Sponsored link
Monday, February 10, 2025

Sponsored link

A project almost nobody wants is going forward in the Mission, thanks to Yimbys

60 low-tenants displaced by fire (one dead); now landlord gets to build luxury condos—only because of Wiener and his allies in Sacramento.

Full board will hear Lurie’s attempt to fire pro-reform police commissioner

Mandelman calls for Committee of the Whole to consider whether to allow the mayor to oust Max Carter Oberstone

Drama Masks: Voices of incarcerated women take center stage at YBCA

Art exhibit 'The Only Door I Can Open' and Flyaway Productions' 'I Give You My Sorrows' speak out for prisoners' rights.

Inside the pervasive news media bias in the Berkeley mayoral election

Missing context, misleading stories helped boost longshot Adena Ishii into the city's top office.

As SF posts up for NBA All-Star Weekend, brush up on classic Bay Area ballers

Remembering the 'East Bay Funk Dunk,' Rick Barry's 1967 MVP, booing Chris Cohan, more iconic moments.

Why is SF’s NBA All-Star Weekend musical lineup so meh?

Flo Rida and The Chainsmokers? Give us E-40, give us Kehlani, give us Larry June—not this random mash-up.

ODC School dance classes are for everybody!

Choose from an electrifying range of classes from the Best of the Bay winner—your first class is only $12!

Win tickets to Indiefest closing night film ‘Timestalker’

We've got 10 pairs of tickets to Brit comic Alice Lowe's hilarious time-traveling romp. Here's how to enter

Arts Forecast: New folk opera swoops in on tale of Fruitvale falcons

Flight Lessons' scores a peregrine pair. Plus: Dilla Day, M Lamar, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Poolside, Bedouin, more to do

Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Inside the pervasive news media bias in the Berkeley mayoral election

Missing context, misleading stories helped boost longshot Adena Ishii into the city's top office.

As SF posts up for NBA All-Star Weekend, brush up on classic Bay Area ballers

Remembering the 'East Bay Funk Dunk,' Rick Barry's 1967 MVP, booing Chris Cohan, more iconic moments.

News

Arts

Full board will hear Lurie’s attempt to fire pro-reform police commissioner

Mandelman calls for Committee of the Whole to consider whether to allow the mayor to oust Max Carter Oberstone

Drama Masks: Voices of incarcerated women take center stage at YBCA

Art exhibit 'The Only Door I Can Open' and Flyaway Productions' 'I Give You My Sorrows' speak out for prisoners' rights.

Inside the pervasive news media bias in the Berkeley mayoral election

Missing context, misleading stories helped boost longshot Adena Ishii into the city's top office.

As SF posts up for NBA All-Star Weekend, brush up on classic Bay Area ballers

Remembering the 'East Bay Funk Dunk,' Rick Barry's 1967 MVP, booing Chris Cohan, more iconic moments.

Why is SF’s NBA All-Star Weekend musical lineup so meh?

Flo Rida and The Chainsmokers? Give us E-40, give us Kehlani, give us Larry June—not this random mash-up.

ODC School dance classes are for everybody!

Choose from an electrifying range of classes from the Best of the Bay winner—your first class is only $12!

Category

Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

Category

Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

Category

Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

Category

Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'

Category

Two housing measures would give massive breaks to private developers

Plus: How is Mayor Lurie going to fund Muni? That's The Agenda for Feb. 9-16

Trump’s attacks on trans people and public health escalate into a war on reality itself

Administration moves to purge scientific facts, stifle essential research, and erase entire populations.

Juanita More’s Loads of Love party is a Valentine for heavy times

The drag goddess's huge, free V-Day affair shows off the talents of 'our big, amazing, talented, beautiful, powerful family.'
Sponsored link

Opinion

All the worst people in the world

How we survived the stifling political atmosphere of the 1980s, and what it means as we enter another dark age.

Letters to the editor: What is the city getting by allowing housing demolitions?

Project by project, existing housing is destroyed for new high-priced units. Is this the way to solve the housing crisis?

Trump’s absurdist ‘Pere Ubu’ moment

Playwright Alfred Jarry's indelible 1896 theatrical tyrant pointed the way to our felon president—and his load of 'merdre.'

Malibu, fires, and the mandate for endless growth

In a climate crisis, is it really a good idea to build more and denser housing in high-severity fire zones?

OPINION: An open letter to three new supervisors with a few questions

Can a concerned resident pin down Sherrill, Mahmood, and Sauter on some issues they haven't talked much about?

Dear Elon: Maybe you need a new place when Trump and Congress are done with you

Is there a ceiling on Trump's debt to you? You could always open a store in Union Square.

Opinion: The Cuban healthcare system and its lessons for the US

Single payer, medical missions, and the US campaign of disinformation
Sponsored link
Sponsored link
Sponsored link
Home Featured 15 tenants face unusual eviction in Bayview

15 tenants face unusual eviction in Bayview

City crackdown on illegal units could cost vulnerable veterans their homes

John Brown in his living room: He didn't break the law, but he could wind up losing his home

John Brown walks slowly up to his second-floor apartment, but he doesn’t ask for help. The 68-year-old Vietnam Vet and former firefighter is happy in his one-bedroom unit in Bayview; it’s small but comfortable, clean and tidy. He has his own kitchen and bathroom. “I wish I had more closet space,” he tells us. But that’s about the only issue.

Most of all, it’s stable. With a federal voucher covering his rent, and a modest income from social security and a veterans disability payment, he’s able to take care of himself.

John Brown in his living room: He didn’t break the law, but he could wind up losing his home

It wasn’t always this way: After 18 years in the Fire Department, he lost his job and his home to crack addiction. For ten years, he struggled with drug abuse, winding up in the VA hospital and a string of group houses.

And now, clean and sober, he’s at risk of losing his home. It’s an odd situation: Brown has no problem paying the rent, he’s not violating his lease, he gets along fine with his landlord, there’s no Ellis Act or Owner Move-in taking place. The building hasn’t been sold.

He’s facing eviction because his apartment was built illegally – and now the city is cracking down.

Brown’s landlord is Judy Wu. She bought the Revere St. building where Brown lives at the height of the foreclosure crisis; she also bought 11 other buildings.

According to a suit filed by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, Wu illegally cut up those single-family homes with 15 legal units into small apartments, creating 49 units. Most of them, the city attorney says, are rented to veterans, and Wu is collecting nearly $1 million a year in federal voucher money.

The complaint says that the buildings are overcrowded, and Sup. Malia Cohen has complained about trash and parking problems. All of that is probably true (there was, in fact, quite a pile of trash out in front of 1315 Revere when we visited).

Still, the Housing Rights Committee says it’s unfair to evict the tenants, many of whom might wind up back on the streets.

Wu is asking the Planning Commission for permission, under the city’s in-law legalization law, to bring one unit per building up to code. But that still leaves at least 15 units in limbo.

According to the Planning Department, they have to be demolished. The tenants are appealing the demolitions to the Planning Commission, which will hear the case Thursday/27.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca, an organizer with HRC, told us that even if Wu did convert the units illegally, the tenants did nothing wrong. “Why in the world would the city be demolishing 15 rent-controlled housing units?” he asked.

Mecca told us that the city has promised to try to find replacement housing, but that might be in SROs – a step down from individual apartments, no matter how small, with full amenities.

Brown, who grew up in the Western Addition, told us he’d spent enough time in group housing and doesn’t want to go back. He’s looking around – but there’s not much available in his price range.

“Section 8 housing is hard to come by,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

He also told us nobody from the city had contacted him and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen or where he would wind up.

City officials say they don’t want to reward Wu for her illegal conversions, which makes perfect sense. Herrera is, of course, just doing his job by suing a scofflaw and enforcing the city’s existing planning and zoning laws.

It is worth noting, though, that the city allowed Airbnb to violate planning and zoning laws for years before retroactively legalizing short-term rentals – rewarding a big company for lawbreaking. The city allowed Uber to violate the city’s transportation laws for years, rewarding what is now a giant corporation for its lawbreaking.

The city allowed Google and other tech companies to run buses illegally parking in city bus zones for years, rewarding those companies for their lawbreaking.

We are not fans of landlords who violate the law. We are not trying to argue that all of these units are code-compliant, and nobody should be living in unsafe conditions.

“So make her bring the units up to code,” Mecca said. “Make her take care of the garbage problems. But don’t evict the tenants.”

That’s what’s before City Planning Thursday.

10 COMMENTS

  1. There are probably other issues, like maybe ceiling height, access, windows or window size, along with the standard issues like parking, open space, etc.

    Or not – I don't know the circumstances.

    I should think "traffic" would be a non-starter, since they're already in occupancy, so the traffic is already there.

  2. 1) Make the Filthy Rich landlady bring the units up to code, 2) Fine her for evading the law, 3) Ensure these vets are kept in their homes, and 4) Change the friggin' codes to allow for tiny apartments, already!

  3. So now Tim Redmond sees that affordable development is possible, but made illegal by the city.

  4. I think that all rent collected from the tenant living in an illegal unit would have to be returned. I’m surprised that the housing voucher from the government would be available for the rent on an illegal unit.

  5. Landlords need to be penalized if they create illegal units.

    Maybe forfeiture in this case.

  6. This is a tragedy and they shouldn’t be evicted.

    Tim, is there any anti-eviction protest happening? Is there public comment happening at the planning meeting? Where can we help?

Comments are closed.