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Evicted in San Francisco

priceonomics.com

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Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#61

Post by woodchuck64 »

jjoonathan wrote: post #31
kohanz wrote: post #4

Call me cold, but after reading this I come away with almost no sympathy for the evicted senior citizen. She comes across as very entitled.

I can't help but suspect that this is exactly how this story was designed to read. They could have chosen between any of the Ellis Act evictions in the dabrownstein figure (~4000 of them), and yet the person they chose to interview * has health care retirement benefits * has the ability to go back to Germany and use their social programs * has personal attention from social workers and relatives finding her options *…

I think she is likely representative of the kind of undiagnosed mental illness evictees often have.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#62

Post by RyanZAG »

> Still a citizen of Germany, she has the option of repatriating to her homeland, which has a free program for nationals wishing to relocate. She’d be able to get off the plane, connect with social services, and get subsidized housing and medical coverage.

What the hell? She has to threaten and insult people around her and was living in an illegal building, yet has the perfect option open to her.

EDIT: And before anybody says anything about her giving up her life - by the sound of the article, her life consisted of insulting and fighting with all her neighbors. Logically if she had friends, she wouldn't be living in her car - her friends would have helped her out.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#63

Post by maxlybbert »

normloman wrote: post #7
TrainedMonkey wrote: post #2

"According to Inge, she pursued some of these options, but was turned off by the no-guarantee nature of the wait-lists, and felt she was entitled to stay where she was." So she voluntarily did not use resources designed to help her out. That lands credibility to landlords story. If I lived on fixed income, I would definitely move out of Bay Area somewhere cheaper.

It's not easy for people to just pack up and move. What if you've lived there your whole life? What if your friends and family lived there? What if your job was there? I guess you say "Sorry poor trash, but you gotta be this rich to live here. If you can't cut it, kindly leave the city you've known your whole life, abandon your friends, and get a new job." But that seems cold, doesn't it?

> It's not easy for people to just pack up and move. What if you've lived there your whole life? What if your friends and family lived there? What if your job was there?

I've done many things I didn't want to. It's part of being an adult. Then again, nobody makes me eat my vegetables.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#64

Post by trhway »

roc wrote: post #36
steven777400 wrote: post #10

We don't have a strong enough social welfare net (or enough resources there-in) to care for folks that need care; but, we're not comfortable letting them starve on the streets either. The result? Essentially innocent people, like the property owner, get "stuck" with "it's your problem now" where various agencies give contradictory mandates, backed with fines. How was property owner supposed to respond when told he mu…

I don't even think a stronger safety net would have helped in this case. It sounds like she simply wasn't interested in changing anything and that just doesn't work when you have to move and have to change your lifestyle (e.g. stop hoarding). This is all-too-familiar to me, after having helped a couple older relatives through serious late-life changes like this. Further, the general lack of safety net doesn't really…

>she simply wasn't interested in changing anything and that just doesn't work when you have to move and have to change your lifestyle

not interested? or not being able to? it starts to look like a diagnosis (as an extreme illustration Rain Man comes to mind). It is not a big stretch of imagination to allow that after 20 years of being in the same situation an elderly person may lose ability for "changes", just like many lose ability to bend and reach the floor or make a split. Brain is just a biological organ and there is a lot of information around about it losing its "flexibility" with time.

Basically the society is very cruel to its members who lose the ability to function above specific level, be it physical or mental abilities.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#65

Post by w1ntermute »

jseliger wrote: post #11

Nonetheless, it’s a good time to be a Bornstein in San Francisco: in the past year alone, Ellis Act evictions have risen 170%; since 1997, there have been 3,811, and that number is constantly rising. The obvious solution to rapidly rising prices is to increase supply, as described here ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0078XGJXO ) or here ( http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2013/10/san-francis... ). I've posted both…

It's amazing how so many people refuse to accept that out-of-control housing prices are due to artificial scarcity, and that the solution is deregulation, rather than even more idiotic rent control and eviction regulations. David Campos is now trying to enact legislation to penalize Ellis Act evictions.

More than two decades after the USSR collapsed, and people are still clinging to socialist ideologies.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#66

Post by Mz »

I really hate articles like this.

Excerpt:

A look inside her Volvo is enough to curdle a stomach of steel: trash bags are piled high in the back seat, open packages of food topple into a litter box full of cat feces, door-sides are crammed full of half-smoked Pall Malls and prescription painkillers.

I am homeless. I do not live that way. Not everyone who is homeless chooses to live in filth. Plus, earlier in the article, it talks about how she did "odd jobs" to support herself in Europe and lists "delivered flowers to prostitutes" as one of the odd jobs. Seriously? They could have just said "delivered flowers." Whom she delivered them to seems like gratuitous "color" for this story, just something salacious to say that has nothing to do with this issue at all.

I was evicted. I lived in fear of eviction for 18 months. I have a serious medical issue and I did stuff like remove carpeting without my landlord's permission. I knew it was coming. I was willing to accept the consequences as the lesser evil compared to what my medical condition is supposed to do to me.

The real issue common to both my situation and Inge's is that America has some real issues with housing stock, not just illegal in-law units in San Francisco, but all kinds of issues. This article is highly unlikely to get people to talk about that issue and highly unlikely to get anything done about that issue. That is not something either landlords or tenants control. I was not impressed the lame management of my apartment whose incompetence promoted mold growth in my apartment but, honestly, I would have evicted me too for the things I did. But I also had compelling reasons for what I did. Blaming landlords and tenants and pitting them against each other does absolutely nothing to improve a situation like this. If anything, it makes the problem more intractable.

We need to figure out what does work to foster an environment where affordable, decent housing can exist without it being artificially rent controlled and nonsense like that. The need for rent control tells you there is something very wrong with the policies, laws, and so forth. There is a climate we are trying to fight against. And rather than change that climate, we just vilify people who have no real control over it.

Sigh.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#67

Post by anateus »

Have a look at this infographic from dangrover posted here a couple months ago: http://dangrover.github.io/sf-ellis-evictions/

Note that both Ellis Act and other kinds of evictions seem to be disproportionately lower than what the median house prices would lead one to expect.

I'm not making an argument in favor of the evictions. But articles like these and recent activism imply that this is a worrying new trend rather than a slow return to previous levels.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#68

Post by apr »

steven777400 wrote: post #10

We don't have a strong enough social welfare net (or enough resources there-in) to care for folks that need care; but, we're not comfortable letting them starve on the streets either. The result? Essentially innocent people, like the property owner, get "stuck" with "it's your problem now" where various agencies give contradictory mandates, backed with fines. How was property owner supposed to respond when told he mu…

Especially given that she was speeding the day of reckoning with "Fuck you" notes. I am 100% with the property owner here.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#69

Post by jack-r-abbit »

CocaKoala wrote: post #60
radley wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually there is. It's called Rent Control and it protects the elderly from stuff like this (because they need the protection). As far as I'm concerned, the landlord simply found a loophole.

I like how you can read an article that details all of the ways in which this woman was a terrible and destructive tenant and then say "Oh yeah, she was definitely evicted because the asshole landlord wanted to flip the property".

and they owned the place (and let her live there) for 10 years before they had had enough of her. 10 weeks is a pretty long flip.... 10 years is not a flip at all.

Re: Evicted in San Francisco

#70

Post by yeukhon »

While everyone focuses on the main problem, I'd say the moral of the story here for home buyers is to avoid buying any problematic homes. When my parents recently purchased a new home they made it damn sure the home has no existing warrants/tickets/legal issue to handle and they ensure no one lives in the house. They visited several homes before they could settle one that was nice, cheap and problem-free. Sometimes it's better to take less risk than having to scratch your hair for years.
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