If you live in San Francisco you are well aware of the steep and brutal rise of tenant evictions in the past few years.  As silicon valley employees increasingly move to ‘the city’, and wages for tech jobs soar, so do rental costs, and landlords seek to cash in on the most expensive rental prices in the nation.  Unfortunately, this means long-term tenants with rent control are targetted, many landlords realize that if they can just get you to move out, they can jack up the rent and make a killing on some new tech employee who is willing to pay anything for your apartment.

Some of the Mission tenants Fighting this Eviction. Photo Beyondchron.org

So they hire an attorney who specializes in Ellis Act evictions or Owner Move-in evictions, and they get to work pressuring or harassing tenants who often do not have the means to hire a lawyer for protection.  Most of us have to rely on the guidance of godsend nonprofits like the San Francisco Tenants Union, or from charitable tenants rights attorneys like Daniel Wayne who answer tenant questions via his tenant’s rights column on Broke-Ass Stuart.com

In this case, SF performance artist Rachael Dichter and 11 other Mission tenants teamed up with MEDA & the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco to offer their landlord Danny Sun a reasonable deal not to evict his tenants consisting of educators, artists, low-income Latinx seniors, and people with disabilities.

Their landlord has so far refused.   He has already evicted tenants from two other buildings in the past.

So the tenants came up with a creative plan to PR shame a predatory landlord out of an Ellis Act Eviction.  A week of action!! That puts community pressure on Danny Sun via his car dealership in El Cerito called Eke Motorsports.

Week of action:

Monday, June 4th
YELP Reviews: Go to www.yelp.com/biz/eke-motorsports-el-cerrito-2 and leave a 1-star review, along with a comment. You will need a yelp account.
Tuesday, June 5th
Phone Calls: Call EKE Motorsports at 510-526-8199 and ask to speak with or leave a message for the owner.
Wednesday, June 6th
Emails: Go to https://www.ekemotorsport.com/contactus.aspx and use the email form on the web page to submit your comments.
Thursday, June 7th
Cars.com: Go to https://www.cars.com/dealers/202873/eke-motorsportsinc/ and submit a 1-star review.

What to Say

“For online reviews: The owner of this dealership is a repeat evictor who is currently evicting 12 tenants from their home in San Francisco’s Mission District. These tenants include low-income Latinx seniors, people with disabilities, artists, and educators. Your money spent here will contribute to the displacement of these 12 individuals. Please consider buying your car elsewhere in an act of solidarity to help them fight this eviction.

For direct contact: (If possible, ask to speak to the owner directly and urge him to lower his asking price for the building and accept MEDA’s offer! The following is only if the owner cannot be reached:
I have a message for the owner of this dealership.  The owner of this dealership is a repeat evictor who is currently evicting 12 tenants from their home in San Francisco’s Mission District. These tenants include low-income Latinx seniors, people with disabilities, artists, and educators. The owner is trying to displace these 12 individuals for profit, and I  am urging him to drop the eviction notice and keep these tenants in their home.”

According to Rachael the community’s outreach is already having an effect.  So join the movement!  You don’t have to follow the timeline, simply go to one of the links listed above anytime, and let the landlord’s customers know what you think about serial eviction in San Francisco!