THC speaks out about blanket “No Visitor” Policies at Residential Hotels. These policies leave tenants open to eviction if violated and do not allow social workers to see their clients.
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TENDERLOIN HOUSING CLINIC
295 Eddy Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 776-8151
Contact: Randy Shaw 474-2164
776-8151
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Residential Hotel Residents Denied Visitation Rights
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After having suffered the cruelty of a heatless holiday season, residents of Tenderloin residential hotels now face a new obstacle: the constitutional right to have visitors in their rooms. While blanket “no visitor” policies in residential hotels have long angered tenants, the situation has worsened since publicity about lack of heat in Tenderloin residential hotels began last December.
A few examples:
- Beginning in mid-January, 1983, elderly tenants at the Aranda Hotel at 64 Turk Street were denied the right to have any visitors in their rooms. This absolute restriction on visitors was even applied to the tenants’ attorneys until a Temporary Restraining Order was issued against such practice on February 11, 1983.
- On February 17, 1983, Lauren Freeman, a social worker for the North of Market Health Council, was verbally abused by the operators of the Bel-Air hotel at 344 Jones Street in response to her request for a private meeting with one of the elderly residents in the building. Ms. Freeman was barred from entering her client’s room even though she displayed a photograph identifying her as a social worker, and she was told by the operators not to return to the hotel. Social workers have been denied the right to visit clients in other hotels as well.
- Numerous hotels have posted “no visitor” signs thus exposing residents to eviction should they violate the hotel rule by admitting visitors.
Case law in California and throughout the United States demonstrates the unconstitutionality of blanket “no visitor” policies, yet the civil and legal rights of many Tenderloin residents continue to be denied. Filing lawsuits hotel by hotel would be a painstaking process, and would subject potential plaintiffs to serious harassment and intimidation from hotel operators.
Publicity about this policy will stimulate the city government to legally prevent blanket “no visitor” rules.
Categories
Improving Living Conditions In SRO's