Less than a week ago, Deb Follingstad was just another San Franciscan who’d come face-to-face with the city's all-consuming housing crisis. You probably know the story by now, but a quick recap: Her landlord, Nadia Lama, was in the process of raising Follingstad's rent approximately 315 percent (roughly $7,000) in an apparent effort to force the tenant to move out. Follingstad posted a letter from Lama’s attorney, Denise Leadbetter, on her Facebook page and the story went viral, exploding across the Bay Area blogosphere and even cracking national news.
A new wrinkle emerged yesterday when it came to light that Follingstad has been renting her unit on Airbnb for months and is using her de facto eviction to drive business (the listing is no longer live). Suddenly, Follingstad and her landlord weren’t just moveable cogs in another SF housing fiasco, but catalysts for a heated conversation about a crisis that's plagued SF for years. Yesterday, after two days of media silence, Follingstad sat down with SFGate to respond about her current housing situation and her use of Airbnb.
Opinions about Follingstad’s story have varied wildly, with commenters on The Bold Italic bouncing between acceptance and outrage that she might be exploiting her situation for profit. In the SFGate article, Follingstad defends her choice to Airbnb the space, saying that prior to Nadia Lama, her original landlord — Antoinette Lama (Nadia’s sister) — knew she was sharing the apartment. She also said her lease didn’t prohibit subletting.
Follingstad doesn’t think her choice to Airbnb the space has anything to do with the drastic rent increase. Instead, she sees it as so many others do: Lama's attempt to force her out of the home so it can be converted into something more lucrative. Currently, Follingstad is preparing to depart from the Bernal Heights space, saying, “I have to assume the worst.” And although she’s received overwhelming support from the community — including an 84-year old woman who offered her deceased daughter’s room — Follingstad has a “strong lead” on a new place. The Bold Italic reached out to her for comment but has not received a response at this time.
Nadia Lama, who has become a target of searing criticism and an unwitting symbol of the city's greed, has seen locals rush to her defense as well. Although she has remained mum, SFGate noted that she did respond on her Facebook page, writing, “I know my friends know the truth. I pray greedy is a word that never has and NEVER will apply to me.”
Taken out of context, Follingstad and Lama are black-and-white representations of the two sides of SF's housing coin. Follingstad is the face of beleaguered, longtime San Franciscans, while Lama is the conniving landlord who will stop at nothing to line her pockets. Yet, from all accounts (and there are many), Lama and her family are strong supporters of the community. Until recently, they owned a successful and popular neighborhood grocery. The Bold Italic also reached out to Lama for comment but received no response.
The unfolding Bernal Heights saga indicates not only the depth and complexity of the housing issue in San Francisco, but also just how embedded it is in everyday life. Housing, or the lack of it, is arguably the most hot-button issue in the city today. The story of a single woman's massive rent spike seems to have raised the demons we're all afraid of having to confront ourselves.
Update: Denise Leadbetter, attorney for Nadia Lama, released a statement today regarding her client's case, which reads in part: "The rent increase that has generated this controversy is actually an offer by the owner to rent a substantially larger home than was originally rented. In addition to the upper level (in which tenant currently resides), Ms. Follingstad will have access to at least 60% more space which can be used by the tenant to offset the rent increase through her existing Air BnB business. As interested parties are now aware, there are many sides to a story. Rent Control Ordinances create unreasonable expectations upon which tenants rely. In this case, rent control simply does not apply to this tenancy."
See more: "Why it's Legal for a Bernal Heights Landlord to Quadruple This Woman's Rent" and "Bernal Heights Woman with the Huge Rent Increase Does Airbnb, and the Internet Freaks Out"
[via SF Gate; photo courtesy of Google Earth]
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