The 2007 Christmas season did not bring much holiday cheer to a group of Mission district senior Latino tenants and their families. For the past four years they have been fighting to keep their homes of over 30 years. The four apartments are located as a series of adjoining buildings at 1286–1298 Treat Ave., in San Francisco.

The building owner, Gregory McDowell, had served them an Ellis Act eviction notice, or “order of unlawful detainer” in Dec. 2006. The deadline for the eviction order ran out this past Christmas, in Dec. 2007. Afterwards, the landlord blocked the access to the basement by installing new padlocks on its doors and by not providing keys to the tenants.

Seniors, including a woman who is 92 years old, occupy four units in the Treat Ave. dwelling. Many suffer from severe health issues. Two of the units did not have senior or disabled tenants and they did not get the one-year extension required by law. One of the tenants, Alirio Cortez (who suffered from a serious illness), died recently, partly due to health problems that were aggravated by the stress from the impending eviction.

“Fifteen people ranging in ages from 18 to 92 are being evicted. Our building is composed of low-income tenants, seniors, and disabled people, most of whom have lived here for over 30 years. We have lived through the poverty in our neighborhood and we have bonded with our neighbors and have made this building on Treat Ave. our home and our community. We don’t want money from the owner — our goal is ‘quedarse’ (to stay)… to save my mother’s home, and to fight for affordable housing for low-income people,” said former tenant Frank Romero — son of 68-year-old tenant Sra. Maria Salazar, and whose family still lives in the building.

The owner, McDowell, bought the property almost two years ago and soon began the eviction proceedings. He also made ‘cosmetic’ improvements such as painting the outside of the buildings while leaving the units intact.

According to the SF Tenants Union, the Ellis Act is a state law which says that landlords have the unconditional right to evict tenants to “go out of business”; to that end, the landlord must remove all the units from the rental market, i.e. the owner must evict all the tenants, and not single out one tenant (with low rent) and/or remove just one unit from the rental market… after which the apartments can not be re-rented for five years, except at the same rent the evicted tenant was paying.

While there are restrictions on re-renting the units, there are no restrictions on converting them to ownership units (tenancies-in-common or condominiums).

Ellis Act evictions are used to “change the use” of the building by converting rental units to “condos”, using loopholes in the condo law, and also to convert multi-unit buildings into single family homes (mansions).

The tenants reiterated their demand that the owner stop the evictions and have promised to continue to fight for their homes until the end.

With legal assistance from the Tenderloin Housing Committee and the SF Tenants Union, the tenants went to court to oppose the unlawful detainer; the proceedings will take three to six months, and hopefully, they will get a jury hearing.

Special thanks to José Morales, a senior housing activist who provided invaluable contacts and information.