By Tiny, aka Lisa Gray-Garcia
FEB. 11, 2014 — On Wednesday, Feb 5, citing California Penal Code Section 368, we — the evicted, gentrified, po’liced, elder and disabled — walked into the Hall of Justice in San Francisco to bring criminal charges of elder abuse against landlords for the perpetration of the crime of using the Ellis Act to evict frail, elder, disabled and traumatized residents of San Francisco.
“Becoming homeless as an already disabled senior almost killed me,” said Kathy Galvez, an African-descendent elder evicted in 2012 from her San Francisco home of 40 years.
Due to the predatory speculation of landlords scrambling to make profit from the huge influx of new tech employees flooding the Bay Area, thousands of families with young children and disabled elders have been served with Ellis act eviction notices, or have already been evicted, ending up in the streets, in shelters or, most terrifying of all, dead from the trauma of eviction and homelessness.
” I have nowhere to go…”
Pictures of Black Herstory filled every inch of Miss Nan’s walls. Mamas, daughters, sons, uncles, aunties, grand-mommas and great-greats, looked down at me as Miss Nan spoke: “This whole eviction process has made me extremely ill. I was already sick, but I’m not sure if I’m going to make it now.” The voice of 75-year-old Miss Nan was shaking as she spoke about the Ellis Act eviction notice she and her neighbors had just received, which would mean she, an African-American disabled elder and life-long resident of San Francisco will be evicted from her home of 43 years. “I have nowhere to go, and I can hardly walk,” she said. (more after the jump)
