San Francisco Tenant Paying Three Times As Much Rent Two Weeks After Partner
Commits Suicide
By Amy Graff
Updated 11:10 am, Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Photo: Courtesy Christopher Holden
Only two weeks after Christopher Holden lost his partner of five years to suicide in May 2016, he received a letter
stating that the rent on the San Francisco studio he shared with his lover and best friend would be nearly doubled
and raised to market value.
Even though the action by the company managing the apartment building on Grove Street would be considered
cold and heartless by most, it was legal.
The rent on the Alamo Square studio Holden and his partner Jonathan Conte lived in together had long been
protected under rent control. But Conte was the master tenant on the lease, and when he died the protection
was lost. (Holden asked to be added as a master tenant on the lease, but he says his request was refused.)
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Suddenly, Holden, 42, found himself facing the unbearable loss of his partner and rent he couldn't afford to pay
as a social worker, coincidentally, working for a nonprofit that assists elderly at risk of becoming homeless.
In the past, Holden and Conte split the $1,390 monthly payment. Now Holden faced paying the full former rent
plus the $760 increase on his own. He was going from paying $695 a month to $2,150—that's more than triple.
Living in a studio, he can't just find a roommate to pay half the rent. In the midst of grieving, he doesn't feel
motivated to suddenly find a new job or move to a new city.
In some cities, including New York, tenants are protected with succession rights in situations like Holden's. Laws
prevent landlords from hitting a tenant with a large rent increase when a family member moves out of the
dwelling unit or passes away. If your wife dies of cancer, for example, and she was the master tenant on the
lease, you could carry over the same rent conditions. Laws often also protect members of non-traditional families
as long as emotional and financial commitment can be proven.
But in San Francisco, family members don't receive succession rights under the state Costa-Hawkins Rental
Housing Act, says Deepa Varma, executive director at the San Francisco Tenant's Union. This law passed in 1995
gives landlords the right to adjust rent to market rate on a unit when there's any type of change in occupancy.
"I don't want to speak about all landlords," Varma says, "but I've seen this type of situation again and again. On
top of losing a loved one, dealing with a divorce or a death in the family, we see people faced with high rent
increases and evictions that can lead to homelessness. You see it happen when someone passes away from
cancer or people leave their partners, or situations where there's domestic violence come up. It's obviously
terrible."
Many apartment owners would tell you that it's legal and fair. "If I get a girlfriend and she moves in and she's my
roommate, there's a local law that allows me to move her in but the local law doesn't require her to be put on
the lease," Charley Goss, who leads government affairs for the San Francisco Apartment Association, explains.
"Just because this person moved in in 2016 doesn't mean they're entitled to my rent control rate from 2008. That
rent controlled right is for the original lease holder. It doesn't get passed along from generation to generation.
The reason is so the landlord can get a fair return on rental investment."
Goss says tragic circumstances like Holden's aren't standard, but when they do occur the SFAA advises landlords
to be "understanding about what the person is going through, working with them, being courteous."
Murphy's Investments Property Management provided Holden with 60 days notice for the rental increase and he
doesn't face the new price until Sept. 1, but he feels the courteousness ends there.
When Holden's sister reached out to Murphy's to explain the situation because her brother was grieving, she says
she received a cold response and was informed her brother could write a letter that would be passed to the
landlord. Holden sent the landlord a letter asking for the current rent to be maintained, explaining that he was
already facing an increase with the new responsibility of making the full payment. He received a letter from the
landlord's law firm stating all communication would go through the firm and that's when Holden connected with
his own lawyer through the Homeless Advocacy Project.
"I'm pretty astounded by the level of insensitivity by the management company," Holden says. "In this sort of
housing climate, morals and ethics are thrown out the window for profit. It's pretty insensitive and wretched to
do that."
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He adds: "And it's not only me. I've advocated for a lot of people who are elderly disabled and in some cases,
we've been pretty successful but not always. One time I saw a 90 year old woman get kicked out because of an
Ellis Act situation. She had nowhere to go. She was crying. The sense of community here in San Francisco is lost
once you start kicking people out on the streets. It makes you not want to stay, which I hate to say, because I love
this city."
SFGATE reached out to Murphy's Investments Property Management and didn't hear back.
SF Gate
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