{"id":32979,"date":"2024-04-17T13:11:13","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T20:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=32979"},"modified":"2024-04-17T13:11:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T20:11:14","slug":"federal-official-tells-sf-to-fix-ongoing-problems-at-uninhabitable-plaza-east-public-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/04\/17\/federal-official-tells-sf-to-fix-ongoing-problems-at-uninhabitable-plaza-east-public-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal official tells SF to fix ongoing problems at \u2018uninhabitable\u2019 Plaza East public housing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

But despite successful organizing campaign, repairs haven’t started.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By CYDNEY HAYES<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

APRIL 15, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of organizing alongside their neighbors and demanding the city make the necessary repairs to their homes,<\/a> Plaza East Apartments residents could finally have a reason to feel optimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, after contacting his office, they were able to convince Richard Monocchio, principal deputy assistant secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, to personally visit the 193-unit public housing complex in the Fillmore district, one of San Francisco\u2019s last remaining historically Black communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he visited on March 11, Monocchio saw for himself the state of Plaza East, which District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes the complex, has called \u201cuninhabitable living conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A garbage dumpster right outside a door at Plaza East<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was disappointed. He was disgusted,\u201d recalled Kelvin Soodeen of Monocchio\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soodeen has lived in Plaza East, on Buchanan and Eddy, since 2009 and says the conditions have been \u201cpretty bad\u201d since he first arrived. \u201cThere are dumpsters right outside my door, so there are times there\u2019s garbage all over the place in front of my door and smells come into my house. There\u2019s mold. There\u2019s rats. I had to get three cats because of the rat problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The residents showed Monocchio and his team all that disrepair\u2014the pests, the broken plumbing, the clogged gutters, the vacant units. In response, Monocchio reassured the residents that his team at HUD would compel the San Francisco Housing Authority, which is responsible for the occupancy and upkeep of public housing in the city, to do its job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After years of being ignored and misled by the property managers, it feels like a win. With a federal executive\u2019s say-so, the residents are cautiously hopeful that repairs are on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh my god, I feel ecstatic about Rich Monocchio coming down and getting on these people and making them do what they are supposed to do,\u201d said Martha Hollins, president of the Plaza East resident council. \u201cThey were supposed to do this years ago. Years ago! Year after year we\u2019ve been begging, asking, having meetings, and these people just would not do what they were supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, more than a month after Monocchio\u2019s visit, the residents have still not received any written communication from either SFHA or HUD acknowledging any promises, and no serious repairs have begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 1, Soodeen, Hollins, and other resident leaders sent a letter<\/strong> to SFHA CEO Tonia Lediju asking for a memorandum of understanding that Monocchio and his team had ordered the SFHA to meet a list of several demands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demands include immediate funding to make Plaza East comfortably habitable and beneficial for the community: The letter says Monocchio agreed to $7 million in capital improvement repairs and $400,000 per year for at least three years to be put toward resident services and community programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also at the top of the list is the removal of McCormack Baron Salazar, a St. Louis-based, for-profit public housing developer that co-owns the project and handled property management until June 2021, when the company was replaced as property manager after what the letter cites as \u201cextensive and ongoing complaints about conditions and management.\u201d The property is now managed by John Stewart Company, which MBS hired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since SFHA\u2019s oversight, no matter how unsatisfactory, is here to stay, many residents feel that removing MBS from all Plaza East business would make way for a more careful, ideally local development partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2001, MBS constructed Plaza East, where Mayor London Breed lived with her grandmother<\/a>, but since has \u201cgrossly ignored\u201d the residents\u2019 \u201crights and need for safe, habitable, and healthy living conditions.\u201d The letter speculates that this neglect was perhaps intentional, in order to \u201cdrive Plaza East to the point of obsolescence, which might justify its demolition with HUD.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2021, with express approval from SFHA and the mayor\u2019s office, MBS did send a demolition application to HUD<\/a>. The plan at the time was to raze and rebuild the site as a mixed-income site with 450 to 550 units, which, with market-rate units up for rent, would \u201cgenerate more revenue for the developer,\u201d according to a report from the San Francisco Public Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This request was ultimately denied by HUD in March 2021, much to the relief of many residents who remember when in 2001 MBS demolished the high-rise towers that originally occupied the site in order to build Plaza East as it stands today. The reconstruction reduced the number of units by 30 percent, from 276 to 193, and displaced 83 households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the residents know that the extensive repairs necessary to remedy the dysfunction at Plaza East would require some broken ground. According to their letter to SFHA, the tenants actually want SFHA to restart its demolition and rebuilding application to HUD, but specifically with \u201cfull transparency and meaningful resident consultation and participation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If and when that process begins, the 28 vacant units could be repaired first, which could then temporarily house tenants while they wait for their apartments to be repaired, said Njoki Moore, Black displacement lead at the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore and her partner at HRCSF, Isaac Santiago, have been working closely with the two resident organizations at Plaza East, the tenant-elected resident council and the Development Advisory Committee, whose members were originally selected by MBS. A week after Monocchio\u2019s visit to San Francisco, Moore and Santiago, along with Soodeen who acted as a resident representative, met with him again in Washington, where the National Low Income Housing Coalition was hosting its annual policy convention. Both HRCSF organizers also signed on the April 1 letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a meeting at Plaza East on Monday with the DAC, Lediju and SFHA commissioner Joaquin Torres told residents that that $7 million would indeed be coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as residents need the repairs completed, some have mixed feelings on the sudden switch-up from SFHA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSeriously, for years residents have been coming to [Lediju] saying we have rats, we have bed bugs, we need new appliances, and we\u2019re just told to get mouse traps. But then one time someone from HUD has a meeting with them, $7 million pops up?\u201d said Dennis Williams, Jr., a local business owner and DAC member signed on the April 1 letter. \u201cIt\u2019s like they got in trouble by their bosses. That hurts the Black community. They\u2019re supposed to be doing their jobs without us telling them to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things were never pristine, but Hollins said the deterioration<\/strong> of the apartments became absolutely unacceptable around 2017. It still took years, until April 2022, for the city to approve a $2.7 million loan to MBS<\/a> to address the poor living conditions, including electrical fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging from Plaza East\u2019s current state, sufficient repairs were not completed, which raises questions about how that loan was spent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However the money was spent, it wasn\u2019t enough. Six months after the release of the $2.7 million, the repairs were behind schedule and residents reported remaining damage<\/a>, including mold, pests, leaks, and other health hazards, even after repairs were made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that the resident council and the DAC have HRCSF\u2019s resources behind them, things will be different this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think [the HRCSF organizers] were terrific, I think they helped us immensely,\u201d said Hollins of HRCSF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HRCSF was able to hire the two Black displacement leads, Moore and Santiago, after receiving $200,000 allocated from Preston\u2019s District 5 budget for housing rights organizers in 2022. Once they were hired, they were able to help the tenants at Plaza East organize more efficiently, equip themselves with legal information, and ultimately coordinate Monocchio\u2019s crucial visit in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Zamudio, the interim executive director of HRCSF, said that funding is also helping them hire a third organizer for that department, which specifically works on HUD efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s a catch: That funding will run out in July, and less funding for HRCSF could mean less support for the residents at Plaza East. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, the mayor\u2019s office instructed all city departments to include 10 percent cuts in their annual budget plans. But HRCSF is no stranger to fighting across-the-board cuts like that, and Zamudio is optimistic. She said that last year HRCSF was able to beat a 25 percent budget cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really wish across-the-board cuts was not the orientation of the mayor\u2019s office. We think they\u2019re really regressive and oppressive for vulnerable communities,\u201d said Zamudio. \u201cBut we\u2019re very hopeful we can keep those roles filled. We\u2019re not planning on laying anyone off in July.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams, the resident leader on the DAC and the owner<\/strong> of the contracting firm DC Williams Development Company, said he hopes that HRCSF will be able to stick around to help secure Section 3 employment in the community. The Section 3 program requires recipients of HUD funding to provide training, employment, contracting, and other economic opportunities to low-income individuals and businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of Plaza East, Williams said that could mean SFHA could hire local Black-owned construction businesses when the repairs begin in earnest. Williams said some of the local microbusinesses in the area include One Original Construction, Sterling Framers, and CIWS Plumbing, all of which he said hold meetings at the Southeast Community Center on Evans Avenue in Bayview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The April 1 letter includes several notes about honoring requirements to employ Black businesses and individuals. The letter also includes additional requests from the DAC and resident council they\u2019d like SFHA to commit to, including providing each current household with a \u201cwritten, legally enforceable guarantee of right to return without rescreening,\u201d to avoid more displacement of the already marginalized community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the residents wait for repairs and a written commitment from SFHA, resident leaders like Williams, Hollins, and Soodeen are trying to keep spirits up. But after so long, that can be difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are feelings of hopelessness and desperation, and mental health is waning,\u201d said Williams. \u201cI\u2019m optimistic, because I understand the significance of a Washington, DC official coming down here, but the residents are tired.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But despite successful organizing campaign, repairs haven’t started. By CYDNEY HAYES APRIL 15, 2024 After years of organizing alongside their neighbors and demanding the city make the necessary repairs to their homes, Plaza East Apartments residents could finally have a reason to feel optimistic. Last month, after contacting his office, they were… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32981,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32979\/revisions\/32981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}