San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO'S first-in-the-nation law requiring property owners to pay evicted renters as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars to leave their units was struck down by a judge who said that it "crossed the constitutional line" between legitimate government regulation and a money grab.

In a city that faces an affordable housing crisis with average rents of US$3,100 for a one-bedroom apartment, the unprecedented ordinance would require one multi-unit property owner to pay more than US$1 million to tenants being legally evicted from 13 units, according to a federal judge's ruling on Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging the measure.