A San Francisco landlord is seeking to remove a 92-year-old renter from her longtime apartment, pointing to alleged clutter inside the home she has treasured for decades.
Sue Yeng Yan is now at risk of losing the cozy one-bedroom unit where she has lived for roughly 40 years as the dispute escalates.
Yan received an eviction notice on March 10, months after her building was purchased last year by Los Angeles-based landlord Nabob Hill LLC.
According to the notice, “excessive piles of personal items and/or debris and/or trash” in Yan’s apartment allegedly created “a safety and fire hazard,” the San Francisco Standard reported.
Yan said the prospect of being forced from her home has left her frightened and deeply worried she could be left with nowhere to go.
“I am so afraid,” Yan told the outlet in Chinese. “I’m constantly anxious. I could end up sleeping on the street.”
Yan relocated to San Francisco from Zhanjiang, China, in 1982, and moved into the apartment at 1120 Jackson Street in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood about a year later.
Because her 16-unit building is rent-controlled, Yan pays just $281.42 a month — an exceptionally low rent in the Bay Area.
Sue Yeng Yan, 92, was served with an eviction notice by the new owner of the 16-unit apartment building at 1120 Jackson Street in San Francisco, near Chinatown
Yan moved from China to San Francisco in 1982 and has lived in her one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit for 43 years
The four-story building at Jackson Street was bought by Los Angeles landlord Nabob Hill LLC last year. Multiple tenants have also been issued eviction notices
The apartment has a bedroom, living room and a kitchen, as well as countless photos of her family and personal belongings.
San Francisco has one of the priciest housing markets in the US, with average rent for a one-bedroom apartment being $3,900 per month, according to Zillow.
Because of that, eviction can be particularly threatening for locals, especially for a senior like Yan.
A previous listing for Yan’s building said that ‘current rents [were] significantly below market, with an estimated 224 percent rental upside achievable through unit turnover.’
The building features downtown views and is situated alongside the city’s famous cable car line.
Five other units received similar eviction notices, according to the outlet.
Three of the tenants who could soon be expelled from the building are senior citizens.
The Daily Mail made multiple calls to a phone number associated with Yan on Wednesday morning.
After several attempts, a person picked up speaking English but did not identify themselves. When informed about the nature of the call, they subsequently hung up.
One other resident with a listed address at 1120 Jackson Street also responded to a call, but seemed not to be fluent in English and hung up shortly afterwards.
Other residents with addresses listed living at the 16-unit building did not respond to repeated attempts to reach them.
A photo of Yan’s rent-controlled $281.42-per-month apartmen
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Yan, pictured with her daughter, said she was ‘so afraid’ of being expelled from the building and becoming homeless
Daniel Bornstein, who is representing Nabob Hill LLC, said the landlord issued ‘numerous courtesy notices’ in order ‘to address these issues amicably before pursuing further action’
The building’s management company, Beam Properties, has not accepted monthly rent payments since the notice was delivered, according to the San Francisco Standard.
Nabob Hill, who bought the building for $1.5 million in July, has claimed that some of the units’ supposed clutter is effectively creating a ‘nuisance.’
Daniel Bornstein, the landlord’s attorney, told the Daily Mail that they were ‘confident that these matters will be resolved properly and lawfully, based upon their faith in the judicial process.’
‘For many months, the owners have extended numerous courtesy notices to the tenants in the article in an effort to address fire and life safety issues amicably before pursuing further action,’ Bornstein said.
Bornstein told the Daily Mail that the nuisance allegations, which included cluttering, hoarding and unsanitary conditions, was supported by photos.
‘It is standard practice, under city law, that rent checks are not accepted until outstanding violations are resolved,’ he added.
However, the apartment building’s tenants have claimed that they are being pushed out of their rent-controlled homes so that the new owner can make more money.
Most of the people who live in the building are low-income Chinese seniors, according to SFGATE.
Shelby Nacino, an attorney representing the 16-unit building’s residents, said 13 of the 16 tenants had lived there long term
The apartment building near San Francisco’s Chinatown (pictured) is rent-controlled, meaning that residents pay shockingly low prices compared to the Bay Area’s exorbitant rental market
Tenants in 13 of the building’s 16 apartments have lived there long term, some for as many as 45 years, attorney Shelby Nacino told the outlet.
In addition to their age, they also have limited English-speaking skills.
Bornstein told the Daily Mail that current management employees were ‘fluent in Cantonese as well as English,’ and that residents could choose which language they preferred to communicate in.
The residents, who have formed a tenants association, protested Nabob Hill’s desired evictions on Monday in a rally that also featured community advocates.
They carried signs made of paper or cardboard that read ‘Stop eviction,’ ‘Protect our seniors, protect our community!’ and ‘We are not moving’ in English and Chinese.
‘It’s not normal to have six nuisance evictions in one building that are all very similar,’ Nacino told KQED. ‘What we’re really concerned about is the lack of communication.’
Kin Wong, who has lived in the building for more than 35 years, said the planned evictions ‘need to be stopped.’
‘I hope that the landlord of this building will hear our voice and stop this kind of harassment and eviction,’ Wong said, per the outlet.
Kit Ying Mak, who first moved to the apartment in 2002 one year after immigrating from Hong Kong, noted her struggles after she and her mother received eviction notices in March.
‘I feel like I’m having a mental breakdown,’ Mak told the San Francisco Standard.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Beam Properties, the apartment building’s management company, and Asian Law Caucus, which is representing the tenants, for comment.
