Over 50 people rallied Jan. 31 against the harassment and evictions of working people in the Castro Neighborhood of San Francisco. Landlord Anne Kigahi, after purchasing the building, evicted longtime tenants and has been harassing others. Four tenants spoke at the rally—a public school teacher, a school social worker, an elderly woman and her grandson.
Sylvia, age 75, spoke about the way she has been treated after living in the building for many years. Her grandson made an emotional appeal, describing how the landlord’s treatment and negligence is causing his grandmother’s health to worsen, saying: “This lady doesn’t give a damn. Please, we need some help.”
Another tenant, Allison Leshefsky, works as a physical education teacher in San Francisco Unified School District. She noted how wonderful it was to live in San Francisco and in her building until the landlord moved in and the harassment began. She said: “I chose to stay in a hard-to-staff school. I fear the eviction will force me to leave my school and leave San Francisco. I can’t afford to live here.” A hard-to-staff school is how San Francisco Unified describes chronically underperforming schools with high teacher turnover.
The demonstration, organized by the Housing Rights Committee and supported by the teachers’ union, United Educators of San Francisco, began with a gathering at Harvey Milk Plaza at the corner of Castro and Market. Then protesters marched down to rally in front of the building where Kigahi is harassing her tenants and deliver a letter to the landlord.
Evictions, foreclosures and skyrocketing rents are all too common in San Francisco—rapidly become a city reserved solely for the rich. The average cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment is $3,400 A MONTH! As giant tech corporations and their highly paid workers—really a quite small population—dominate the city, regular working people, including those with union jobs like social workers and teachers, are being forced out. Demonstrations like the one today, and others where unions and community members come together to target the landlords who carry out these evictions are an important part of building what must be a broad, independent fight-back movement to turn the tide in the interests of working people.
