Housing Clinic Marks 25 Years of Improving Tenants’ Lives

by Beyond Chron (reposted)

Tue, Feb 8, 2005 6:44AM

It was 25 years ago this week that the Tenderloin Housing Clinic opened its all-volunteer office. Nine months later Ronald Reagan was elected President, ushering in over two decades of federal backtracking from greater social and economic fairness. But today, Tenderloin residents, residential hotel tenants citywide, and low-income and working-class tenants across San Francisco enjoy far greater legal protections and better conditions than in 1980, countering the nationwide trend. This is the Clinic’s legacy, and here’s how it was done.

When the Tenderloin Housing Clinic opened its doors in February 1980, Tenderloin tenants behind in their rent were locked out rather than evicted through the courts, heat in SRO’s was almost nonexistent, the Health Department evicted entire buildings on 72 hours notice, hotels freely enforced blanket “no visitor” policies, and residential hotels were being rapidly converted to tourist lodgings. Three luxury high-rise hotels were planned for the area around Mason and O’Farrell Streets, a precursor to the overall plan to make the Tenderloin an extension of downtown and Union Square.

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Thu, Feb 10, 2005 9:50AM

Allen White Celebrates 25 years of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic

This week, Randy Shaw has taken Beyond Chron readers on a capsule review of the 25 year history of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. This week the Clinic is 25 years old. Every San Franciscan has a reason to celebrate this anniversary. The victories they have achieved have literally changed the face of San Francisco. Life is better for thousands in this city because of their work. I should know, because they helped me.

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Thu, Feb 10, 2005 9:52AM

How the Housing Clinic Stopped the Hotline, Improved Housing, and Lowered Rents

...t is hard to believe, but from 1982-89 San Francisco spent millions of dollars on a “hotline hotel” homeless program that took over 1000 SRO units off the permanent housing market and wrecked hotel living conditions. The Clinic opposed the creation of this program, fought its growth, and watched with alarm as longterm tenants were forced out of residential hotels and replaced by homeless persons staying for one-three nights through the city’s homeless program.

Mayor Dianne Feinstein insisted until her last day in office in 1987 that homelessness was a “temporary” problem; she preferred paying SRO operators for rentals to over 1000 people per night rather than invest a single dollar in permanent housing.

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