Part 1: A Quiet Removal in the Fillmore
Photo Credits:
https://opensfhistory.org/opensf/moreNeighborhoodPhotos.php?n=Western_Addition&bn=6 (top row)
https://rentbt.com/neighborhood/western-addition/ (bottom left)
https://rentbt.com/neighborhood/western-addition/ (bottom center)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1435627060034188/posts/4113178255612375/ (bottom right)
The more things change, the more things stay the same
Modern day gentrification San Francisco – Malik Washington
San Francisco likes to tell a story about itself.
A story about progress.
About equity.
About inclusion.
But in the Fillmore District—once known as the “Harlem of the West”—a different story is unfolding.
A quieter one.
A procedural one.
And if you listen closely, it sounds like displacement.
THE MECHANISM: HOW DISPLACEMENT HIDES IN PAPERWORK
Photo Credit:
https://www.gelfand-partners.com/2012/03/23/san-francisco-business-times/
At the Martin Luther King–Marcus Garvey Square Co-op, longtime residents—many of them elderly, many of them Black—are now facing eviction threats not because of violence, not because of criminal activity, but because of something far more technical
recertification failures, disputed rent calculations, and administrative breakdowns.
According to Adrian Tirtanadi, Executive Director of Open Door Legal, the pattern is not new:
I interviewed Mr. Tirtanadi specifically for this article and this is what he said:
“We’re seeing a wave of evictions of long-time, elderly, and predominantly Black tenants… In our privatized system of subsidized housing, tenants rely on property managers to submit recertifications. If that process breaks down, tenants can lose their subsidy, their rent can quadruple, and eviction follows.”
Read that again.
Lose the paperwork. Lose the subsidy. Lose the home. And when that breakdown happens disproportionately in Black communities—it stops looking like error and starts looking like a pattern. In San Francisco, Black people only make up approximately 4% of the population, and it appears that there is a covert plan to get rid of the few of us that are trying to hold on.
THE LEGAL FRONTLINE — AND THE COMMUNITY RESPONSE
https://opendoorlegal.org/
Attorneys at Open Door Legal, including Director of Legal Services Nikki Love, are now stepping in to defend these seniors. But they are not alone.
Executive Director of SHERO
Sharen Hewitt Empowerment Resource Organization
(It is noteworthy to mention that Dede Hewitt is a former housing preservation liaison officer for the City of San Francisco, as well as the State of California. She is an expert in this field)
On the ground, organizing has been relentless. Dede Hewitt, CEO of the Sharen Hewitt Empowerment Resource Organization (SHERO), has been working alongside tenants—providing advocacy, support, and direct engagement with impacted residents. There has also been the appearance of a budding collaboration between Open Door Legal and Bay Area Legal.
This is what real intervention looks like:
legal defense + community organizing + public exposure
Because without all three—people disappear quietly.
DOMUS MANAGEMENT — THE CURRENT OPERATOR UNDER SCRUTINY
At the center of this crisis is Domus Management Company. Tenants and advocates are raising serious concerns about:
Recertification mismanagement
Unclear and disputed rent charges
Aggressive eviction filings
A pattern of administrative actions that disproportionately impact Black tenants
And this is not the first time Domus has faced scrutiny. In a California Civil Rights Department case, Domus was part of a settlement involving failure to accommodate a disabled tenant who was effectively trapped in her unit due to an inoperable elevator.
That matters.
Because it establishes a regulatory history—not just a single complaint.
THE PATTERN WAS ALREADY PUBLIC — AND STILL IGNORED
The warnings were not hidden. They were published.
In May 2025, Mission Local documented conditions at Thomas Paine Square Apartments, another Fillmore property managed by Domus, where tenants reported:
Mold infestations
Asbestos concerns
False eviction notices
Rent overcharges
Repairs that amounted to little more than paint over damage
That reporting did not exist in isolation. SFist amplified those findings, placing Thomas Paine within a broader crisis across Fillmore affordable housing developments—many built decades ago to house Black families, now deteriorating under neglect and instability.
One resident, after more than 50 years in her home, said:
“It has never been as bad as it is now.”
And the pattern extends:
Thomas Paine. Plaza East. Alice Griffith. Bayview. LaSalle. Shoreview.
Different addresses.
Same allegations.
Same outcomes.
Same communities.
And still—no structural intervention.
THE LEGAL STRATEGY OF REMOVAL
When I discovered that Attorney Mercedes Gavin had become the “attorney of choice” for many of these property management companies, I dug deeper. What I found was a documented history of aggressive eviction tactics in low-income housing cases—including litigation involving vulnerable tenants and families.
In one widely reported case, a tenant faced repeated eviction notices, even after resolving issues—raising serious concerns from the court itself about the strategy being used.
This is not incidental.
This is a playbook.
Apply pressure.
Escalate notices.
Leverage technicalities.
Force movement.
And in a city where affordable housing is scarce—movement often means displacement.
THE FILLMORE IS NOT AN ISOLATED CASE — IT IS A CONTINUATION
What is happening at the Martin Luther King–Marcus Garvey Square Co-op is not an anomaly. It is a continuation. A continuation of what tenants across San Francisco have been reporting for years:
Unsafe living conditions
Administrative failures
Retaliatory practices
Disproportionate impact on Black residents
And perhaps most importantly—a system that moves faster to evict than it does to protect. It appears that there is a City wide pattern which targets the last few Black people left in San Francisco.
What is unfolding in San Francisco is not random failure.
It is predictable displacement.
It is administrative breakdown used as leverage.
It is publicly subsidized housing systems failing the people they were designed to protect.
And in the Fillmore—it is beginning to look like something even more dangerous:
a quiet, procedural removal of Black seniors. AND WE’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE IN SAN FRANCISCO! However, we must consider the following:
These are elders.
These are multi-decade residents.
And these are the remaining anchors of a Black community that has already been pushed to the margins of this city.
And now—through paperwork, delay, and pressure—they are being pushed out again.
I spoke with Daniel Landry, a Board member of the King-Garvey Co-op, and this is what he had to say:
“Unfortunately, the King-Garvey Co-op has had a history of some rogue, corrupted Board members turning the other way, while our management agent continues to mismanage, with no oversight by San Francisco Regional HUD or the California Attorney General’s Office. Until meaningful oversight is initiated, we will continue to witness fraud, waste, misappropriation of our funds, and a coordinated attack on our most vulnerable community members.”
In my investigation of this issue, I have determined the following:
Approximately 15 Black and elderly tenants have already been targeted—and we are now hearing that a second wave of evictions is coming unless the City or the State intervenes, and intervenes with urgency.
I can tell you this, the community is no longer asking.
It is demanding.
This is not one building.
Not one company.
Not one case.
This is a pattern.
And when a pattern becomes this clear—failure to act is no longer oversight.
It is policy by omission.
The people of the Fillmore are not asking to be studied.
They are demanding to remain in their homes in the city that they love.
To age in place.
To live with dignity.
And if the City of San Francisco cannot protect its Black seniors—in publicly subsidized housing—in a historical Black neighborhood—after decades of displacement—then this, ladies and gentlemen, is no longer just a housing issue.
It is a test of whether this city is still capable of freedom, justice, and equality for all of its citizens and not just a select few.
The record is established.
The evidence is public.
The community is organized.
Who will act—
and who will be remembered for choosing not to?
SOURCE LIST
1.) Mission Local — Tenants of Fillmore low-income housing plead for help (May 8, 2025)
https://missionlocal.org/2025/05/sf-thomas-paine-fillmore-housing-negligence/
2.) SFist — Jay Barmann, Tenants of Fillmore District Housing Complex Complain of Unsafe Conditions, Long-Deferred Maintenance Issues (May 8, 2025)
https://sfist.com/2025/05/08/tenants-of-fillmore-district-housing-complex-complain-of-unsafe-conditions-long-deferred-maintenance-issues/
3.) California Civil Rights Department — DFEH Settles Housing Discrimination Case Against Bay Area Landlord (Domus Management Company) (January 15, 2020)
https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/2020/01/15/dfeh-settles-housing-discrimination-case-against-bay-area-landlord/
4.) Mission Local — Eric Murphy, Valencia Gardens tenants say property manager trying to evict mother and children is overly aggressive (July 14, 2019)
https://missionlocal.org/2019/07/valencia-gardens-tenants-say-property-manager-trying-to-evict-mother-and-children-from-public-housing-is-overly-aggressive/
5.) Mission Local — Julian Mark, Third attempt to evict teenager Terrance Hall from Valencia Gardens fails (March 14, 2019)
https://missionlocal.org/2019/03/third-attempt-to-evict-teenager-terrance-hall-fails/
Here’s our song/video for this article:
Sly & The Family Stone Thank You
