SF Tenants Fund – ongoing
We envision a world without displacement, where land is returned to indigenous stewardship, and land is not treated as a commodity. We will never be able to fill all the needs of our community members facing evictions and displacement. We know that real change will come through the abolishment of our current capitalist system that values profits and property rights over people. However, short of that, people have immediate needs and if you have the resources and wish to help then you can contribute to the SF Tenants Fund. The SF Tenants Fund provides resources to these tenants who are facing displacement and the consequences of eviction. Ways these funds will and have been used:
- Support legal costs of fighting evictions in court
- Material support for living expenses for tenants
- Moving expenses for those who have been evicted from their home
- Medical expenses
- Relocation funds
- Groceries + basic living necessities
Check out our mutual aid calculator to figure out how much to donate and contribute to the SF Tenants Fund HERE!
Stay Hearings – ongoing
When a tenant receives a Sheriff’s notice, it means they have lost an Unlawful Detainer case. Tenants can get a Sheriff’s notice as quick as 2 weeks after the court decides a landlord wins. The next thing a tenant receives is a one week Sheriff’s Notice on their door, usually on a Wednesday. After that, the tenant can ask the court to pause the eviction for one week at a time. On top of this, they need to pay 1 week’s worth of rent. Our goal in attending is to provide support to the tenants and accountability to the judges and landlord attorneys.
Denhi Donis – ongoing
The Flower Lady of Bernal Heights, also facing an Ellis Act eviction from the home she lived in for over a decade. A survivor of domestic violence, survivor of cancer, an indigenous woman, single mother, Denhi Donis is famous in SF for giving and selling flowers at events across SF. Her name in Mayan means flower, her acts are an homage to her mom, the person that named her. As she battled the eviction case, she needed to schedule a few life-saving surgeries, and couldn’t schedule it because her housing situation was unstable. She needed at least a year to be able to have the surgery, heal, and find a new home. Denhi touched the hearts of all of us as an elder, a maternal figure. Her eviction really inspired the growth of our Mutual Aid Committee Our Mutual Aid Committee organized a fundraiser at Medicine for Nightmares in honor of Denhi. She agreed to a move out agreement for a year. Landlords continue harassment, ERN has made out calls to be there with her.
3661 19th Street – ongoing
The 12-unit building at 3661 19th Street includes a mix of senior, LGBTQ, Asian American, and working class tenants who have lived in their homes an average of nearly 20 years. Their home was bought by speculators who were evicting them via the Ellis Act. The tenants were already united when we got in touch with them around winter of 2021. They had been battling an eviction since 2018, and this was the second time they were trying. We helped them carry out phone zaps to the speculators and MOHCD. We did an email launch of Ryan Fong’s company, emailing all of his coworkers that he was an evictor in SF. Unfortunately, the company blocked most of our emails, but they successfully were delivered to the people at the top of the company. Each tenant brings so much to the organizing, from leadership to sleuthing skills. As their case inched closer and closer to trial, MOHCD agreed to let MEDA buy their building. After an appraisal, the negotiations reopened in November of 2022 and we were activated once again. We launched another phone zap of MOHCD.
Eviction Defense Trainings
We wanted to create a TRAINING for people to prepare for the kinds of actions we would plan. Whether you have never been to an action before, or experienced with blockading the Sheriff, this training centers all of us. Answers general “what if ” questions. We discuss some history around eviction defense work in SF.
Shawana Holmes
In collaboration with HRC, we planned for a Sheriff’s blockade. We launched a phone zap against the Executive Director of TNDC, demanded they stop the eviction, and give Shawanna and her family a bigger home to live in. They called off the Sheriff. Unknown if she was moved into a bigger unit.
Alex and Rose
Our first “use” of the ERN! Alex has advanced stage ALS, and cannot easily leave his home, he needs an electric stair climber to do so. Legally, a landlord doesn’t have to pay for this, but they do have to let the tenants pay for accommodations like this. However, this landlord wasn’t allowing them to do so and was harassing them because of their rent control. The landlord was threatening to take away the one hand rail they had, so Alex and Rose called the ERN for any kind of support. We sent out a call to our organizers and folks that lived near them. Since this was the height of COVID, we stood outside and just observed. The landlord ended up installing a new handrail.
