The ongoing eviction battle involving a 99-year-old Lower Haight resident is close to a resolution. Yesterday, a judge granted a reprieve to the elderly Iris Canada, who's lived at 670 Page Street since the 1950s, that will allow her to stay in her home for the remainder of her life.
But the proposal comes with some conditions: namely that Canada must pay $100,000 or more in fees to her landlords' law firm, Zacks, Freedman & Patterson. However, that bill could be waived if Canada issues an apology to her landlord and signs paperwork allowing the building to be converted to condos. Canada and her attorneys, Steven Adair MacDonald & Partners, now have a week to respond, and it's not yet clear if she'll take the deal.
Iris Canada in her home at 670 Page St. (Photo: Wayne Freedman/Twitter)
In 2005, Canada was granted a lifetime lease calculated at $250,000, payable by $700 per month in rent for as long as she lives. But a slew of challenges against this deed began in 2014, when documents were filed with the Superior Court of California stating that Canada was in violation of the agreement.
The building's owners—Peter Owens, his wife Carolyn Radisch and his brother Steven Owens—claimed that Canada's unit was "not in good condition and in need of repair," and that this lack of care to the apartment was reducing its value.
They also alleged that Canada has been living in Oakland with family for the past four years, violating another component of the deed. In an October 5th declaration, Peter Owens stated that he entered her apartment and found a dry toilet bowl and mold in the bathroom—signs that the apartment hadn't been used in a long time.
"There is a far different side of the story," Owens' lawyer, Mark Chernev, told us. "Iris Canada hasn’t lived there since 2012, this litigation has been pending for over a year, and it’s only now that the owners have received judgment that they are staging the apartment to look like she lives there."
But Canada's great-niece, Iris Merriouns, disputed Chernev's claims. "She was not gone," she told KGO. "She went on hiatus with my mother and she traveled, and at other times, she was hospitalized."
Board of Supervisors President London Breed speaks out against Canada's eviction. (Photo: London Breed/Twitter)
In recent weeks, tenant's rights supporters and local politicians have rallied to oppose Canada's eviction. "This woman has a lifetime lease," District 5 Supervisor London Breed, who lives in the neighborhood, stated at a press conference last week. "So that means as long as she is here on earth, she deserves to have the dignity of her home."
The backlash from this case has been damaging for Peter Owens: national media attention forced him to resign from his position as director of Burlington, Vermont's Community and Economic Development Office. Owens had planned to step down in June, but "given the recent public attention regarding an unresolved personal matter about the housing and welfare of an elderly woman in San Francisco, I have decided to accelerate my departure."
Canada's attorneys have asked for a week to negotiate regarding the potential $100K in legal fees, apology, and condo conversion. We'll keep you posted on the results of that negotiation.
