San Francisco's largest residential landlord, after acquiring a building from Veritas Investments, has rescinded previous rent reduction offers to tenants engaged in a long-term rent strike due to poor living conditions. Six of the remaining tenants are facing eviction while negotiating with Ballast Investments and Brookfield Properties. These tenants initiated the strike amidst issues of unsafe conditions such as mold and lack of services. Despite earlier signs of potential compromises from the new landlords, the withdrawal of offers complicates the situation for the struggling tenants.
The tenants, who had withheld rent to force the landlord to negotiate over living conditions, received an offer of rent reductions in compensation for habitability problems last September.
The Leavenworth Street tenants are among many in San Francisco who formed tenant associations by majority vote in late 2023, a year after a local ordinance allowing tenants to unionize took effect.
Tenants began the rent strike when Veritas owned the building. Their main concerns included a broken elevator, hazardous mold and lack of trash collection.
According to Katelynn Cao, a tenant organizer with the Housing Rights Committee, chances of an agreement seemed good after the change in building ownership.
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