S.F. Landlord Reaches Settlement With Tenant
Woman, 83, to keep apartment until August
Dan Levy, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 14, 1999
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
 
 

Lawyers for an 83-year-old Mission District woman who was facing eviction under a controversial state law have reached a settlement with her landlord.

The deal allows Lola McKay, a retired bank supervisor who has lived on Alvarado Street for more than 30 years, to waive any unpaid rent and to stay in her one-bedroom apartment until August 2000.

After that, she will have to find a new place to live.

She will also drop her lawsuit against the landlord, John Hickey Brokerage.

McKay was served with an eviction notice in February under provisions of the state's Ellis Act, which allows landlords to evict tenants and remove a building from the rental market.

Although Hickey seemed to have the legal right to evict McKay, tenants rights advocates seized on the case as an example of how San Francisco's tightening housing market has hurt elderly tenants.

McKay is the only tenant left in the four-unit building. Two units were empty when Hickey bought it in January, and one tenant left in June. Other apartments in McKay's fast-changing neighborhood have been ``Ellised out'' and turned into condominiums that have fetched as much as $300,000.

With the help of the San Francisco Tenants Union, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and other supporters, McKay sued Hickey in San Francisco Superior Court, hoping that a sympathetic jury would simply nullify her eviction.

But the settlement, reached Friday, takes the case out of court and allows McKay to keep her $100 per month rent only until next August. Her lawyer, Raquel Fox, said Hickey had offered McKay a $10,000 settlement to drop the case, but she refused.

``She's happy just to be able to stay in her apartment,'' Fox said. ``They offered her the money, but since she is on Social Security, she might have been cut off from that.''

Hickey's attorney, Andrew Weigel, declined to comment on the case.

McKay's supporters are trying to find another place for her to live. Laguna Honda Hospital is one possibility, and the mayor's housing office is also looking for alternatives, Fox said.

``(The settlement) gives her some breathing room,'' said Ted Gullicksen of the Tenants Union. ``The idea of a trial was becoming very straining on her. She was astounded that she could be evicted so someone else could sell her apartment.''

©1999 San Francisco Chronicle   Page A18