Madeline Behrens-Brigham has lived and worked in the Hayes Valley neighborhood for nearly 30 years, and over that time has run small businesses, championed art, and become a community activist and local fixture. Now, faced with an all-too-familiar housing dilemma, Madeline is preparing to leave the city, and along with it the neighborhood that she helped to build.
When we interviewed Madeline last year about how the neighborhood has evolved, she said she'd seen Hayes Valley change from an area that police wouldn't come to, to a vibrant neighborhood arts and commercial district. In the early '90s she and Russell Pritchard (formerly of Zonal) would throw block parties to bring people to an otherwise blighted neighborhood, and helped to organize the campaign to take down the Central Freeway. In 2007, the pair founded the Hayes Valley Art Coalition to fund sculptures in Patricia's Green and other art projects around the neighborhood, and more recently, she managed the curation and installation of pop-up shows in shipping containers, and helped set the stage for the activation of a temporary arts space in Parcel O.
We met up with Madeline to get some insights into why she's finally leaving San Francisco, and where she'll be going next.
How long have you been in your current home on Hayes Street?
"I moved into this place ten years ago, as a roommate to a poet named Rhett Stuart. When he died five years ago I was stuck, because I wasn't on the lease, and the Neighborhood Baptist Church next door, which owns it, wanted me out. Legal Assistance to the Elderly negotiated to get me listed as the master tenant.
But when I signed the lease the church said that at some point they were going to move me out to rehab the building, and then they can pass along capital improvements, which I can't afford. They've been sitting on my shoulder, it's so much pressure. I have no actual security."
What are some of the difficulties you see seniors facing with housing in San Francisco?
"First of all, there's no central clearing house that has the definitive answer for how to apply for housing. I'm resourceful, so I'm capable.
There are quite a few resources that require commuting, taking workshops, spending time, going back, like Independent Living Resource Center. But unfortunately those resources are being evicted.
Luckily I found Legal Assistance to the Elderly, after visiting the Tenant's Union when I was trying to hold onto my apartment. But that was after two years of constant stress and emails. It's hard to navigate that."
What is it like applying for low-income senior housing?
"I've applied to so many other places, but a lot operate independently, and there are lotteries to get on their waiting list.
Once I had to fill out a five-page application wanting to know every landlord I had for at least 15 years, their names and numbers, amount paid in rent. All these intimate questions. That was one of the few places that even sent me a postcard saying I'd been declined, most don't. There were 760 spaces and they said they got over 7,000 applications. But at least they send a postcard."
Where are your older friends going?
"A lot of people are moving to Oakland, one friend moved to St. Louis. Another friend moved in with her daughter for nine years while she sat through waiting lists. A lot of people are now excited about 55 Laguna. Russell [Pritchard] moved to Palm Springs, where he got a two-bedroom apartment with laundry."
Why are you leaving the Hayes Valley neighborhood, and San Francisco?
"A week ago I got a phone call from a senior housing center in Santa Rosa, saying my name had come up on the waitlist. I was totally surprised. You're so long on a waiting list that when it happens, you can't actually believe it. Some places have told me I'd have to wait 11 years, and I'm 69. I went to see it, and a waitlist doesn't wait."
What do you like about it?
"I like that it's airy, there's light. I'm going to face east and look at the foothills. There's a balcony, and across the street there's a park. When I grew up we lived on the edge of town, and always next to open space."
Who's going to carry on your projects?
"Well, Haight Street Art Center which is opening up at 55 Laguna will be taking over the pop-up container art shows, so that's great, because I can't be there all the time. Bill Bulkley is my co-chair at the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association's Art, Culture and Entertainment committee. And then for Parcel O, Jay, who used to have part of the [Hayes Valley] Farm, he's been organizing meetings."
Do you have any advice for those who want to be community organizers in their neighborhoods?
"All you have to do is go outside on your block, and start there. I encourage them to step up. As a group we are stronger, which we proved once in getting the freeway down. Keep talking and keep doing. Have faith that it can be done."
Madeline will be around the neighborhood until December 29th, when she makes the move to her new home in Santa Rosa.
