New SF Law Could Help Tenants Displaced by Fires

SAN FRANCISCO, CA- Amidst growing concerns from residents about a series of recent fires in the Mission District, Supervisor David Campos today announced legislation that would increase fire safety requirements and help displaced residents.

Standing in front of a boarded-up building at 22nd and Mission streets that was the scene of a fatal four-alarm fire in January 2015, Campos today said the proposed fire safety changes were developed by an inter-agency fire task force created last year. Co-sponsored by Supervisor Jane Kim, the legislation requires landlords to install better, louder alarm systems, install fire safety improvements to prevent the spread of fires through building attics and provide more information to tenants on smoke detectors.

"The things that we're talking about are actually things are so basic to public safety that I think most San Franciscans would be shocked to know they're not already required," Campos said.

The legislation also addresses the needs of tenants displaced by fires. In the Mission District alone around 130 people were displaced by fires in 2015, according to figures from Campos' office. In the case of a fire, the legislation requires landlords to provide information to the Department of Building Inspection on where and how tenants can retrieve their belongings, when repairs are expected to occur and when tenants can re-occupy the building. In many cases, tenants displaced by fires hear nothing from their landlords for months or years at a time, despite laws giving them a legal right of return to the building when it is repaired, according to tenants advocates.

One tenant, Carmen, today said that she had lived in a building at 3045 Mission St. until she was displaced by a fire. Since that time she said she has not heard anything from her landlord and has been sleeping in her car.

"We've been homeless now for four months," Carmen said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. Carmen said she remained hopeful though, because she knew she had rights as a tenant. Tommi Avicolla Mecca, with the Housing Rights Coalition, said the legislation would provide additional tools for counseling and advising tenants who have just been displaced by a fire. "They're terrified, they're hurting, they really need help," he said.

The Mission District has seen a number of large fires in recent years, some of them fatal, raising fears among many residents about displacement, arson and unsafe conditions in the neighborhood's older buildings. In the past week alone three fires have occurred, two of which displaced 48 residents, according to fire officials. The third fire, a one-alarm fire that occurred Monday night, was the third fire to take place at 3222 22nd St. since January 2015, when a four-alarm fire there killed one person and displaced 60 residents and 18 businesses.

The building has sat vacant and decaying since then, and Campos today said the property owner has been "consistently unresponsive." The cause of the fire at 3233 22nd St. and two others that occurred on Thursday and Friday last week remain under investigation, according to fire officials.

By Bay City News, Image via Shutterstock