SRO wars in sf. building owners seek to evict low income & rent single rooms to tech workers
The owners of a Chinatown residential hotel who had threatened to evict several dozen low-income tenants have agreed to withdraw the eviction notices and not issue any new ones in the foreseeable future.
Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor Julie Christensen, who represents Chinatown, contacted the owners and property managers at 2 Emery Lane after reading a Chronicle account of how the tenants in the 32-unit single-room-occupancy hotel had been served with eviction notices for seemingly minor lease violations, such as hanging laundry outside their windows and putting Chinese New Year decorations in common areas.
Lee, who worked with Chinatown tenants as an attorney in the 1980s, said he and Christensen made it clear to the property owners that the city would do whatever it took to fight the evictions. He stressed that the current city budget provides $13.3 million for eviction defense and funds groups such as Chinatown Community Development Center, which helped organize 2 Emery tenants.
“No one should have to fear losing their home because of issues that, we think, can be addressed through better communication,” Lee and Christensen said in a joint statement. “The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development will work with both the owners and the tenants to address the issues that led to these notices of violation and eviction notices. The city is also providing the fullest legal defense to tenants at 2 Emery Lane and other buildings at risk for real estate speculation.”
'Ready for the big fight’
Lee’s intervention comes a day after tenants in the building held a rally to highlight the recent actions by Vallejo Emery LLC, which bought the building in 2013 for $2.72 million. The tenants, who pay an average of $550 a month for 100-square-foot rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens, alleged that the owners had sought the eviction of 24 tenants and were seeking to rent vacant rooms to professionals for $1,300 a month.
“We told them, 'We don’t know what your intentions are, but it looks like these are masked attempts to empty the building,’“ Lee said Friday. “'If things go in that direction, we will be backing these residents. We are ready for the big fight.’”
Longtime Chinatown housing organizers say the situation is noteworthy because until now SRO hotels — which make up three-fourths of the district’s housing stock — have been immune to the displacement sweeping nearly every other phttp://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Owners-of-Chinatown-SRO-reverse-course-won-t-6163793.php