Eviction uproots artists’ collective
Dismayed tenants scatter as deputies clear S.F. warehouse
As a San Francisco sheriff ’s deputy taped an eviction notice on the door of a Bernal Heights artists’ collective, residents shuffled out with their essentials: blankets, clothes, laptops and toothbrushes.
Most of them did not know where they were going next.
“I feel defeated,” said resident Tony Burgess, as he gathered up his shoes to put into a cardboard box.
Their removal was one of the first court-ordered evictions carried out in a San Francisco artist collective since a deadly fire broke out at the Ghost Ship,
a disheveled Oakland warehouse that housed artists and musicians amidst makeshift stairs and other jury-rigged structures.
That fire, which killed 36 people, spread a jolt of alarm among landlords and fire and safety regulators around the Bay Area, leading to a rash of inspections of shared warehouse spaces. Some tenants departed their homes under pressure by landlords without official action.
Artists flock to these spaces as a refuge from the city’s expensive and competitive real-estate market, seeking venues where they can live and work for an affordable price.
The artists at the warehouse on Peralta Avenue, known as Bernalhaus, received a notice to vacate shortly after the Dec. 2 fire. The note contended that the space — south of Cortland Avenue, near the Highway 101-Interstate 280 interchange — was used only commercially, not as a living space. Commercial leases in California can be terminated with 30 days’ notice. The warehouse’s occupants say they lived there with the landlord’s knowledge for years. Under California law, residences, even illegal ones, have protections against evictions that business tenants lack.
The tenants argued against the landlord’s unlawful detainer action in court and sought to place the unit under rent control, which would give them more protections. But on Wednesday, as the decision on rent control was still pending before the San Francisco Rent Board, seven deputies carried out the eviction.
Hillary Ronen, a San Francisco city supervisor whose district includes Bernal Heights, was surprised to hear of the incident.
“There are several legal processes that are still not finished,” she said. “While we must make sure that people are safe, we have to do everything to prevent displacement.”
The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire. The supervisors called for a plan to address safety concerns in such spaces while minimizing displacement of their occupants.
Shortly after the December notice, resident Nathan Cottam said he and his fellow residents spent about $20,000 to bring the warehouse up to fire code. They added windows and smoke alarms to every sleeping area and created an extra exit door.
Joanna Kozubal, an attorney for the owner of the building, could not be reached for comment. The warehouse is also the site of a planned 49-unit apartment complex valued at $7 million. Its developer applied for a permit in July, leading the people who live there to believe their landlord is trying to get them out to make room for the new building.
Back in December, eight people lived in the brightly painted building, which was a melange of bedrooms, a sound studio and a dance studio. Guitars and pieces of pyrography hang on the walls of the multiple common areas with couches, where the residents frequently hung out together.
Some of the residents, like 42-year-old Cottam, built rooms out of empty space in the warehouse. He laid cork on the dusty floors and added a bed, some couches and a rug. Cottam, a dance instructor, also built a mini-ballet floor out of reclaimed poplar wood for space to practice.
Cottam said he moved in the space about three years ago because it was the only thing he could afford. It was a place where he could both live and run his dance business on a tight budget, he said.
On Wednesday, as Cottam and his housemates waited for the deputies to show up and carry out the eviction, most of the artwork on the walls was gone. Some rooms were emptied out, and residents were slowly loading up a U-Haul truck.
While a handyman changed the house’s locks — part of the official eviction procedure — the residents watched in the misty rain as they were permanently shut out of their home.
“While we must make sure that people are safe, we have to do everything to prevent displacement.” Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who was surprised by the eviction