The owner of the Alice Griffith Apartments, a redeveloped Bayview public housing complex that quickly fell into disrepair after it was rebuilt, and where Mission Local has documented myriad tenant complaints, will pay a seven-figure settlement to the city, according to the San Francisco city attorney’s office.
The St. Louis, Missouri-based McCormack Baron Salazar will pay $9 million in city penalties, property improvements and money owed to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in water and sewer service fees.
“Alice Griffith residents have had to experience living conditions that no one should have to tolerate,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “The families at Alice Griffith deserve safe and dignified housing. The settlement we’re announcing is about working to address those issues and holding the owners accountable.”
The agreement follows over a year of Mission Local’s reporting on disturbing conditions at the complex, including a four-month investigation completed in July 2026 that found that the landlords owed thousands of dollars in penalties to the city for ongoing public health violations.
Mission Local’s investigation revealed that a rodent infestation grew so severe by March 2026 that complaints about the smell of a tenant’s decomposing body were dismissed by property management as that of dead rats.
Chiu said Mission Local’s initial reporting on the complex caught his office’s attention, and uncovered information it was previously unaware of.
“Mission Local’s reporting was tremendously helpful in our efforts to improve conditions at Alice Griffith,” said Chiu.
“We began with this work because of what we heard from residents [and] Supervisor Shamann Walton, but also certainly the coverage from Mission Local … I appreciate learning from your publication details of the situation that had not been brought to our attention.”
The building’s landlords will pay $3 million in penalties to address numerous code violations and an additional $3 million directly to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to resolve unpaid water and sewer fees.
McCormack Baron Salazar will be required to invest another $3 million in repairs to the property, security and pest control services.
Chiu said the settlement agreement is the first code enforcement agreement in the city’s history in which a landlord is required to not only pay penalties, but to invest additional money into the property.
Separate from the settlement agreement, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development will invest an additional $2 million into the construction of a playground on the property, totaling in $5 million invested directly into the complex.
The mayor’s office will also loan $2.5 million to McCormack Baron Salazar to ensure property improvements are made to complete elevator repairs, restore hot water systems, rehabilitate 50 uninhabitable units and invest $200,000 in pest control services, among other urgent habitability concerns.
“Every San Franciscan should have housing that is not only affordable but also safe and well-maintained, and the residents at Alice Griffith have not,” said Mayor Daniel Lurie in a statement.
Lurie visited the complex last June, and tenants from several subsidized-housing complexes rallied outside his office last July. “This settlement is an important step toward providing safety and dignity for the residents of Alice Griffith,” he said.
Over the past year, the building’s owners and its property management firm, the John Stewart Company, stated that they didn’t have enough funding to make those necessary repairs.
The vice president of the John Stewart Company, Jennifer Wood, stated during an April 2025 hearing called by Supervisor Walton that the company has been unable to address issues including inoperable elevators and garages because tenants failed to pay their rent.
According to an injunction filed on Wednesday, the owners and the property management firm will be required to make emergency repairs within the next 30 days to address urgent “habitability” and “life safety” issues.
Alice Griffith Apartments, also known as “Double Rock,” was run by the San Francisco Housing Authority from 1962 to 2017. Its redevelopment through a public-private partnership was initially praised by city leaders, who invested more than $200 million into the construction of the building and helped secure millions in federal grant funding. Then came the rats.
In today’s settlement agreement and stipulated injunction, the city attorney’s office wrote that the property’s owners violated multiple city codes, the state housing law and the unfair competition law, which prohibits any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business practices that give the landlord an advantage in the marketplace.
Chiu said he is “confident” that the landlord will pay the settlement agreement’s penalties, invest in the property and repay the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development’s loan.
The injunction, he said, will require the landlord to live up to its end of the bargain.
Walton, for his part, said that his office “will continue to watch and hold the owners accountable to make sure every dollar is spent on improving conditions.”
“We recognize that the challenges cannot be resolved overnight. The settlement will not solve everything,” said Chiu. “But it represents a meaningful step forward.”
Brava!!
Impressive work by Mission Local and reporter Marina Newman. You’re taking on the hard stories and making a positive difference in people’s lives. Great job.
Where is the compensation for the tenants that have been living in these conditions for years?!
I have same question.
Those residents better see some of it!
Your reporting is awesome, and this was an especially important outcome for these miserable people living in such squalid conditions. Good work?
When the tenants were paying their rent, where was the money going? It’d be interesting to see the amount paid out in bonuses during that time, or any “corporate retreats” being enjoyed by the management team.
The City gets $9 million in restitution from these scumbags then loans them back $2.5 million. Only in San Francisco…