Tenants rebel against slumlike conditions at nonprofit's Hotel

Tenants rebell against slumlike conditions at nonprofit's Hotel

By Lynda Carson December 24, 2006

San Francisco -- On Wednesday, December 20, 2006, tenants of the Rose Hotel held a press conference in front of San Francisco's City Hall, to announce the filing of a lawsuit against Mercy Housing California, due to serious infestations of mice, cockroaches, fleas, bedbugs, and other serious Housing Code violations, at the residential building they reside in.

The ten Plaintiffs of the Rose Hotel, including African-Americans, Caucasin, and Hispanics, spoke out against the slumlike conditions at their residential building in San Francisco, then filed suit against the nonprofit housing organization, as tourists from around the world flocked to the city for the festive holiday season.

Diane Spade moved into the Rose Hotel around March of 1997, and says that theres been problems with mice and cockroaches in the building ever since she moved in. "I applied with the San Francisco Housing Authority, to move into the Rose Hotel, and theres been mice running loose in the building ever since I moved in here. I have to use sticky pads to trap them, and then I call management to have the mice removed from my room. I believe theres a lack of over sight in the way these nonprofits operate, and I believe that something needs to be done to get them to do their job properly," said Spade.

According to documents filed with the court, the tenants at the Rose Hotel have made complaints about defects in their rooms, and the mice and cockroach infestations, and how the owners and managers have failed to do repairs, or remedy the situation properly.

The tenants are claiming that they have been endangered by the illegal uninhabitable conditions they are living under in the Rose Hotel, and are asking in excess of $25,000 per Plaintiff, in hope that it persuades the landlord (Mercy Housing) to come into compliance with state and local housing codes, and to make the building habitable for all of the low-income residents.

Since moving into the Rose Hotel back around October of 1998, Diane Best says she has been stabbed by one of her neighbors and has had mice problems for the past 2, and one half years. "I was stabbed by my neighbor Robert Coronado, around 2 years ago, and he still resides in the building. I don't know why they still let him stay here, but I think they should have removed him for being violent. Since living here, I've been sexually molested by one of the clerks working at the Rose Hotel while in an elevator one day, and I've had mice and cockroach problems in my room for the past 2 to 3 years. I don't like living here, and I can only hope that things get better," said Best.

Attorney John Murcko, who represents the tenants at the Rose Hotel, says, "This hotel has serious problems with vermin and the owners do not care about the bad conditions. Also, there are problems with backed up toilets, backed up sinks, cracks in the walls, defective windows, and holes in the walls that are not being repaired. These people are very low-income, have notified management about the problems, and are not being respected."

It was wheelchair bound Larry Richards, a disabled tenant at the Rose Hotel, who placed himself at risk by organizing the tenants to rebell against the conditions they are living under.
"The most important thing that I wish to say is that most people expect their tax dollars to be used properly, and to be used as promised. That is not the case at the Rose Hotel. For seven years I have lived in a building where the doors and windows are not working properly, and I was given a blood soaked matress to sleep upon when moving in. I do not have a shower capable of accomodating my wheelchair, even though the building was supposed to accomodate disabled persons. It does not. The housing oversight system is so corrupt that this building was remodeled improperly at great expense to the taxpayers, and HUD and the San Francisco Housing Authority does not give a damn. Others in the building are being intimidated and under pressure to not join in with our lawsuit, but I want it to expose what really is going on here."

Jasper Brenner works for Mercy Housing at the front desk of the Rose Hotel, and said, "I work for Mercy Housing, have no involvement in the lawsuit that has been filed, and have nothing to say about the conditions here."

The nonprofit housing organizations are not known for being tolerant of those who would dare to tarnish their do gooding image, with tales of corruption, stabbings, molestations, slumlike conditions, or mice and cockroach infestations in their buildings.

Since the demonization of public housing occurred, the nonprofits have been leading the charge to privatize the functions of subsidized housing in America, and in an effort to save their image from being tarnished like public housing, they have done their best to keep their low-income residents from speaking out about the problems in their buildings.

The Rose Hotel is just one piece of Mercy Housing's "$2 billion real estate empire," originally founded by the Sisters of Mercy back in 1981, with around 20,000 housing units being developed since then, while employing over 1,150 people across the nation.

According to the San Francisco's County Assessors records, Mercy Housing has developed around 15 to 20 properties in San Francisco for low-income housing, including such properties as the Rose Hotel (74 units), the Howard Street Apartments (30 units), Columbia Park Apartments (50 units), Dudley Apartments (74 units), and the 7th Street Family Housing (57 units).

Little by little, the tenants under control of the nonprofit housing organizations are over coming obstacles and are starting to find their voice, to speak out against the lack of habitable conditions and blatant abuse of state and local laws occurring in some of the properties run by nonprofit housing organizations, due to political connections and a lack of oversight in these federally subsidized housing locations.

In Oakland, the tenants of Effies House, managed by the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC), have been speaking out about conditions in their building. During October of 2006, a young teenage mother gained public attention when she refused to stay in a cockroach infested unit in that building, and forced the nonprofit to move herself and an infant, into a unit without the bugs. In defiance of state law, Effies House (21 units) does not have a Resident Manager, and in late December 2006, the tenants were shocked to receive a memo from EBALDC employee Robin Smith, telling them that no one would be around for around a week or more to sweep the floors, take care of the trash, or manage the building, and security problems have become a nightmare at this location as a direct result of blatant negligence.

During August 2005, 43 tenants at the California Hotel in Oakland, filed suit and spoke out against nonprofit developer Oakland Community Housing, for major infestations of bedbugs, rats, and cockroaches in their residential building.

During October 2006, it was exposed that 174 low-income public housing families were permanently displaced by a Hope VI project being spearheaded by nonprofit housing developer EBALDC, at Oakland's Coliseum Gardens public housing units.

During mid December 2006, Bridge Housing, a nonprofit developer who manages some public housing units that have been privatized in West Oakland, have come under fire from the community and local politicians for being out of touch with what the community wants in the retail space, for the Mandella Gateway apartment complex.

During recent years the Berkeley Housing Authority has placed much of it's public housing units into the hands of nonprofit Affordable Housing Associates, and the tenants have repeatedly spoken out about the lack of repairs occurring in their buildings since the takeover.

Not all nonprofit housing organizations are bad, but more and more tenants are calling out for more oversight, over the activities of these nonprofit organizations that are out of touch with community needs, and have left them displaced from their housing, or stuck in housing units not fit to house human beings.

Larry Richards may be reached at booleanpravda2000 [at] yahoo.com

Attorney John Murcko may be reached at 510/465-2241

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com