Mary Phillips, age 97, has lived in her apartment in a building on Dolores near Market Street for over 50 years. Along with the five other tenants in her building, she has been served an eviction notice under the Ellis Act by a developer — Urban Green — which bought the building about 15 months ago and within a month had initiated their efforts to kick the residents out of their homes.  Her Ellis Act eviction deadline has been set for the week of her 98th birthday.  Co-tenant Sarah Brant will participate in our panel discussion of the housing crisis on March 12th.

Alejandro Murguia (SF Poet Laureate) leads off a panel discussion with John Avalos (District 11 Supervisor), Gen Fujioka (Public Policy Director, Chinatown Community Development Center) and Sarah Brant (SFUSD teacher & Ellis Act target).

Join us to discuss the dilemma facing long-time residents and renters of modest means — and the gutting and gentrification of San Francisco — as real estate speculation and a quickly widening income gap drive rents to dizzying heights while the rental supply dwindles. Ellis Act evictions are buffeting many of our neighbors, and the lack of affordable housing affects us all.

“There’s a difference between a neighborhood changing—which is natural and organic—versus the destruction of a neighborhood, its history and legacy, which is what is happening right now in the Mission District.”
—Alejandro Murguía