A total of 129 inspections conducted by the San Francisco Housing Authority in the past year have failed at one of the developments at Alice Griffith, a Bayview public housing complex, according to a list of failed inspections obtained by Mission Local.
The Alice Griffith apartments, a U-shaped cluster of buildings in Bayview by Candlestick Point that surround a central courtyard, consists of three developments, or “phases.”
The “Phase I” building, at 2600 Arelious Walker Dr., consists of 93 units. Twenty-two of those units failed more than 100 inspections in just one year.
A failed inspection can seriously damage the finances of a building, as the Housing Authority stops paying the tenant’s subsidy. Typically, a low-income household pays no more than 30 to 40 percent of market-rate rent. The Housing Authority pays the rest, as long as their unit passes inspection.
The Housing Authority disclosed inspections only from the Phase I building. It’s unclear if the other two buildings have a similarly high number of failed inspections.
In all but one of the failures, the Housing Authority found the development’s owner, McCormack Baron Salazar, responsible.
The Housing Authority, a federal agency dedicated to providing housing for low-income residents, transferred ownership of Alice Griffith in 2017 to McCormack Baron Salazar as part of the HOPE SF initiative, a program spearheaded in 2007 by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom to transform dilapidated public housing into mixed-income developments.
The intention was to improve living conditions in San Francisco public housing. That has not happened at Alice Griffith.
Since the units were redeveloped in 2017, tenants have complained of malfunctioning elevators, poor security, leaks and cracks in ceilings, pest infestation, and piles upon piles of trash.
The complaints have grown so loud that Mayor Daniel Lurie made an impromptu visit to the complex earlier this month, though tenants said that management had been tipped off and had time to clean up.
Some residents who were transferred from dilapidated public housing known as “Double Rock,” which was built in 1962 to house Navy families, to the redeveloped Alice Griffith have said that they preferred their old homes.
“They tore down the real thing they should have kept,” said one resident. “They threw up cardboard buildings.”
Prior to 2017, the Housing Authority was obligated to fix issues reported by tenants. Now that responsibility rests solely with McCormack Baron Salazar, a St. Louis, Missouri-based for-profit developer. In 2019, it hired the John Stewart Company to manage the units.
The Housing Authority’s remaining role is to conduct inspections of the units rented by tenants who receive subsidies such as Section 8. Of the 337 affordable homes at the property, the agency conducts annual inspections of 209 units whose tenants receive housing subsidies.
If an inspection fails, the owner is given a 30-day deadline to address repairs, or hours if the problem is a direct threat to health and safety.
Representatives of the John Stewart Company have stated that unpaid rent, and withheld Housing Authority subsidies, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, have had a major effect on the company’s ability to make repairs.
Jennifer Wood, the vice president of the John Stewart Company, added in a statement that in addition to withheld subsidies, abatement fees from the city’s Department of Building Inspection “further reduce the financial resources available to address repairs.” Abatement fees are charged to companies that fail to make repairs. However, Wood said that McCormack Baron Salazar is “advancing funds to address abatements so they can be cured quickly.”
Reasons for the failed inspections vary, but nearly all fault the owner, and not the resident. Many require immediate attention, according to the inspection reports.
The Housing Authority returns regularly to see if an issue has been resolved, but some units continue to fail their inspections for weeks or even months.
In one inspection recorded on Feb. 20, 2025, the inspector noted a mouse infestation and malfunctioning smoke detectors in sleeping areas. A re-inspection a month later found that neither issue had been resolved.
Another inspector, on Jan. 10, recorded multiple electrical hazards, a foul smell emanating from the garbage disposal, a hole in the wall, and inoperable smoke detectors. By March 7, none of the issues had been addressed.
The vast majority of issues, 107, are electrical. These include out-of-service elevators and broken annunciators, a device that shows whether fire alarms or elevators are working. Other electrical hazards were due to missing outlet cover plates, light switches that didn’t work, or electric stoves that wouldn’t turn on.
Disabled tenants have reported being locked in their apartments for days on end because no available elevator worked. A representative for John Stewart said that disabled tenants were given $250 a night hotel vouchers while elevators were inoperable. Three tenants Mission Local spoke to, two in wheelchairs and one who walks with a cane, said that they did not receive hotel vouchers.
One other government agency, the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, also conducts regular inspections at the property, but only after a tenant files a formal complaint.
DBI also has the power to penalize the John Stewart Company, but through abatement fees. These vary significantly based on the violation, but failure to correct violations after receiving a notice of violation may result in penalties of up to $1,000 per day.
Kelley Omran, a spokesperson for DBI, said that if a DBI complaint is deemed a housing violation, and it is not corrected by the deadline, abatement fees can be determined through a director’s hearing, which allows for the property owner to explain why repairs haven’t been made. This can lead to an order of abatement, which requires the company to address repairs, and sometimes places a lien on the property.
As of Friday evening, there were 23 active DBI complaints, some of them several years old.
The active complaints note that nine director’s hearings were held in response to the complaints. The owner failed to show up at five of the hearings. Nine orders of abatements have been filed, and five liens have been placed on the property.
Of the 23 active DBI complaints, most were deemed housing-code violations: Some describe loose wires in the garage; another, water gushing from the ceiling.
Mission Local toured the building and found that many of the issues highlighted in the Housing Authority failed inspections and DBI complaints, such as missing fire extinguishers and broken fire alarm systems, have yet to be addressed.
McCormack Baron Salazar declined to answer specific questions on its budget to address repairs and why a representative from the firm was absent from multiple DBI hearings. But in a statement, a spokesperson said that it is “assessing” tenant concerns.
“At this time, we are actively assessing the situation, and remain committed to transparency and ongoing communication with our residents and partners,” wrote a representative in an email.
Unfortunately, nothing will be done to correct the violatons…the management company will continue to laff it off…
“In 2019, it hired the John Stewart Company to manage the units. ”
There it is.
Learn about this company and the human suffering they’ve called a business model.
Cities privatizing public housing instead of taking responsibility: what could go wrong? Public housing is an area in which, if local and regional governments don’t lead, and don’t create and improve models of responsible and effective management, no one will.
HUD is directing PHAs to move away from that model. They want housing authorities to essentially privatize all of their units.
How expensive is it to replace smoke detectors and fire extinguishers? That costs very little and could be done in less than a day. Absolutely no excuse.
Do fire extinguishers and smoke detectors have legs now? How do they disappear in the first place?