A judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to send a representative to a hearing on the status of a public records lawsuit the watchdog group Democracy Forward filed against the Trump administration. The lawsuit centers on a request for documents that could disclose any possible involvement President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had in renewals of the EB-5 investor visa program. The order was granted Monday after various agencies refused to provide documents by…
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A new answer for the homeless? Homes
Last winter, Kelly Breitenbach and her three kids, homeless for nearly a decade, sought refuge at a cold-weather shelter in Fullerton. That night, they got four beds. Soon after, they got something else: acceptance into a program that would get them into a full-time, permanent home. Now, with a year of finance and life management sessions under her belt, Breitenbach, 36, and her now four children have a two-bedroom apartment in Buena Park. Breitenbach said…
Read MoreFirst Negev tech commune in SF also faced legal problems
Each of the three Negev tech communes in San Francisco has run into problems ranging from code violations to a lawsuit, and it all started at a small property on 12th Street in South of Market. Danny Haber, 26, and Alon Gutman, 27, first became involved in their communal housing setups last year with a live-work property at 200 12th St. called The Negev Twelfth. The property became a model for at least two other…
Read MoreSRO tenants’ tales tell scary story
Craigslist ads, Facebook posts and The Negev’s own website tout 219 Sixth St. as the epitome of modern communal living in San Francisco — a like-minded group of people dedicated to entrepreneurship, engineering, weekly tech talks, family dinners and partying. While that might be true, there is a different side to life behind the bright-red metal gate of The Negev Sixth. Nearly all tenants in the single-room-occupancy building — mostly in their 20s and newcomers…
Read MoreThe Extra Extra Show on BFF.fm: Displaced SRO hotel tenants sue tech commune (Radio)
On “The Extra Extra Show” with San Francisco Examiner editor Michael Howerton and Brandon Reynolds and Rachel Swan of SF Weekly on BFF.fm November 14, 2014 explaining my story on a lawsuit that former SRO hotel residents and the Tenderloin Housing Clinic filed against The Negev, a tech commune cited for various building violations. Story: http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/former-tenants-sue-after-sro-housing-made-into-group-apartments/Content?oid=2911878
Read MoreFormer tenants sue after SRO housing made into group apartments
Like other tenants that a fire displaced from a single-room-occupancy hotel on Folsom Street, Patricia Kirkbride, under the San Francisco rent-control ordinance was entitled to an offer to move back into her unit within 30 days of the repairs, at the same rent rate. Boarded up and draped in scaffolding until recently, the single- and double-occupancy-room Park Hotel at 1040 Folsom St. appeared uninhabited. Kirkbride said she had no idea the building repairs were complete…
Read MoreCommunity advocates concerned short-term rentals are edging low-income tenants out of SROs
Cramped single-room-occupancy hotel units in Chinatown, traditionally living quarters for immigrant families, have recently caught the attention of community housing advocates because it appears some are being marketed on websites as short-term rentals, potentially opening a new front in San Francisco’s housing battles. Chinatown community advocates warn that this latest trend of placing SRO units on short-term rental sites, such as Craigslist and Airbnb, could exacerbate The City’s housing crisis by displacing vulnerable families, many…
Read MoreBay Area man envisions environmentally conscious home built from old Bay Bridge scraps
David Grieshaber drove across the idea last year. As he crossed the Bay Bridge with his wife, brainstorming unique ways to build an environmentally conscious house using recycled materials, he thought: What would become of the original eastern span once the new bridge opened? Neither he nor his wife had a clue, so Grieshaber decided to call Caltrans. After being rerouted to a half-dozen representatives, he was informed that the majority of the scraps likely…
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