SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — More than 100 people, including elected leaders, convened at the King-Garvey apartments in San Francisco’s Fillmore District to rally against the evictions of Black residents, according to a press release on Friday from Supervisor Dean Preston’s office. Some of the residents in danger of getting evicted have lived at the apartments for more than 25 years.
“People are being ripped from their homes, where they have lived for decades, based on technicalities,” said Preston. “This is further uprooting a community that has seen so much displacement for decades. We will not stand by silently as this injustice takes place. We must stop these evictions.”
Preston sent a letter to Kalco Properties and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development on July 29, asking to pause the evictions while a settlement is negotiated. More than 40 “prominent Black-led groups” have followed suit, Preston’s office said.
One resident, 61-year-old Richard Henegan, has lived at the apartments since he was seven years old. Although his mother was a founding member of the co-op, Preston’s office said Kalco does not consider Henegan a legal occupant of the unit consider because his mother spent her final days as an in-home caretaker.
“This is a community my mother helped build from the ground up, and she did this work to pass along our home to future generations,” Henegan said. “The fact that they are trying to throw me out based on a technicality, and take away the equity my family has built over decades, is unconscionable. This is systematic racism, plain and simple, and it needs to stop now.”
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In a press release, Preston claimed that a disabled resident of the apartments was prevented by management from defending himself in court after he was served an eviction order. The man has lived at the apartments since 1974.