The Eugene Burger Management Corporation, the private firm that oversees San Francisco’s last two city-owned public housing complexes, has consistently failed to meet the Housing Authority’s performance standards, according to documents obtained by Mission Local.
At the two sites — the Potrero Terrace and Annex housing complexes on Potrero Hill, and the Sunnydale-Velasco projects by McLaren Park — issues have included failed inspections, slow responses to emergency work orders, abandoned cars and trash accumulation. The firm has often failed on several of the city’s six main scoring categories.
Between January 2023 and April 2024, records show, Eugene Burger Management never reported full collection of rent. Back in December 2023, 59 percent of the units inspected at Potrero Hill and 69 percent at Sunnydale passed the city’s standards, the records show.
In January 2024, those numbers had dropped to 53 and 38 percent. In March and April too only half the units passed their inspections.
The failing score cards produced by the Housing Authority come after more than a year of issues and two hearings on Eugene Burger Management. Mission Local first began reporting on conditions at the Potrero projects after a January 2023 fire that killed one man and displaced five others.
Despite the hearings regarding continued poor performance and fraud allegations, little has happened.
Earlier this month, tenant lawyers called for the city to fire Eugene Burger Management after Mission Local reported that the company began evicting dozens of alleged squatters. Many of those squatters had been scammed and allegedly paid rent under the table to a since-fired employee with the management firm.
District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the district in which both housing projects are located, last week also called for Eugene Burger to be cut, but also placed blame on the San Francisco Housing Authority.
“The Housing Authority has been completely derelict in its duties in providing oversight of Eugene Burger,” Walton said during a Board of Supervisors meeting, “and they are allowing evictions to take place for people who were victimized by Eugene Burger employees, specifically at the Potrero Hill public housing site and Sunnydale housing sites.”
The management company, headquartered in Reno, Nevada, earns upward of $100,000 a year from the contract and also works in Las Vegas, Petaluma, and Sacramento. The San Francisco Housing Authority oversees its performance.
In 2022, the firm took over management of the Potrero Terrace and Annex projects on Potrero Hill and the Sunnydale-Velasco projects from the city, after a year delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The change occurred ahead of a planned demolition and rebuild of both sites, which are being converted to mixed-income housing projects.
Departing residents have since left many units vacant, and squatters have come in seeking cheap housing.
Timeline of events at the Potrero Terrace and Annex
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development orders the troubled San Francisco Housing Authority to submit to a takeover by the city and begin shedding its core
functions.
March 2019
June 2019
First new building at Potrero Hill opens with 72 units, part of HOPE SF rebuild of four San Francisco public housing complexes including 1,600 units in Potrero.
February 2022
Eugene Burger
Management
Corporation takes over Potrero Hill and Sunnydale sites, for up
to five years and $3.1M.
January 2023
A fire kills 40-year-old Richard Gescat and displaces other residents at the Potrero Annex, many of whom are squatters.
Mission Local reports on the conditions at Potrero Terrace-Annex and ongoing troubles between squatters and tenants.
February 2023
May 2023
Mission Local reports on Eugene Burger Management’s failing scorecards from January and February 2023.
July 2023
Board of Supervisors holds hearing on Eugene Burger for poorly managing its sites.
Mission Local reports on alleged rent scam by Eugene Burger’s Lance Whittenberg, who purportedly collected under-the-table rent from as many as 20 squatters.
April 2024
Board of Supervisors holds hearing on Eugene Burger for poor management, alleged rent scam.
May 2024
Mission Local reports on mass evictions of residents at Potrero Hill, including some who claim they paid Whittenberg rent.
August 2024
September 2024
Tenant attorneys call for Eugene Burger’s firing; developer BRIDGE Housing asks for go-ahead to speed up demolitions.
Supervisor Shamann Walton calls for Eugene Burger’s firing, and another hearing into mass evictions and alleged rent scam.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development orders the troubled San Francisco Housing Authority to submit to a takeover by the city and begin shedding its core
functions.
March 2019
June 2019
First new building at Potrero Hill opens with 72 units, part of HOPE SF rebuild of four San Francisco public housing complexes including 1,600 units in Potrero.
Eugene Burger
Management
Corporation takes over Potrero Hill and Sunnydale sites, for up
to five years and $3.1M.
February 2022
January 2023
A fire kills 40-year-old Richard Gescat and displaces other residents at the Potrero Annex, many of whom are squatters.
Mission Local reports on the conditions at Potrero
Terrace-Annex and ongoing troubles between squatters and tenants.
February 2023
May 2023
Mission Local reports on Eugene Burger Management’s failing scorecards from January and February 2023.
July 2023
Board of Supervisors holds hearing on Eugene Burger for poorly managing its sites.
Mission Local reports on alleged rent scam by Eugene Burger’s Lance Whittenberg, who purportedly collected under-the-table rent from as many as 20
squatters.
April 2024
May 2024
Board of Supervisors holds hearing on Eugene Burger for poor management, alleged rent scam.
August 2024
Mission Local reports on mass evictions of residents at Potrero Hill, including some who claim they paid Whittenberg rent.
Tenant attorneys call for Eugene Burger’s firing;
developer BRIDGE Housing asks for go-ahead to speed up demolitions.
September 2024
Supervisor Shamann Walton calls for Eugene Burger’s firing, and another hearing into mass evictions and alleged rent scam.
Chart by Kelly Waldron.
Residents at the complex, where deteriorating buildings are in varying states of disrepair, have felt the brunt of the mismanagement, with ongoing issues, including cockroaches and leaks.
In July 2023, a scorecard showed that only 33 percent of unit inspections received a passing grade at Potrero Hill, and 32 percent passed at Sunnydale. That month, 20 Department of Building Inspection notices were issued at Potrero, and 16 were issued at Sunnydale. None were resolved.
By January of this year, only half of the units inspected at Potrero and 38 percent at Sunnydale passed inspections. In March and April, of six total units inspected at both sites, only half passed.
The Housing Authority wrote in the January scorecard that it had “yet to receive EBMC’s Emergency Maintenance Plan and Preventative Maintenance Plan and monthly schedule,” which were due within 15 days of its contract going into effect in January 2021 — three years prior.
The Housing Authority also wrote that it learned “in early January,” despite extensive reporting on the issue, that “various vacant units were occupied by unlawful occupants and no notices had been served, action taken, or monitoring done.” The man who was killed in the fire one year prior was a squatter, as were several of his displaced neighbors.
A few months later, in April 2024, 29 percent of emergency work orders on Potrero Hill failed to be addressed within 24 hours, often taking days to resolve.
Walton, apparently in response to Mission Local’s reporting, has already called for two hearings on the company’s management of the site since last year, but the issues have persisted.
Last week, Walton called for a third hearing, stating that “Eugene Burger and the Housing Authority are openly failing our residents and continuing to further victimize individuals who were suffering from paying money for illegally rented units.”
“And we’re going to get to the bottom of this,” he added. But after two hearings, that has not happened.
Lance Whittenberg, who was allegedly collecting under-the-table rent, was fired around the start of the year, and Eugene Burger’s Affordable Management Division head Teresa Pegler has stated that she is working with the City Attorney’s Office to investigate the claims. But no lawsuits have been filed.
The City Attorney’s Office confirmed it is “looking into” the matter. The District Attorney’s Office, meanwhile, declined to comment on the existence of any investigation.
The Housing Authority, despite consistently giving Eugene Burger failing marks, has had little impact on getting the management firm to improve.
In response to Mission Local’s reporting, which revealed that Eugene Burger Management began evicting Potrero residents en masse, the city has accelerated its plans for demolishing the aging buildings there.
The existing 619 public housing units on Potrero Hill are to be demolished and ultimately replaced with 800 affordable units and 800 market-rate units. But, despite being more than eight years into a 15-year plan, BRIDGE Housing has only completed its first phase of construction: 72 units at 1101 Connecticut St. in 2019.
Years later, no additional buildings are complete, and demolitions haven’t occurred in years. The new developer, BRIDGE, told residents last year that demolition plans were delayed to 2026. But at a Housing Authority Board of Commissioners meeting last week, the developer asked for approval to move that timeline up.
Meanwhile, the Housing Authority has begun paying out some of those who were residing in vacant units, some of whom reportedly paid rent to the rogue site manager, Whittenberg. One resident told Mission Local that they received a $17,000 settlement.
As dozens have received eviction notices, with about 40 represented by the Eviction Defense Collaborative, more settlements are likely to follow.
The hearing called for by Walton into Eugene Burger is expected to be held at the Board of Supervisors Rules Committee in the coming weeks.
Lydia Chávez contributed reporting.