1040 Folsom Street is the location of the Park Hotel housing complex. The building is owned by Nasir Patel. The building was home to many SRO units.
A craigslist ad for a room in the building, advertising a $2000/month room. The posting was made on 2014-11-08 and was still up even after news of the controversy broke days later.On May 5th of 2011 a fire damaged the building. After the fire, a number of occupants were displaced from the building. As per San Francisco's rent control laws, tenants displaced by fire are entitled to the first right of return if and when the units are repaired. In late October of 2014, it became clear that the owner of the building, Patel, had instead repaired the units and then leased them out to The Negev LLC, a "tech co-op" run by Danny Haber, without first notifying the displaced tenants.
The rooms had been significantly modified, with new walls sub-dividing the units:
"When Kirkbride visited the two-room unit that she leased for $634 per month on the top floor of the three-story building, she said she found a wall had been erected, dividing the two rooms into separate units. Furthermore, new tenants were already residing there."
The November of 2014, Tenderloin Housing Clinic filed a lawsuit against building owner Nasir Patel and Negev CEO Danny Haber, alleging they refused the previous occupants the opportunity to rent the space.
More information
- Startup Exploits Evictions to Create Party Pad for Tech Workers
- Former tenants sue after SRO housing made into group apartments
