By Joe Donohoe

Semoy Kosoy is a 65-year-old Holocaust survivor. He's thin with strong cheek bones, speaks with a heavy Ukrainian accent, and moves with the energy of a man half his age. Under the state Ellis Act, Kosoy was evicted last December from his home of 14 years, along with his wife, Olga Sinitsa, who has been undergoing chemotherapy since 2002.

A wave of Ellis evictions has been sweeping the city, according to tenant activists, displacing seniors and people with AIDS. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors addressed the problem Nov. 16 by making it tougher for property owners to evict senior citizens and the critically ill in order to convert their homes into condominiums.

The Ellis Act allows a property owner to evict a tenant if the owner takes the property off the rental market. Yet the owner can sell the property as a "tenancy in common," a sort of joint ownership of a building that's often a stepping stone to converting the property into a more valuable condominiums.

Kosoy, a senior social worker with the Department of Human Services, was evicted two months after Kwok Chung Wong and Luk Har Kwan bought the Richmond District building he lived in: 442 23rd Ave. Wong and Kwan filed Ellis petitions on Kosoy's four-unit building and three other properties at the end of 2003.

Having bought the building for $1.1 million, they immediately put three of the units up for sale as TICs. Kwan and Wong put one of the units on the market for $488,500. If all four units sold at that price, it would mean a potential gain of 81 percent over the initial investment. Kwan didn't wish to speak to the Bay Guardian, and the unit sale records haven't yet been filed with the Assessor's Office.

Kosoy was granted a one-year extension on the eviction based on his wife's illness and their age, and he and his wife remained in their apartment after the neighbors left. "My wife and myself were living in an empty building for a year," he said.

Kosoy spoke about his difficulties after eviction. "My rent was $1,000, and the apartment my wife and I are moving into is now $1,375. I'm blessed that I can still work despite my age. As soon as I can't work, I will have to live on the streets. My monthly social security is only $811 – that is not enough for a place to live."

Tenant advocates such as Ted Gullicksen of the San Francisco Tenants Union and Brian Basinger of the AIDS Housing Alliance say landlords are using Ellis evictions to target the socially vulnerable. There were 137 Ellis petitions filed in 2004 – up from 57 in 2003 – removing 456 units from the rental market. Basinger said 65 percent of the evictions (not including already vacant units) involved seniors and people with AIDS. Basinger, who has AIDS, spoke of how he and his domestic partner, both college-educated professionals, took five months to find a new home after being evicted.

"You cannot fight this Ellis Act," Kosoy said. "I have written to four state senators, U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein, Mayor Gavin Newsom. They have written back to me that they are sorry about my situation but cannot do anything."

A report by the Budget Analyst's Office shows that requests for condominium conversion, the usual outcome of Ellis evictions, increased by 25 percent between 2001 and 2004. Condominium conversions bring in more revenue to both the city and the owners because the value of the property is increased, but that translates into less affordable housing for renters.

To address this, the Board of Supervisors adopted legislation written by Basinger to discourage conversions. Sup. Chris Daly originally called for subjecting all two-unit properties to the same lottery as larger properties, but after being met with angry resistance from property owners, the board Nov. 16 modified the measure to cover only cases involving the eviction of seniors and those with serious disabilities, and it passed 9-0. Newsom must sign the measure for it to become law.

"I'm pleased with the outcome," Basinger said. "Practicing evictions while reducing the rental units for a city with 65 percent of the population renting is not sound urban policy."

For Kosoy, it's a bitter consolation. "I had to move, and now I cannot retire if I want to pay my rent. I'm a senior citizen who immigrated into this country in 1989, and at my age I do not want to live outside on the streets. These policies are not human. I do not understand what the government is allowing this for."

Rachel Brahinsky contributed to this report.

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