All Star Hotel residents say problems persist

Staff at All Star Hotel, a single-room occupancy hotel in S.F., say all of its code violations have been addressed. Staff at All Star Hotel, a single-room occupancy hotel in S.F., say all of its code violations have been addressed. Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close All Star Hotel residents say problems persist 1 / 19 Back to Gallery

EDITOR'S NOTE: A Chronicle Watch story focused on complaints from residents of a Mission District single-room occupancy hotel, the All Star Hotel. To be clear, the code violations issued in 2012 by the Department of Building Inspection were issued to the hotel owner. Tenderloin Housing Clinic is not the owner but is the property manager.

(01-09) 16:17 PST -- Residents of the All Star Hotel, a single-room occupancy hotel in the Mission District that offers 85 units to people who might otherwise be homeless, have been complaining to the city about problems there for two years.

Starting in February 2012, they called attention to leaking pipes, exposed structural beams and floors that were, in some places, "slanted so badly that people were falling down," according to Department of Building Inspection records.

But the response by the property manager, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic - a nonprofit that receives city funding - was anything but swift.

In June 2012, the Department of Building Inspection issued the first in a series of code violations to the All Star Hotel for the pipes, beams and other issues. About three months later, the city held a hearing to assess why the problems persisted.

Two months after that, the city leveled a more serious order of abatement, which leaves a permanent blemish on the owner's record, said James Li, an acting senior building inspector.

But it took until Aug. 20, 2013 - nearly a full year later - for the owners to obtain permits to begin repairs. They were given a year to show the fixes were complete.

Officials at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic did not respond to requests for comment. But at the All Star Hotel this week, property manager Jordan San Pedro said all of the violations had been addressed.

"Everything's been taken care of by building maintenance," he said.

But Eldon Brown, a resident of the hotel for the past eight years and one of those who originally complained, said more needs to be done.

"They really need to get a civil engineer in here. You can see how bad it is," he said, gesturing down a hallway with bowed floors and visibly slanted walls.

Jesse O'Guin, who has lived at the All Star for five years, said management had fixed a lot of the long-standing problems - but only after getting in trouble with the city.

"They basically just wait until they're ordered to do it," he said. "For people like me who don't think outside the box, it can be hard to get things addressed."

At least one problem apparently remains. In Golden Gate Glass and Mirror Co., a business on the ground floor of the hotel building, sheetrock has fallen away from a large hole in the ceiling due to a leak from the hotel above, leaving beams and pipes exposed.

Margie Puent, who owns the glass shop, didn't seem overly concerned.

"Sometimes there'll be some debris on the trucks" that pull into the shop, she said. "But they're good about coming down to fix it when it happens."

If the hotel doesn't prove it has addressed all of the violations by August, the Department of Building Inspection can renew its permit for another year - or take legal action against the owner, something inspector Li said the city tries to avoid.

"We don't like to go to court," he said. "But we're not afraid to do it."

What's not working Issue: Residents of the All Star Hotel, a single-room occupancy hotel in San Francisco's Mission District, say management at the nonprofit Tenderloin Housing Clinic has failed to fix some reported problems and has been slow to repair others. What's been done: The city ordered improvements, which must be completed by August and approved by the city. A property manager said all fixes had been made, but some residents disagreed.