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Tenant lawyers demand SF cut Potrero Hill property manager

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Attorneys for residents who have faced a slew of evictions from the Potrero Hill public housing complex in recent months today called on the San Francisco Housing Authority’s board of commissioners to fire the company that manages the site. 

The company, Eugene Burger Management, oversees the aging Potrero Terrace-Annex public housing site and has been evicting alleged squatters from their homes — even those who say they paid rent to an employee of the firm. That employee, who has since been fired, allegedly pocketed their money under the table but acted as a representative of the company. 

“They are still managing the complex today. How is that possible?” asked Eviction Defense Collaborative attorney Jessica Santillo, who represents some of about 40 households being evicted. “Rather than offering new housing or even transitional housing, the city is forcibly removing residents from their homes every week. This is wrong and must stop.” 

Mission Local first reported on the evictions being executed by Eugene Burger Management last month, as well as the alleged under-the-table rent collection scam by now-fired site manager Lance Whittenberg in April. 

The Potrero Terrace-Annex has been routinely mismanaged by Eugene Burger since 2022, according to city scorecards showing that the firm routinely failed to meet performance standards. Mission Local has been reporting on the housing complex since a fire in January 2023 killed 40-year-old Richard “Wolf” Gescat, and has documented tenants’ frustrations with deteriorating conditions at the sprawling hillside complex.

The evictions began in May, soon after Mission Local’s investigation into the alleged rent scheme.

The Housing Authority denies that any of the evicted residents were targets of Whittenberg’s purported scam, and maintains that those residents being evicted are squatting illegally, according to a spokesperson. 

But in recent weeks, the Housing Authority has begun offering at least some residents paid settlements to leave the property, Mission Local has learned. 

So far, 29 households have been successfully evicted, the Housing Authority confirmed this week. In those cases, a spokesperson said there was “zero evidence of rent payments to any party associated with the property.” 



Source: missionlocal.org

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