Tenants of Fillmore low-income housing, owned by Black church, plead for help

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For years, tenants at the Thomas Paine Square Apartments, a 98-unit federally subsidized housing block in the Fillmore, have been living in fear of being overcharged or evicted. Mostly low-income, senior, Latinx and Black residents, they fear losing a rare source of affordable housing in a pricey city.

But that’s little compared to the mold and asbestos they say are also rampant in their units. 

Seven tenants living at the Fillmore complex, bounded by Golden Gate Avenue, Turk Street, Laguna Street, and Webster Street, showed Mission Local reports of mold infestation on their walls and ceilings (which was, at times, painted over before reappearing) and a sign posted at a unit on Buchanan Street by management warning of the presence of asbestos. 

Other tenants complained of leaking refrigerators, stoves that burst into flames, dirty carpets, peeling paint and broken heaters.

They say these illustrate negligent maintenance, and want city officials to step in. 

“Every time I think I’ve heard the worst thing, I learn something new,” said Pat Cochran, an organizer who helped form a tenants association at the Fillmore complex in 2021 with support from the Housing Rights Committee, a tenant rights group. 

“I’ve been here in Thomas Paine Square for over 50-something years,” added Barbara Carthen, a 72-year-old resident. “It has never been as bad as it is now.”

Residents say that Domus Management Company, a Lodi-based firm in Central Valley that runs 39 properties across California, including Thomas Paine, has been giving out false eviction notices and overcharging for rent. Then there’s the landlord, which, prior to Mission Local’s inquiries, had been unwilling to meet with them, residents say.  

That landlord is the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the historically Black churches in the Fillmore, which owns the property. Bobby Sisk, who is a steward of the church and sits on the board of directors of the complex, said he has not met with tenants to address their issues. 

Instead, he has been waiting to see “at least some documentation that would demonstrate this organization [the tenants association] is formed,” he wrote in an email to Mission Local on April 25.

According to local officials, the problem seems to be that Thomas Paine occupies a netherworld for which nobody takes responsibility. Rents at the Fillmore complex are subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but it is owned by the Bethel church and overseen by a board of directors that Bethel appoints. 

On May 1, one day after Mission Local visited the on-site leasing office, Sisk emailed Mission Local to report that the Rev. Cecil Williams, the pastor of Bethel AME Church and chairman of the complex’s board of directors (not to be confused with the deceased Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church) has “expressed interest in meeting with the residents” who have spoken with Mission Local.

“Notwithstanding any provided information that a tenant association has been formed, we are open to meeting only with actual residents of Thomas Paine,” Sisk wrote. 

“We want to do everything in our power to meet face to face,” Sisk wrote in another email on May 5. “Should that not happen, it won’t be because we did not try.”

“We can certainly try,” added Cathy Metcalf, a representative at Domus. “But we have tried several times in the past and they have not responded.”

Tenants, however, say they have reached out multiple times before, and some called the latest move a “PR stunt.” “It’s great if he’s actually doing something,” said Anona Lee, a tenant, of Sisk. But, she said, “We’ve contacted Bobby numerous times, and nothing is done.” 

“They wanna help now because you guys are in the picture,” said another tenant, Jesica Salinas, referring to Mission Local’s inquiries. “What would happen if you weren’t here?” 

Tenants have also met with elected officials for years, to little avail. They now have a scheduled meeting with District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, whose district includes the Fillmore, but doubt it will change much.

‘All the surrounding neighbors and I were breathing asbestos’

Seven tenants who spoke to Mission Local say they worry about their health and safety. All of them accuse Domus Management, which has been managing the Fillmore site for three years, and an on-site maintenance worker, Douglas, of negligence. 

Douglas, who declined to provide his full name, confirmed that he lives on site but referred all inquiries to Domus Management, which did not respond. 

Salinas, a 37-year-old single mother who has been living at Thomas Paine Square with her two sons for nine years, said there is constant gambling, smoking, shouting, and drinking in the parking lot and in the Buchanan Mall park right outside of her apartment. 

“I had to open my door and say, ‘Could you please keep it down? I have children and they can’t sleep,’” Salinas said. 

Conditions indoors are deplorable, too, she said. There is always mold on the walls and in the corners of her bedrooms and bathroom, she said. Her younger son, who is now 12 years old, has developed asthma, she said. 

Salinas remembered one day walking past a unit near hers in 2023, which had its door open, and saw a sign warning, “Danger. Asbestos. May cause cancer. Causes damage to lungs.” Neighbors were not offered protection, she said, and the sign was there for about two months. 

“All the surrounding neighbors and I were breathing asbestos,” Salinas said. She called city inspectors, but they said, ‘‘We can’t do anything, because [Domus] are already doing the work,” she recalled.

The inspectors left and never returned. The Department of Building Inspection said there are no records of an asbestos investigation or violations at any of the complex’s Buchanan Street addresses, where Salinas spotted the sign. 

In May 2023, she and other tenants also emailed Sisk of the Bethel church to request asbestos testing for the site. They said they never heard back. 

Thomas Paine has a long and complicated history. According to a 2016 online posting by Telesis Corporation, an affordable housing developer based in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Telesis partnered with Bethel to acquire and rehabilitate the Fillmore complex. 

The developer says on its website that it completed renovations — new roofs, replacing exterior siding, landscaping, and more — “within a year following acquisition.” While it is unclear whether and when such improvements were made, Telesis sold its stake to Bethel in 2019. 

Tenants say those renovations have done little to fix the poor conditions.

In response to a query from Mission Local, George Weidenfeller, executive vice president and general counsel at Telesis Corporation, wrote in an email that, “Unfortunately, we have no information on the project and are unable to assist with your research.”

Domus and Sisk did not respond to requests for comment on the renovation.

City Hall’s just a brisk walk (and a world) away

The tenants live a mere 15-minute walk away from San Francisco City Hall, but getting the attention of elected officials has been tough. They tried emailing former Mayor London Breed for help when she ran for re-election last year. They leaned into her Fillmore roots and her story of growing up in Plaza East, another HUD-subsidized housing development only a block north of Thomas Paine. 

The emails were never answered, they said. Breed did not respond to a request for comment.

When tenants contacted former Supervisor Dean Preston in 2021, he connected them to the Housing Rights Committee and Open Door Legal, visited the site, and sent an official letter to management listing out their concerns, Preston said. Domus didn’t respond. 

“Overall I would say I 100% share the frustration of the tenants towards the management,” Preston said.

On April 22, tenants Anona Lee and Barbara Carthen attended a Board of Supervisors meeting to demand attention. They were joined by residents from other problem-ridden HUD-subsidized apartments across the city, including Alice Griffith in Bayview and nearby Plaza East. 

“It’s atrocious, how we live. And nobody wants to help us,” Lee shouted during public comment, pleading with her new supervisor, Mahmood. “Bilal, I’m calling on you. You represent our district. We have been calling you and calling you and no return. Just like you got voted in, you can get voted out.”

They have been trying to set up a meeting with Mahmood, Mayor Daniel Lurie or Ernest Jones, Lurie’s director of community affairs.

Mahmood, for his part, said he is aware of the situation at Thomas Paine. He said he has been in contact with two Thomas Paine residents who reached out to him, and that he connected one of them to the Mayor’s Office on Disability. 

He called the situation with Thomas Paine “complicated.”

As a HUD-subsidized housing development, Thomas Paine isn’t within the purview of either the Board of Supervisors or the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, Mahmood said. 

“Different players are involved here,” he said. Mahmood said after the April 22 meeting he reached out to the Housing Rights Committee, trying to set up a meeting with residents. 

“The first step is to talk to the residents and hear them out individually,” Mahmood said. “We are going to meet them.”

They will meet during the second week of May, the Housing Rights Committee said.

We can’t meet with our landlord, tenants say

Thomas Paine is overseen by a seven-member board of directors appointed by the church. Residents say they have no representation on the board. 

Since 2002, there have been 39 complaints filed by tenants with the Department of Building Inspection. Only two of these complaints remain active: One filed on April 15, 2025, for disability accommodation, and the other filed on Feb. 7, 2024, stating that “the Outside Shingles for the entire complex needs to be replaced and repainted.” 

While the other 37 complaints were closed, residents say Domus’ work is little more than a quick fix: Workers would paint over mold on the walls instead of removing it, for instance, and the mold would grow back out through the paint.

Seven of the “resolved” complaints showed that city’s building inspectors were unable to enter the property on their first few tries, and they do not have the power to force entry. The cases were subsequently closed. 

Seven tenants, who are all part of the tenants association formed in December 2021, said they have repeatedly reached out to the church and Domus, including emailing a formal letter in September 2022 with 46 signatories.

In the letter, residents demanded three things: replacing all windows over 20 years old in the residential units by Feb. 28, 2023; asbestos and mold inspections of every unit by Nov. 30, 2022; and giving tenants access to all records of their rent payments and charges upon request by Dec. 31, 2022. 

Tenants say the windows were replaced, but none of the other demands were met. And to this day, they have only been able to meet with the pastor, Cecil Williams, in the spring of 2024 — but little came out of the meeting. “He met with us, but never got back with us,” a tenant recalled.

So far, tenants haven’t been able to sit down with anyone else from the board of directors or management to go over their demands. 

Sisk said he didn’t meet with the residents because he is waiting for documentation confirming that the tenants association is legitimate. 

“I had, and have, no problem meeting. l just did not want to duplicate the effort,” Sisk said in an April 25 email to Mission Local regarding the issue. “I have always tried to get residents to meet with site management and, if needed, the management agent.”

The church is located just around the corner from the housing complex, and Salinas, a tenant, said she strolled over twice in 2024 to directly ask for help from Williams, the pastor.

“He would say, ‘We’ll look into it, we’ll see about it,’” Salinas recalled. “And nothing. They never helped.” 

Allegations of fraudulent rent charges, false evictions

All seven residents also accused Domus Management of giving out false eviction notices and overcharging rent. 

Debora Howard was served an eviction notice in February while she was staying at a hotel room because her unit was flooded and mold had formed on the walls. 

Howard said she has paid her rent on time for the 15 years she has lived at Thomas Paine, and dropped off her money orders personally. Howard said that this February, the management company began rejecting her money orders without explanation. 

Howard was able to fight the eviction with help from the Eviction Defense Collaborative and the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. To this day, Howard said, she has not been fully compensated for staying at the hotel for about 10 days while her apartment underwent repairs.

Half a dozen tenants who spoke to Mission Local agreed that Domus Management has issued false eviction notices and overbilled on rent. The tenants advise others to save proof that they’ve paid in full and on time. 

Salinas recalled that she was evicted “by accident” last year because her paperwork was mixed up with that of another woman who shared the same first name. 

In 2022, Salinas, who pays $1,288 per month, recalled receiving a letter saying that she owed $2,705 in rent and she needed to pay it back.

Afraid that she would be evicted, she paid what was owed only to be told that Domus “made a mistake.” Management couldn’t give her money back, the company said, just a rent credit. To this day, they have never told her how much that credit is for; they just bill her for her regular payment, she said. 

It’s like being bullied, Salinas said. She worries about other residents, who might not have the same resilience. “I keep fighting,” Salinas said. “But not a lot of people have that capacity.”

This story was updated with a response from former Supervisor Dean Preston.