District 5 Tenants Score Big Win at Board of Appeals

From today's BeyondChron,

A District 5 building full of long-term tenants defeated their landlord’s attempt to displace them Wednesday. Facing the Board of Appeals, these tenants sought revocation of a permit filed for by their owner that would have caused multiple evictions and the destruction of every unit’s back porch. In a surprise decision, the Board ruled unanimously for the tenants, with one of the Board’s more conservative members calling the application one of the worst cases of abuse of the permit process he’d ever seen. The revocation hopefully represents the end of an attempt by the building’s owner – Prana 8 Investments – to turn a profit on a property at the expense of the city’s affordable rental housing stock and tenants.

Prana 8 bought 1980-1998 Golden Gate and 800-808 Lyon, a 13-unit building, in 2002. In an attempt to free up units to be rented out at market rate, Prana 8 filled out an over-the-counter permit application at the Planning Department that claimed certain units were illegal and needed to be brought up to code. Making the necessary renovations would have required the eviction of tenants.

This is a follow-up to a previous post on the NOPNA blog as well.