Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz’ Mark Rifkin and ABS Partners Real Estate’s James Caseley (right) with 270 Madison Avenue (Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, ABS Partners, Getty)

Many commercial tenants went to court for a pandemic rent break. A Murray Hill law firm can now count itself among the few to have won one.

New York’s Appellate Division ruled that affiliates of landlord ABS Partners Real Estate must credit Wolf Haldenstein, a firm specializing in stocks and antitrust law, over $2 million in rent and legal fees after the office owner failed to complete renovations on the firm’s two floors of leased space.

The HVAC system roared like a “jet engine,” the landlord’s architect said, produced 90-degree temperatures in the summer and failed to circulate fresh air as Covid raged in New York.

The law firm, which has occupied 270 Madison Ave for nearly 100 years, agreed to move temporarily from the ninth and 10th floors to the 11th and 13th when it signed a 12-year lease in 2018.

ABS planned to revamp the heating and air conditioning systems on the two lower floors and agreed in the lease that its tenant would rent the upper floors until an architect deemed the work substantially complete.

The lease included four months of free rent once the firm moved back to the lower floors and a rent credit if renovations took too long. Wolf Haldenstein would receive a daily credit for each day that work continued after February 2020. The rate would jump to a day and a half after April.

Wolf Haldenstein moved back to the ninth and 10th floors in December 2019, ahead of schedule. But the firm immediately questioned whether work had been completed.

“We should have another construction meeting to discuss HVAC problems,” Mark Rifkin, managing partner at Wolf Haldenstein wrote in an email to the job’s contractor on Christmas Eve.

“I think some may have assumed substantial completion before it was done,” he continued. “Had this been summertime, when we need the AC, the space would be uninhabitable.”

In another email to ABS Partners, Rifkin described the floors as excessively hot and the HVAC system as excessively loud.

Those problems continued into 2020. In February, as Covid began spreading in the city, ABS’ construction manager acknowledged in an email that “many ‘existing condition’ items … need to be figured out and resolved.”

James Caseley, an executive at ABS, went so far as to describe the HVAC system as a “disaster” to the landlord’s construction manager in a memo.

The same month, the landlord started work on the 11th and 13th floors, making it impossible for Wolf Haldenstein to relocate to a more hospitable floor.

The HVAC issues lasted through the pandemic, forcing partners, associates, staff and clients, once they returned to the office, to deal with a system that failed to adequately circulate fresh air, according to Scott Mollen of Herrick Feinstein, attorney for the tenant.

In April 2021, Wolf Haldenstein sued ABS Partners, alleging that the landlord’s architect had not declared the work complete, meaning the firm had no obligation to pay rent.

ABS answered a month later, arguing that the law firm had defaulted on rent and owed $1.2 million on its roughly $145,000-per-month lease.

That November, a Supreme Court judge sided with Wolf Haldesstein, ruling the work was incomplete and the firm had no need to pay rent. The Appellate Division upheld the ruling that the landlord should pay a $1.2 million rent credit, $100,000 in moving expenses and $700 .00 in attorney’s fees.

“Much of the unnecessary fees were incurred as a result of landlords’ litigation tactics,” the court noted.

Rosenberg & Estis attorney Alex Estis, who represented ABS, said his legal team appreciated the Appellate Division reduced Wolf Aldenstein’s rent credit award. A lower court had granted the firm an additional $647,869, plus interest.

“We are considering further options in light of the ruling,” Estis added.

The firm’s late co-founder Warren Estis had represented ABS for most of the suit, one of his last. Estis died in April.

Contact Suzannah Cavanaugh

This article has been updated to include comments from Rosenberg & Estis, counsel for ABS Partners Real Estate.

The post Regulation Agency Wins $2M Lease Credit score for Dangerous HVAC Throughout Covid appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz’ Mark Rifkin and ABS Partners Real Estate’s James Caseley (right) with 270 Madison Avenue (Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, ABS Partners, Getty)

Many commercial tenants went to court for a pandemic rent break. A Murray Hill law firm can now count itself among the few to have won one.

New York’s Appellate Division ruled that affiliates of landlord ABS Partners Real Estate must credit Wolf Haldenstein, a firm specializing in stocks and antitrust law, over $2 million in rent and legal fees after the office owner failed to complete renovations on the firm’s two floors of leased space.

The HVAC system roared like a “jet engine,” the landlord’s architect said, produced 90-degree temperatures in the summer and failed to circulate fresh air as Covid raged in New York.

The law firm, which has occupied 270 Madison Ave for nearly 100 years, agreed to move temporarily from the ninth and 10th floors to the 11th and 13th when it signed a 12-year lease in 2018.

ABS planned to revamp the heating and air conditioning systems on the two lower floors and agreed in the lease that its tenant would rent the upper floors until an architect deemed the work substantially complete.

The lease included four months of free rent once the firm moved back to the lower floors and a rent credit if renovations took too long. Wolf Haldenstein would receive a daily credit for each day that work continued after February 2020. The rate would jump to a day and a half after April.

Wolf Haldenstein moved back to the ninth and 10th floors in December 2019, ahead of schedule. But the firm immediately questioned whether work had been completed.

“We should have another construction meeting to discuss HVAC problems,” Mark Rifkin, managing partner at Wolf Haldenstein wrote in an email to the job’s contractor on Christmas Eve.

“I think some may have assumed substantial completion before it was done,” he continued. “Had this been summertime, when we need the AC, the space would be uninhabitable.”

In another email to ABS Partners, Rifkin described the floors as excessively hot and the HVAC system as excessively loud.

Those problems continued into 2020. In February, as Covid began spreading in the city, ABS’ construction manager acknowledged in an email that “many ‘existing condition’ items … need to be figured out and resolved.”

James Caseley, an executive at ABS, went so far as to describe the HVAC system as a “disaster” to the landlord’s construction manager in a memo.

The same month, the landlord started work on the 11th and 13th floors, making it impossible for Wolf Haldenstein to relocate to a more hospitable floor.

The HVAC issues lasted through the pandemic, forcing partners, associates, staff and clients, once they returned to the office, to deal with a system that failed to adequately circulate fresh air, according to Scott Mollen of Herrick Feinstein, attorney for the tenant.

In April 2021, Wolf Haldenstein sued ABS Partners, alleging that the landlord’s architect had not declared the work complete, meaning the firm had no obligation to pay rent.

ABS answered a month later, arguing that the law firm had defaulted on rent and owed $1.2 million on its roughly $145,000-per-month lease.

That November, a Supreme Court judge sided with Wolf Haldesstein, ruling the work was incomplete and the firm had no need to pay rent. The Appellate Division upheld the ruling that the landlord should pay a $1.2 million rent credit, $100,000 in moving expenses and $700 .00 in attorney’s fees.

“Much of the unnecessary fees were incurred as a result of landlords’ litigation tactics,” the court noted.

Rosenberg & Estis attorney Alex Estis, who represented ABS, said his legal team appreciated the Appellate Division reduced Wolf Aldenstein’s rent credit award. A lower court had granted the firm an additional $647,869, plus interest.

“We are considering further options in light of the ruling,” Estis added.

The firm’s late co-founder Warren Estis had represented ABS for most of the suit, one of his last. Estis died in April.

Contact Suzannah Cavanaugh

This article has been updated to include comments from Rosenberg & Estis, counsel for ABS Partners Real Estate.

The post Legislation Agency Wins $2M Lease Credit score for Unhealthy HVAC Throughout Covid appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Twitter’s landlord is suing the social media giant for failing to pay rent at its downtown San Francisco office, according to reports.

The company owes around $136,260 in unpaid rent, according to its landlord, Columbia Property Trust, which filed the lawsuit last Thursday.

Low-angle view of sign with logo on the facade of the headquarters of social network Twitter in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California, October 13, 2017. SoMa is known for having one of the highest concentrations of technology companies and startups of any region worldwide.

Twitter’s failure to pay rent was first reported last month, about a month and a half after Elon Musk acquired the company for $44 billion, following a chaotic legal battle.

Two people familiar with told matter The New York Times that Musk has been trying to renegotiate the terms of the lease agreement amid mass layoffs and downsizing.

ELON MUSK BECOMES FIRST PERSON TO LOSE $200 BILLION: REPORT

The downsizing continued on Friday, with Twitter closing its Seattle offices, cutting janitorial and security services, according to The Times.

READ ON THE FOX BUSINESS APP

Meanwhile, cleaning and security staff were laid off from the company’s New York and San Francisco offices. At the latter, Musk has reduced the company’s office space from four floors to two, according to The Times.

FOX Business has reached out to Twitter for comment. A spokesperson for Columbia Property Trust declined to comment.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

The case is Columbia Reit – 650 California LLC v. Twitter Inc., CGC-22-603719, Superior Court, State of California in San Francisco.

The post Twitter sued for not paying lease at San Francisco headquarters appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

It now takes a full-time income of more than $61 an hour to comfortably afford the rent for an average two-bedroom apartment in the San Francisco metro area.

That’s far more than other expensive US cities like New York, where it takes $45 an hour on a standard 40-hour-per-week schedule, and more than triple San Francisco’s $16.99 minimum wage, according to a new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The San Francisco metro area, which also includes affluent Marin and San Mateo counties, tops the national list for the highest “housing wage,” or hourly earnings needed to spend no more than the federally recommended 30% of income on rent. 2 is Santa Cruz, where residents must earn more than $60 to rent an average two-bedroom. In the No. 3 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area, the figure is around $55 an hour.

“These numbers are just a really clear mirror being held up,” said Alina Harway, communications director for the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. “We’re seeing how the economy has created this big gap between those who have and those who don’t.”

Nationwide, minimum-wage earners in 91% of counties are unable to afford a one-bedroom rental, the report found. There is no state, county or metro area where a person who works a minimum-wage job can comfortably rent an average two-bedroom apartment.

It’s not the first time that Bay Area cities have dominated the coalition’s annual report on the stark mismatch between everyday incomes and housing costs. While the new report shows an ever-so-slight closing of the gap between what people are making and what they need to make to afford quality housing, the report cautions against comparing figures from different years because of changes in how average rents are calculated.

Now, however, all eyes are on shifts set in motion by the pandemic. After more than two years of remote work, migration anxiety and eviction battles, the Bay Area numbers reflect a widening divide between renters in different income brackets, a lack of home-buying options to relieve pressure and an uncertain road for households still struggling to catch up on COVID rent debt.

The report attributes the imbalance to a range of factors, including wage stagnation for low earners, inflation, an uptick in investor landlords and a shortfall of some 960,000 affordable rentals in California. There’s also the matter of surging demand for rentals; from the start of the pandemic to mid-2021, around 870,000 renters entered the market, the report noted — some not by choice.

“Many households entering the market were higher-income renters,” the National Low Income Housing Coalition report explains, “who may have been priced out of the increasingly competitive home-buying market.”

The abundance of high-earning renters is most obvious in the tech and professional services-driven San Francisco and San Jose metro areas, where the average renter now makes around $65 an hour and $68 an hour, respectively, according to adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed in the report. Compare that to an average renter income of $31 an hour in Oakland, which has a stronger base of industrial and administrative jobs, or less than $20 an hour in tourism and agriculture-centric Santa Cruz.

Landlord advocacy groups contend that in cities with rent control, including San Francisco, the math is more complicated. A July survey by the San Francisco Apartment Association found that average rents are still high citywide — $3,605 for a two-bedroom, or $2,678 for a one-bedroom — but that lower-priced studios in areas such as Nob Hill or the Tenderloin still rent for less than $1,500.

“Even though we’re not quite post-COVID, the rental market has improved,” Charley Goss, government and community affairs manager for the San Francisco Apartment Association, told The Chronicle by email. “We do have many members, particularly in the downtown corridor, who are really struggling and who cannot get their vacancies filled.”

Nationwide, the report found that persistent unaffordability “disproportionately harms Black and Latino households” because of enduring income disparities and the fact that these households are less likely to own homes. About 30% of white US households are renters, compared with 58% of Black households and 46% of Latino households, according to census data.

At first, Oakland seemed like a place of opportunity to Maria Montes de Oca. She moved here more than two decades ago after leaving the coastal Mexico state of Jalisco. The rent was a reasonable $750 when her growing family moved 14 years ago into a “supposedly clean” Fruitvale one-bedroom that turned out to have a dirty stove and old carpet, she said.

The carpet stayed the same while the rent climbed to $850, then $950, eventually all the way up to the current rent just over $1,500. Her husband switched jobs to try to keep up, Montes de Oca said, but even a new job cleaning a high-end hotel left little income for food or other necessities for a family of five.

“We were still limited,” she said in Spanish, “because every year the rent went up.”

The pandemic has also highlighted renters and now-former renters in extreme situations. In Alameda County, homelessness has spiked 22% in three years, to more than 9,700 people on any given night. From San Francisco to the shores of the Delta, tenants have been evicted from garages or boat marinas that they resorted to living illegally.

Politicians and housing advocates have countered with a range of potential solutions: $2 billion in state funding for affordable housing, new proposed vacancy taxes, federal proposals for more housing vouchers, temporary renter assistance funds and legal representation in eviction cases.

For Harway of the Non-Profit Housing Association, the scale of the proposed solutions still doesn’t match the scale of the problem. One clear local way to start to change that, she said, is for residents to get more involved in the state-mandated housing planning process — known as the “Regional Housing Needs Allocation” — which calls on the nine Bay Area counties to plan for more than 440,000 new homes by 2031.

It’s a process that is already sparking controversy, political maneuvering and legal threats, and one that she said will take both renters and homeowners like herself to prevent more people from being forced to move away.

“If I don’t go fight and support my neighbors to have stability, then what’s the point?” Harway said. “I’m not going to have teachers for my son. I’m not going to have anything that makes a community worth living in.”

For Montes de Oca, meanwhile, things took an unusual turn. She and her neighbors started to push back six years ago against yearly rent hikes with little offered in return. When the pandemic hit, they went on a rent strike.

As a mother of three, it was a daunting prospect. But lawyers and tenant activists got involved, and in June, an agreement was reached to sell the 14-unit building to the Oakland Community Land Trust for $3.3 million — a move that Montes de Oca said will freeze her family’s rent and, she hopes, deliver long-lasting stability.

“It was really six years of fighting, of stress,” she said in Spanish. “It wasn’t easy.”

There were nine families there when the fight started, Montes de Oca remembers. Now just two are left.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Roland Li contributed to this report.

Lauren Hepler (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hepler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LAHepler

The post In San Francisco, you should make this a lot cash to hire an residence appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

It’s no secret that renting an apartment in San Francisco is expensive, but it’s no longer the priciest in the country! At least for now. Each week we search through apartment rental listings and seek out the weird, the luxurious and even just the wouldn’t-that-be-nice. The city by the bay has it all, but can you guess what it costs? Welcome to the series we’re calling “Guess the rent in San Francisco.”

For a three-bedroom house on San Francisco’s Pacific Avenue with a sauna, speakeasy lounge, and four-car garage, you can guess that the renters will pay a premium. With ample views of the water from its rooftop patio, 2725 Pacific Avenue, which is for rent on Craigslist, is the sort of rental most San Franciscans dream about.

This Pacific Heights is for rent in San Francisco.

Craigslist

2725 Pacific Ave. is located in the heart of Pacific Heights just steps from Alta Plaza Park and the Presidio.

This Pacific Heights is for rent in San Francisco.

Craigslist

Just off the first floor, you’ll find an open living room, speakeasy lounge, two powder rooms and a washer and dryer.

This Pacific Heights is for rent in San Francisco.

Craigslist

The property boasts an indoor pool bigger than many San Franciscans’ living rooms.

This Pacific Heights is for rent in San Francisco.

Craigslist

Views of the water grace the property’s wraparound deck, which also features a hot tub and bar.

This Pacific Heights is for rent in San Francisco.

Craigslist

The home has a small gym, complete with staged Peloton.

This Pacific Heights is for rent in San Francisco.

Craigslist

A Wolf range and subzero fridge make up for the kitchen’s small size.

This Pacific Heights is for rent in San Francisco.

Craigslist

The open floor plan living room is finished off with a working fireplace.

This Pacific Heights is for rent in San Francisco.

Craigslist

No pets are allowed in this fully furnished home, which goes for … $29,500 a month.

The post Guess the lease in San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

South San Francisco will again offer rental assistance to residents at risk of being evicted, with $287,500 approved by the City Council to go to the program that was depleted in late June.

Mark Nagales

The city first began offering the funds in April 2020, a month before the pandemic lockdowns. The City Council allocated $529,500 to the program that year, from which residents had been able to apply for up to $4,500 in one-time assistance.

Mayor Mark Nagales said he hoped reinstating the program would help stave off a “cliff of evictions” following the state’s eviction moratorium that ended in April.

“This is really an anti-displacement initiative that we’re putting forward,” added Councilmember Eddie Flores.

The program was previously used to supplement state rental assistance, which was offered beginning in March 2021 but ended in April this year. It will continue to complement county rental assistance offerings, which are ongoing.

Those who have been ineligible or already exhausted the state and county options can apply for the city’s assistance, said Nagales.

The city’s rental assistance has been handed out to 135 households, with average payments of roughly $3,300, according to the city’s data. The assistance is handed out by the YMCA, which serves as a resource center for northern San Mateo County. The center also distributes the county’s assistance.

Councilmembers expressed interest in extending eligibility to those who have previously received the city’s assistance, as well as allowing funds to be used for utility bills.

Nagales also requested further data collection to track whether the funds were actually helping people stay housed in the city.

“We need to know if the money we’re giving is actually working, or are we only just stop-gapping for a month and then next month they’re gone,” he said. “We need to know this so that we can have a conversation in terms of other things we might need to do to help our residents.”

Elida Sobalvarro-Ramirez, an associate director at the YMCA, said she had recently seen an increased demand for rental assistance, including from those who had already received aid.

“Everyone is facing increased rent, limited income capacities, so we have had multiple families request multiple times,” she said.

As with in 2020, the funds will come from the city’s “low- and moderate-income housing fund,” which is a product of the dissolution of the city’s former redevelopment agency, and currently contains $2.3 million. The state abolished redevelopment agencies in 2012, which had been formed by California cities and counties to issue bonds for development projects.

State law allows cities to spend up to $250,000 per fiscal year from its former redevelopment agency funds to prevent or address homelessness. Of the city’s appropriation this year, $37,500 will be for administrative costs associated with dispensing the funds.

The city’s program is open to anyone regardless of citizenship status. It’s also open to those who sublease. Those looking to apply should call the YMCA or visit in person at 1486 Huntington Ave.

The post South San Francisco presents hire help | Native Information appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

It now takes an income of more than $61 an hour to comfortably afford the rent for an average two-bedroom apartment in the San Francisco metro area.

That’s far more than other expensive US cities like New York, where it takes $45 an hour, and more than triple San Francisco’s $16.99 minimum wage, according to a new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The San Francisco metro area, which also includes affluent Marin and San Mateo counties, tops the national list for the highest “housing wage,” or hourly earnings needed to spend no more than the federally recommended 30% of income on rent. 2 is Santa Cruz, where residents must earn more than $60 to rent an average two-bedroom. In the No. 3 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area, the figure is around $55 an hour.

“These numbers are just a really clear mirror being held up,” said Alina Harway, communications director for the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. “We’re seeing how the economy has created this big gap between those who have and those who don’t.”

It’s not the first time that Bay Area cities have dominated the coalition’s annual report on the stark mismatch between everyday incomes and housing costs. While the new report shows an ever-so-slight closing of the gap between what people are making and what they need to make to afford quality housing, the report cautions against comparing figures from different years because of changes in how average rents are calculated.

Now, however, all eyes are on shifts set in motion by the pandemic. After more than two years of remote work, migration anxiety and eviction battles, the Bay Area numbers reflect a widening divide between renters in different income brackets, a lack of homebuying options to relieve pressure and an uncertain road for households still struggling to catch up COVID rent debt.

The report attributes the imbalance to a range of factors, including wage stagnation for low earners, inflation, an uptick in investor landlords and a shortfall of some 960,000 affordable rentals in California. There’s also the matter of surging demand for rentals; from the start of the pandemic to mid-2021, around 870,000 renters entered the market, the report noted — some not by choice.

“Many households entering the market were higher-income renters,” the National Low Income Housing Coalition report explains, “who may have been priced out of the increasingly competitive home-buying market.”

The abundance of high-earning renters is most obvious in the tech and professional services-driven San Francisco and San Jose metro areas, where the average renter now makes around $65 an hour and $68 an hour, respectively, according to adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed in the report. Compare that to an average renter income of $31 an hour in Oakland, which has a stronger base of industrial and administrative jobs, or less than $20 an hour in tourism and agriculture-centric Santa Cruz.

Nationwide, the report also found that unaffordability “disproportionately harms Black and Latino households” because of enduring income disparities and the fact that these households are less likely to own homes. About 30% of white US households are renters, compared with 58% of Black households and 46% of Latino households, according to Census data.

At first, Oakland seemed like a place of opportunity to Maria Montes de Oca. She moved here more than two decades ago after leaving the coastal Mexico state of Jalisco. The rent was a reasonable $750 when her growing family moved 14 years ago into a “supposedly clean” Fruitvale one-bedroom that turned out to have a dirty stove and carpet old, she said.

The carpet stayed the same while the rent climbed to $850, then $950, eventually all the way up to the current rent just over $1,500. Her husband switched jobs to try to keep up, Montes de Oca said, but even a new job cleaning a high-end hotel left little income for food or other necessities for a family of five.

“We were still limited,” she said in Spanish, “because every year the rent went up.”

The pandemic has also highlighted renters and now-former renters in extreme situations. In Alameda County, homelessness has spiked 22% in three years, to more than 9,700 people on any given night. From San Francisco to the shores of the Delta, tenants have been evicted from garages or boat marinas that they resorted to living illegally.

Politicians and housing advocates have countered with a range of potential solutions: $2 billion in state funding for affordable housing, new proposed vacancy taxes, federal proposals for more housing vouchers, temporary renter assistance funds and legal representation in eviction cases.

For Harway of the Non-Profit Housing Association, the scale of the proposed solutions still doesn’t match the scale of the problem. One clear local way to start to change that, she said, is for residents to get more involved in the state-mandated housing planning process — known as the “Regional Housing Needs Allocation” — which calls on the nine Bay Area counties to plan for more than 440,000 new homes by 2031.

It’s a process that is already sparking controversy, political maneuvering and legal threats, and one that she said will take both renters and homeowners like herself to prevent more people from being forced to move away.

“If I don’t go fight and support my neighbors to have stability, then what’s the point?” Harway said. “I’m not going to have teachers for my son. I’m not going to have anything that makes a community worth living in.”

For Montes de Oca, meanwhile, things took an unusual turn. She and her neighbors started to push back six years ago against yearly rent hikes with little offered in return. When the pandemic hit, they went on a rent strike.

As a mother of three, it was a daunting prospect. But lawyers and tenant activists got involved, and in June, an agreement was reached to sell the 14-unit building to the Oakland Community Land Trust for $3.3 million — a move that Montes de Oca said will freeze her family’s rent and, she hopes, deliver long-lasting stability.

“It was really six years of fighting, of stress,” she said in Spanish. “It wasn’t easy.”

There were nine families there when the fight started, Montes de Oca remembers. Now just two are left.

Lauren Hepler (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hepler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LAHepler

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San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) are encouraging residents to apply to the CA COVID-19 Rent Relief Program ahead of the March 31, 2022 deadline. The statewide program helps California tenants who experienced financial hardship during the pandemic cover unpaid rent and utilities. The California Department of Housing and Community Development has committed to providing assistance to all eligible tenants who apply by the end of the month.

MOHCD is partnering with community-based organizations throughout San Francisco to help residents complete their applications, including those in need of technical support or for whom English is not their primary language. Prospective applicants can visit the sf.gov/renthelp webpage to learn more about the CA COVID-19 Rent Relief Program and find local organizations providing free application assistance, tenant counseling, and eviction defense services.

“This program has helped thousands of San Franciscans remain housed during the pandemic, but we know that even as our city’s recovery continues, countless residents are still struggling to make ends meet,” said Mayor Breed. “We are grateful that the State is committed to providing this assistance, and we will do everything we can to help those in need of this relief access these funds so they can stay in their homes without fear of eviction or displacement.”

“The goal of the City is to make sure that all tenants eligible for state rental assistance receive assistance,” said Eric Shaw, Director of the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. “We are working with City and community partners to make sure that tenants are aware of the CA COVID-19 Rent Relief Program and get the support they need to apply for rental assistance by March 31.”

Eligible tenants may receive up to 18 months of financial assistance to pay outstanding rent and utilities. Program eligibility is based on income, with a maximum annual income of $102,450 for a single person and $146,350 for a family of four. To apply, the housingiskey.com online portal asks tenants to provide information on income and amounts owed. Landlords may also apply on behalf of tenants. The program has distributed close to $103 million to over 8,900 San Francisco households since its launch last spring.

A broad coalition of stakeholders, including the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, the San Francisco Apartment Association, and the Eviction Defense Collaborative, has mobilized to provide outreach and assistance to help renters apply for the CA COVID-19 Rent Relief Program ahead of the deadline.

“We know that the uncertainty of this period can be scary, but you are not alone,” said Molly Goldberg, Director of the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition. “From help applying for rent relief to information about your rights to legal assistance, the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition’s member organizations are here to help you stay in your home.”

“We understand that many tenants and property owners have struggled financially during the pandemic,” said Charley Goss of the San Francisco Apartment Association. “The SFAA is partnering with the City to provide free resources to help property owners and their tenants apply for the CA COVID-19 Rent Relief Program before March 31.”

“No tenant should have to bear the brunt of a rental housing crisis triggered by a global pandemic,” said Martina Cucullu Lim, Executive Director of Eviction Defense Collaborative. “EDC continues to support the rights of every tenant through free legal representation. Losing your home due to nonpayment of rent during this unparalleled time is a nonstarter.”

For information on how to apply to the CA COVID-19 Rent Relief program and a full list of local rent relief resources, visit sf.gov/renthelp.

###

This press release was produced by the San Francisco Office of the Mayor. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

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The Pac-12 on Tuesday announced it’s leaving downtown San Francisco next year when its lease expires.

Where’s the new headquarters? nowhere There will be no conference office in the traditional sense, only a facility for content production.

Most employees will be allowed to work in fully remote fashion, a move that will save millions in rent annually and generate additional revenue for the campuses.

The conference office has been in San Francisco for a decade and spent tens of millions of dollars on rent.

According to a news release, the decision is “designed to provide Pac-12 staff with the benefits of work flexibility while also envisioning regular opportunities for employees to come together in person within the Pac-12 geographic footprint, including at Pac-12 campuses to foster greater collaboration with member universities.”

The basics are as follows:

— Any employee whose job isn’t tied to a production facility can work remotely on a full-time basis, so long as they are based in the Mountain or Pacific times zones.

— Meanwhile, a small production facility will be established in a yet-to-be-determined location. The Bay Area is an option, but not San Francisco proper.

— The move will take place by next summer, when the current lease on Third Street expires.

The conference paid approximately $8 million in occupancy for the San Francisco office space in the 2020 fiscal year, according to the most recent financial documents available.

An undetermined fraction of that amount will support the production facility, with the remainder distributed to the schools — perhaps $500,000 to $750,000 per campus per year.

That’s comparable to the salaries for two assistant football coaches or, for some programs, an offensive or defensive coordinator.

It can fund recruiting.

Or pay for an FCS opponent.

Not surprisingly, the decision was approved unanimously by the university presidents and chancellors who form the Pac-12’s Board of Directors. (Heck, a few of them might offer to help pack up.)

“The Pac-12 is committed to best supporting our employees by providing a work environment that accommodates today’s modern world and gives our employees maximum flexibility to live and work where they want, while still fostering collaboration among staff and our valued member institutions,” commissioner George Kliavkoff said in a news release.

“We are also committed to ongoing best-in-class production of Pac-12 events. We are excited for what this new remote and flexible work environment can do to support our employees, and for the new ways it will allow for us to reinvest in our member universities so that they can best support student-athletes.”

Kliavkoff’s statement is revealing in that it suggests the conference will remain in the media business — “ongoing best-in-class production of Pac-12 events” — beyond the expiration of the lease.

In other words, the Pac-12 Networks arm is not being shut down.

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A prominent San Francisco LGBTQ+ rights activist is being uprooted from his home in the Castro neighborhood after the new owner of the property nearly doubled his rent to $5,200.

Cleve Jones, 67, who moved to San Francisco in 1973 and first conceived of the Aids Memorial Quit, is reportedly moving out of his rent-controlled, one-bedroom apartment this week. The move comes after he was notified of a significant price increase from the property’s new owner, who claims that the apartment is not Jones’ primary residence.

The situation has been described as “heartbreaking” by a local supervisor and is seen by many as emblematic of the increasing unaffordability of a city that was once a haven for bohemians and social activists. The median house price in the Castro, the historic LGBTQ+ neighborhood that helped birth the modern gay rights movement, now stands at over $1.5m, according to Redfin.

The new owner, Lily Pao Kue, is a 30-year-old self-described stock market investor who, according to Zillow records reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, purchased the property in February for $1,585,000.

According to the Chronicle, Kue has installed security cameras around the property, begun construction work in the building and had a car that belonged to Jones’ friend and roommate removed from the property.

In a letter Kue sent to Jones on 18 March, she stated that she assessed he had vacated the property and she would be increasing the current rent – ​​$2,393 – to $5,200 as of 1 July, invoking a Costa-Hawkins petition.

Costa-Hawkins is a state law that sets certain requirements for cities with rent control. Under the law, landlords are allowed to raise rent to market rate once a tenant moves out.

Jones in 2017. He said he had not moved out of his home but was spending more time outside the city during the pandemic. Photographer: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images

Jones told the Chronicle he had not moved out but had been spending more time out of the city during the pandemic because he is immunocompromised. Instead of dealing with a court battle, however, Jones said he and his roommate would move out of the property this weekend and search for a new place to live.

“If I were a younger man, I would fill the sandbags and I’d batten down the hatches and would drag this out for as long as possible,” Jones told the Chronicle.

“Part of me feels quite guilty that I don’t have it in me to do it. I am not in good health, I’m HIV-positive and one of the longest-living HIV survivors … And I’m old,” he added.

Kue has said that she is seeking a hearing regarding her petition from the San Francisco rent board.

“I want Cleve to continue the tenancy and let the judge determine the petition,” Kue said in an email to the Chronicle. “I will be gracious and accepting of law.”

Since the property dispute became public, Kue said that she had seen online harassment from Jones’ social media followers and had filed a police report.

In a statement to the Chronicle, the district supervisor, Rafael Mandelman, said: “Cleve recognizes that this is happening and has happened to so many other folks … But he is such an iconic figure and so associated with that neighborhood. It’s heartbreaking.”

On Sunday, Jones’ supporters will rally at Harvey Milk Plaza in the morning to shed light on his situation and those of others who have faced similar issues in the neighborhood.

The post San Francisco activist behind Aids quilt to go away dwelling after lease doubles to $5,200 | San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.