SF Housing Advocates Seek Elder Abuse Charges Against Owners Evicting 100-Year-Old Tenant
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Housing rights activists are demanding elder abuse charges against the owners of an apartment building in San Francisco's Lower Haight for trying to evict a 100-year-old woman.
Activist groups, including the NAACP, are calling on the San Francisco District Attorney to file the charges, accusing the owners of attempting to evict Iris Canada, who has lived in the building since the 1940s.
Canada just turned 100 last month and was granted a lifetime estate to the apartment in 2005 allowing her to stay for the rest of her life. The property owners allege the centenarian has neglected the apartment for so long, the utilities were shut off and it became uninhabitable.
A judge this week found that Iris Canada had failed to pay court-ordered attorney's fees and granted the building owners the right to evict her.
An attorney for the property owners says the owners would drop the demand for legal fees and let Canada stay if she agrees to sign paperwork allowing the building to convert to condos.