BBI rules that anti-conversion laws will be overlooked if residents cannot prove they resided for at least 30 consecutive days.
Category: Preserving Affordable Housing
THC has led efforts to protect San Francisco SRO Hotels and tenants since our founding in 1980. We spent years trying to strengthen the city’s 1981 Hotel Conversion Ordinance and finally succeeded in 1990. We soon obtained injunctions against over 25 law-breaking hotels.
1984
Low-cost Tenderloin Hotel Rooms in Jeopardy
197 residential hotel units are in zoned to be to tourist rooms, THC claims the residents were all told that after renovations they would be able to return.
1985
Last Post Hotel Tenant Won’t be Bought Off
Michael Brooke, the last tenant left at the Post Hotel, won’t take the owners money to move out. THC intercedes for Brooke – questions who the rooms will be rented out to after renovations.
1988
Owners Fighting For Right to Convert Hotel
Hotelier Adam Sparks contends the hotel conversion law violates his constitutional rights and fights to rent more rooms at the Pacific Bay Inn, previously a residential hotel, to tourists.
1988
Letter to the Planning Dept. Urging Enforcement of Zoning Laws
Letter to the Planning Dept urging them to enforce zoning laws – this happens as many residential hotels are being illegally converted into tourist hotels.
1988
Letter To Mayor’s Office of Housing
THC’s Letter to the Mayors Office of Housing addressing the lawsuit The North of Market Development Corporation (NOMDC) has against G&K management. The letter outlines the terms on which the lawsuit will be dropped. Some of which include an award of 108 Section 8 certificates.
1989
City Takes Steps to Squelch Hotel Conversions
Changes to the hotel conversion ordinance seek to strengthen protections of residential tenant units.
1989
Many Hotel Landlords Skirt SRO Ordinance, Legally
Laws in place to preserve residential hotels fail to stop their conversion into tourist hotels. The Tenderloins cost per week at residential hotels skyrockets due to their scarcity.
1990
Residential Hotel Conversions
Randy Shaw advocates for tenants in an attack on speculative landlord Adam Sparks following Sparks’ claim that the Residential Hotel Conversion Ordinance violates his rights as a landlord.
1990
Residential Hotel Can’t Be Converted for Tourist Use
The then owner of the Abigail Hotel, now managed by THC, was denied an attempt at converting the building to tourist use under the Residential Hotel Unit Conversion and Demolition Ordinance.