Dozens of residents of a San Francisco apartment building, including seniors and people with disabilities, are fighting to stay in their homes as their property management company prepares to raise rents by hundreds of dollars.
In December, Sequoia Equities Inc. posted 60-day notices for 54 residents of 737 Post Street warning of $250-$800 rent hikes, advocates say. The company is exiting a program designed to keep rents low.
District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who represents the building's Nob Hill neighborhood and recently held a hearing on the expected rent increases, said in a news release, "My number one concern is ensuring that at-risk tenants are not cast out onto the street, but that the city is able to work with the owners to identify a path forward. Some of these tenants have been anchors of the community for decades, and will be homeless with these dramatic rent increases.
"I'm appealing to the owners' compassion and desire to work with the city, which has been negotiating for over a year to identify a compromise," he added.
According to advocates, 737 Post belongs to a small number of buildings in the city with "covenant" housing contracts that are meant to keep some units below market rate. The news release indicates that residents of several other buildings in the city could face rent increases as the contracts expire.
Colton Windsor, a gay man who's been living in the Post Street building for five years and is HIV-positive, said he has "no idea" where he'll go if he has to leave his apartment.
"I'm at the risk of being literally homeless," said Windsor, who works for the Human Rights Campaign and serves on the board of the Rainbow Honor Walk. "I've looked around for what I can afford on my disability and part-time employment," he said, but his income isn't enough to afford market-rate apartments in or around the city.
Windsor's rent is currently $1,746. The notice he got from Sequoia says that as of March 1, it's "expected to be $2,407" �" an increase of $661. The company says that subsequent increases are anticipated until the rent reaches "full market value."
Sequoia had warned of rent increases before, Windsor said, and he'd already been looking for another place to live, but the city's BMR lists either have 5-year wait lists or they're closed. He came close to getting two units but they were in a lottery system, and he didn't get either.
In the notice, Sequoia emphasizes nothing's final yet.
"The owner intends to end participation" in the BMR program "on February 28, 2017," the letter says. "However, the owner may choose not to take these actions."
(Advocates say Sequoia is the building's "partial owner.")
A call to Sequoia's corporate office wasn't returned.