff’s Office points people facing eviction to the ACCESS Center at 400 McAllister Street, Room 509, along with Bay Area Legal Aid, Eviction Defense Collaborative and the Homeless Advocacy Project. By the time a case reaches the courtroom, those services may be the difference between delay and displacement, but they are not a guarantee against the lockout clock.
The strain is not just San Francisco’s. Bay Area Housing Finance Authority’s eviction study found court eviction rates had returned to or surpassed pre-pandemic levels in eight of nine Bay Area counties, with about 21,767 eviction lawsuits filed regionwide from July 2023 through June 2024. The study said a manageable caseload is 40 to 50 cases per attorney, but the region averaged 166 eviction filings per tenant legal-services eviction-defense attorney.
In a city defined by high rents and chronic displacement, 400 McAllister has become the place where policy meets the final practical test. Notices become hearings, hearings become orders, and orders become people carrying what they can before the sheriff arrives.
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