Bayview’s Alice Griffith housing was built in 2017. It’s already falling apart. Why?

On April 21, Malik Seneferu, a local artist at the Alice Griffith housing complex in Bayview, was hosting an art show for young people in the community room of the 504-unit development. About 30 minutes into the gathering, the ceiling began to crack. 

In an instant, a chunk of fiberglass tile broke free, hitting Annette McClendon, 66, in the neck and leaving her covered in dust, debris, and water. 

Senefru’s first instinct was to document the event: He grabbed his phone and began to film as McClendon sat dazed beneath a three-foot hole in the ceiling. Kids rushed to her aid. “What the hell is that?” she says in the video, her head bowed, as children shout in the background and attempt to dust debris from her jacket.

When McClendon, a building resident, came back from the hospital, she was wearing a neck brace and had bruises across the back of her neck. A building inspector told residents that water must have been leaking into the ceiling for weeks for it to collapse like that. 

Two weeks later, on May 5, Seneferu stood in that same room as tenants of the complex at 2600 Arelious Walker Dr. near Candlestick Point crowded together in folding chairs, discussing how to make the property manager, the John Stewart Company, actually fix the building. 

The hole, after temporary repairs to the leaky pipes, was now twice as large. 

“There’s a change of faces in here,” said one resident, surveying the group, and eyeing a new property manager. “But the conditions have remained the same.”

City oversight over Alice Griffith is not what it once was

For weeks, tenants have been packing community gatherings and public hearings, speaking up about living conditions at Alice Griffith: The piles of trash, the insects and rodents, and the broken elevators. 

Tenants complain that, although the complex was only built in 2017, conditions inside are deplorable. Some residents who lived at Alice Griffith before redevelopment say things were better then, in the 1960s-era one-time military housing that was demolished to build the current, modern five-story complex. 

These pleas have not gone unheard: Last month, Bayview Supervisor Shamann Walton issued a statement warning that if the two firms responsible for maintenance at the complex —  the developer, McCormack Baron Salazar, and the property’s management firm, the John Stewart Company — do not address residents’ claims of neglect, he will do everything in his power to remove them. On April 7, Walton called for a public hearing on the matter. 

Property managers of public housing developments have been removed before. In February, the San Francisco Housing Authority, with the encouragement of Walton, removed Eugene Burger Management after Mission Local’s reporting revealed mismanagement at the nearby Potrero Hill complex, where it held a city management contract. 

But in this case, San Francisco does not have the same power it once did. 

Less than a decade ago, Alice Griffith was managed by the San Francisco Housing Authority, which had the ability to oversee property management and fix issues reported by tenants within 24 hours if they were a direct threat to tenants’ health and safety. 

It wasn’t a perfect system, but the chain of command was clear — and, as a government agency, the Housing Authority was mandated to step in to hold property management companies accountable. 

But in 2017, Alice Griffith was redeveloped through the HOPE SF initiative, launched by former Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2007 to transform dilapidated public housing sites into mixed-income communities. Hunters View, Potrero Terrace and Annex, Sunnydale, and Alice Griffith all underwent or are currently undergoing construction. 

Now, the property manager, John Stewart, which was hired in 2019, has no one to report to but the redeveloper, McCormack Baron Salazar. 

Property management says its financial burden is ‘severe’

Residents in the original buildings moved across the street into the new development when it was completed in 2017. The old, two-story apartments at 207 Cameron Way, also known as Double Rock after the two islets peeking out of the South Basin, were razed to the ground. 

Today, Alice Griffith could be mistaken for one of the market-rate apartment complexes near the 22nd Street Caltrain station. But a closer look past the modern facade reveals issues: Light posts leaning to the side, overgrown vegetation, and sidewalks strewn with trash. 

Inside, it’s worse: There are holes in the walls, doors that have been broken for months, cockroaches and rats, and piles of refuse. 

Yet dismissing John Stewart Company would likely take months of hearings and repeated complaints by tenants to the Department of Building Inspection, to establish that the property management company has not made a “good-faith effort” to fix housing code violations. 

According to the DBI complaint tracking system, there are currently 27 active complaints at Alice Griffith that have not been resolved; multiple reports of water leaking through the ceiling and light fixtures, fire alarms that don’t work, broken elevators and fire sprinklers, and mold. Many of the complaints are more than three years old. 

“Unfortunately, the financial issues at Alice Griffith remain severe and are creating significant challenges for its residents, ownership, and [management],” wrote Noah Schwartz, the CEO of the John Stewart Company, in a statement to Mission Local. Asked about the hole in the community room ceiling, Schwartz said that the company regularly inspects vacant units and common areas for leaks, but did not notice anything. 

“We will continue conducting these regular inspections to prevent such mishaps in the future,” he added.

The Housing Authority still holds some power over the complex, since it subsidises rents for tenants there. If housing standards are not up to par, the city can put a hold on rent subsidies for tenants with active housing complaints.

That is already happening, though it is unclear how many holds have been placed. The John Stewart Company has argued at a public hearing that it is constrained by unpaid rents and a tight budget to address repairs.

‘That’s the smell of dying rats,’ property manager says

Meanwhile, tenants are doing whatever they can to organize before yet another city meeting, slated for May 22 at the Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners. 

Tensions are high. Tenants filled two meetings at the Board of Supervisors on April 7 and April 22, and another before the Housing Authority the next day, bringing videos and photos of trash and holes in the ceiling. 

During the May 5 meeting inside the complex, which Mission Local attended, two tenants, Adrianne Vandercourt and Robin Robinson, sat at a table at the front of the community room, trying to mediate between residents and a regional manager from John Stewart Company, Melanie Casperson. Casperson left the meeting half an hour early after tenants began to direct their comments towards her; one scolded her for collecting the company’s check. 

“There’s a stench in the building,” said one tenant, “No matter how much it’s cleaned it never goes away. What is that?” she demanded. 

“That’s the smell of dying rats,” Casperson said matter-of-factly. “We’re attacking the issue progressively,” adding that they have contracted pest control to poison rats in the building. 

Tenants have, indeed, found rats in their cars and in the garage, they said, because the garage is strewn with garbage. 

“This place needs to be demolished,” Tecora Hollins cut in from the doorway. She’s a former resident at Alice Griffith who moved out, she said, because of poor conditions. “This place is a health hazard, people can die … this is no better than living in a shelter.” 

A frightened child in the second row turned towards her mother, mouthing, “Really?”

Vandercourt and Robinson struggled to control the 20-odd attendees who filled the small room, as people shouted over each other. Some stormed out of the room. 

“We’re not going to get anywhere if we keep bickering with each other like this,” said one resident. “We need to be unified when the next hearing comes.” 

Trash, missing fire extinguishers, broken doors, and fear

At the conclusion of the meeting, a resident, Pam Dawson, noticed Mission Local speaking to tenants, and immediately marched towards the group, waving for the reporter, and Robinson and Vandercourt, to follow her on a tour of the building. 

“You’re gonna see,” said Dawson. 

The group roamed through 2600, where Dawson lives, one of the four blocks that make up the complex, observing holes in the walls, broken doors, bird nests and ubiquitous trash. 

Dawson said that one of the janitors quit the previous week, leaving just one janitor and cleaning services hired by a third-party contractor to clean all four buildings. 

Flies swarmed in the main lobby, litter lay on the floor, and red paint peeled from the walls. A broken security panel on the wall beeped loudly. 

“It used to be beautiful here,” said Dawson of the building when it was built in 2017. Dawson has lived at Alice Griffith for decades, long before the redevelopment. “Then they ran it to the ground.” 

In February, the developer, McCormack Baron Salazar, asked the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development for a $500,000 loan to “address immediate maintenance, repairs, and habitability issues at Alice Griffith,” blaming inadequate maintenance on “low tenant rent collection and abatement of project-based voucher subsidies” and high staff turnover. 

The loan would also cover funds for the fire-alarm system, and electrical and security-related contractors, like electricians to fix the broken elevators. The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development told Mission Local it is waiting to hear an update on abatement issues at the complex before approving the loan. 

The broken elevators have been an ongoing issue. Schwartz, the John Stewart CEO, told Mission Local in an email on May 8 that two elevators were recently repaired, and another would be repaired the next day. In two other buildings, there is only one functioning elevator. At the tenant meeting on May 5, Casperson claimed that all broken elevators had been fixed. 

The John Stewart CEO said they offered “runners” to help residents who can’t get to the bottom floor with groceries and other items. But Vandercourt says she often steps in to deliver items to disabled residents stuck on higher floors. At the public hearing on April 7, a disabled resident shared that when the elevator was broken, he was stuck in his apartment for nine days, forcing him to slide down the stairs to escape. 

Vandercourt says the alternative is to leave the packages downstairs for days. “Disabled residents can’t come down and get them,” she said. “If we leave them down here, they’ll get stolen.” Elevators have been broken for more than a month, multiple times this year. Sometimes, she leaves packages propped by residents’ doors. “Will it get stolen here or downstairs?” she asked the group. After some deliberation, Robinson said, “Best to leave it here.” 

McCormack Baron Salazar contracts a security company, and Schwartz said two security guards work together overnight. But during the evening tour of the building, which lasted nearly two hours, Mission Local did not notice a security guard who worked for the property. 

Descending into the garage, the group encountered trash, including a mattress and chairs, piled in every corner. A group of young men sat in wooden chairs in a nook, but when the women entered the garage, they scattered. 

Drug paraphernalia were left behind where they sat. The garage doors in this building are permanently open, meaning anyone can wander in from outside. Schwartz said the garage doors have been vandalized or otherwise damaged numerous times, but that they have procured funding to fix them soon. 

Once, Dawson said, she called the John Stewart corporate office about the broken garage doors. In frustration, she swore at the receptionist, and was subsequently sent a 10 day eviction warning. After Dawson contacted a lawyer, who cited the warning as retaliation, she says the matter was dropped. 

Dawson says she has tried to contact city authorities numerous times, and made over 20 calls to 311 about issues at Alice Griffith. 

‘Bullets don’t have anybody’s name on it’

In the garage, cars were jammed into the space, many double parked or taking up handicapped spots without displaying placards. Overhead fans to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning were broken. At least two fire extinguisher cabinets were filled with trash and had no extinguishers.

Robinson lives in the next building over. She says it’s even worse there, and she fears for her safety. 

As the tour continued, it was apparent that unsafe conditions at Alice Griffith were due only partly to deferred maintenance. Without adequate security, individuals who may or may not live in the buildings also represent a danger, residents said.

“It’s never safe here,” said Dawson, showing a photo of a burst pipe in the garage after a shooting three years ago, which caused the garage to flood and damaged the cars inside. (The morning of the tour, a shooting at the nearby Sunnydale public housing complex left one man dead and another injured. Tenants were on edge.) 

Schwartz said that because Alice Griffith doesn’t have gates, security can be challenging, and staff are often threatened. Turnover is high. “Just last week,” said Schwartz, “one of our staff received 31 calls on her personal phone in which she was threatened with bodily harm,” adding that another employee received a similar threat. 

About 30 minutes into the tour, a man blasting music on his motorcycle entered the garage and slowly circled twice around the cars. Seconds later, a handful of tenants entered the garage. “You need to get out of here. You’re talking too long,” warned one resident, addressing the group of women and this Mission Local reporter. “Bullets don’t have anybody’s name on it.” 

Seneferu, the Bayview artist who was holding a youth art show when the ceiling collapsed, said residents regularly experience an inhumane level of strain at Alice Griffith, including gun violence. Terrible housing conditions, he said, are just one more form of violence. 

“There is so much trauma here,” said Seneferu, looking up at the hole in the ceiling. “To have a moment of joy interrupted by something like this is a tragedy.”