Personal Stories

I was hired in the summer of 1990 to take over a struggling campus childcare program. With the support of parents and staff, I created an inspiring, developmentally appropriate curriculum that lead to full enrollment and National Association for the Education of Young Children accreditation. Word of mouth resulted in a substantial Wait List, and I was then asked to help design the current state-of-the-art facility that serves 100 children on a daily basis between the ages of 6 months to 5 years. To maintain high-quality programing and ensure that low-income, undergraduate student parents received enrollment priority, I wrote several successful local, state and federal grants in excess of $7M. I also spearheaded a task force to create a new BA degree in Child Development for SFSU students seeking a career in early care and education and taught courses for the Elementary Education and Child and Adolescent Development Departments.

I loved my career as the AS Early Childhood Education Center Director. I also enjoyed living near campus in a University Park North apartment and walking to work. When I retired in January 2016 with over 26 years of service, imagine my surprise to find a 60-day eviction notice in my mailbox! Continued employment was never mentioned as a condition of my rental agreement nor was the point that University Housing does not adhere to the San Francisco Rent Control ordinance. Suddenly, a retired senior citizen is expected to vacate her home. I can’t afford renting at current market prices not to mention the challenge of finding “affordable” housing.

The rent increase will be another sad chapter in my and my husband's history in San Francisco. I was hired in 2003 and lived in a one bedroom in the Richmond District. We were looking to adopt a child and needed to move to a two-bedroom which we did in 2011.We signed a two-year lease on an apt that we did not know was not rent controlled. Meanwhile, our plans for adoption were put on hold after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. After chemo, and while recovering, our landlord contacted us at the start of 2015 about a rent increase. He had done that the year before and we agreed to go from 1900 to 2100 a month. We had expected the same and we proposed 2300 a month. However, he laughed at our offer and asked us to look at what 2-bedrooms in SF were going for. We looked on Craigslist and were horrified to see similar apartments going for 1000 dollars above what we could pay. After asking what he had in mind which was like 800 more a month, we started looking for apartments in our price range, 2000-2200.

Needless to say there were no two-bedrooms in our range, so our adoption plans have been put on indefinite hold. My husband is a freelance writer and part-time language teacher in a school downtown. Moving out of the city where he would have to travel more than one hour by car or by Bart will not make any sense as it would cut into his income substantially. So we decided to stay in the city and downsize to a one bedroom. That is how we found our 1 bedroom on Buckingham Way in University Park North. Both times, when we went to get information and to sign the lease I know we told the housing agent our story about not living in a rent controlled apartment. This would have been the time for her to disclose that University Housing was also not rent controlled. Instead she said we shouldn't worry the rent increases were reasonable and not unlike SF rent controlled housing. Unlike our previous landlord who withheld this vital information to serve his own interests I don't think the agent at University Housing was hiding information but unaware of the fact the University would actually act in such a deceptive, fraudulent manner and one day increase the rent by 5% a year for several years in row. We are beyond shocked that the university would treat their faculty in this way and chalk it up to business ethics.

The university is a non-profit entity, whose only interest should be education. Instead, it seems that a corporate mentality has taken over and students as well as faculty are being treated like profit making sources. I know if I am forced to leave this apartment and move 1.5-2 hours away from SF I will not be as available to my students and my own professional work will be impacted in negative ways. SFSU, through their new housing policy and rent increase, has not kept its promise to support its faculty in their teaching duties, which also means it has broken its promise to students to give them a quality education. If I could I would leave SFSU and move to a more affordable city and work for an employer that respects and puts teaching ahead of all other matters. No matter what it tells the city and the state, this is not SFSU's mission any longer.

Finally, SFSU knows that it is not possible for faculty to easily move. Apartments in SF are out of our price range and teaching positions for associate level professors are not easy to find. Knowing this situation makes their actions even more malicious, as we are basically being held hostage here with no real recourse than to pay up or have our quality of life severely impacted by a long commute.

I have been living in UPN for a few years. When I first moved in with my spouse and our child, I felt that the rates were low enough that if I lived in a 1-bedroom here for 5-6 years, I could probably save enough money to be able to buy a 2-bedroom condo somewhere commutable to my job at SFSU, which felt like it could provide some long-term financial security in a frighteningly volatile housing market. Other tenants at UPN assured me that although the monthly rate I was paying was substantially higher than nearly everyone else in the building (b/c I was one of the most recent to move in), SFSU only ever raised rents by 1-2% each year, so I should be able to expect some stability in rents. I felt like University Housing was a way that SFSU was trying to look out for and retain me as a faculty member, and that made it possible for me to overlook the fact that my apartment has at times been infested with roaches and mold, is covered with chipping paint, and that UP management provides shoddy, delayed maintenance.

When the 5%/year rent increases were announced, it was the straw that broke the camel's back for my family. It made me realize that living in the Bay Area long-term would always be a huge financial struggle and worry. I pay 45% of my after-tax income on rent; my faculty-subsidized daycare costs have gone up 5% this year; and then they announced the 5%/year increases (in the face of housing costs across the Bay Area that continue to climb, becoming more and more unattainable for families like mine); through these things and others, it's become clear to me that SFSU's Administration is not invested in retaining faculty members. As a direct result of these pressures, the month that the 5% increases were announced, I reluctantly went back on the tenure-track job market to try to leave SFSU. I love my job at SFSU and I don't want to leave, but it feels like searching for a job elsewhere is the only way to provide long-term stability for my family.

My partner and I moved into SF State housing in 2008. My partner is an associate professor at SF State. For six years, we made numerous maintenance requests to check on our heater that was not working properly. We had to wear jackets and hats to keep warm. Each time the maintenance visited they would state yes there is not a lot of heat being pushed out of the vents but the heater is working. In 2014, a maintenance worker stopped by to replace our heater filter and he discovered that the heater was indeed not working properly because the fan was not rotating which was why the heat was not being pushed through the ventilation within the unit. Another fan was then installed and at last, we had proper heating.

In the summer of 2017, there were rumors circulating amongst neighbors that the rent was going up 5% and on July 1, our rent did go up by 5%. I called the university asking why our rent went up and no one had answers. Only in September I received an email with an explanation. This was the first time that we had heard that the university was not under SF Rent Control’s jurisdiction. We were shocked and surprised to find this out because for the last nine years the rent increase did align with SF Rent Controls. If we had known that the university was not obligated to follow SF Rent control we would not have moved into the university housing and would not have tolerated such a low level of maintenance.

Now that we know that SF State has an uncapped rent increase power and we are faced with the other exorbitant bay area rental rates we are very distraught about our future housing situation at SF State. What we want is to be under SF Rent control and to achieve this we will need to move out of the SF State housing because we will be facing eviction because in time we will not be able to afford to live in SF State housing on a SF State professor’s salary.

In terms of convenience of location and reasonable rent (relative to the city), the housing at SFSU played a major role in enticing me to the university 12 years ago from a far cheaper city. I had always been led to believe that we had rent control like the rest of the city—had I known that this was basically a deception, I would either not have moved here or I would have moved out of university housing at the earliest opportunity in order to gain rent control. A 34% increase in rent would mean that my rent will amount to significantly more than half of my net pay for a one bed apartment! My loyalty is being severely tested by this inhumane treatment.

There is absolutely no excuse to raise rent. I have experienced mosquito and rodent infestation at incredible cost, emotional and physical; the mouse problem occurred last year after work was done to supposedly seal apartments in my building. A colleague, retired faculty, was suddenly evicted in apparent contravention of a legacy agreement that had formerly been honored by the university--I was shocked at this treatment. The apartment, like so many, has been turned into multiple-occupancy student accommodation which brings its own problems in terms of living arrangements and wear and tear.

The property is my lifeline in the most expensive city in the USA. It is relatively modest by many people’s standards . . . but I very much appreciate it and it has become my HOME. The rent increase will hit hardest the professors and faculty that are the lifeblood of SFSU and will deter new faculty.

I am full time department staff, entering my 6th year. My gross pay is currently $3431.85 (net $2657.31) per month. I live with one dependent of my own and one other family member who contributes to our monthly rent of $2786.01 for a two bedroom townhouse. After hearing about the 5% rent increase this year, and in consideration of the impending additional increases, the chair of my department specifically requested a 5% raise to my salary at the time of my yearly evaluation. Despite my continually stellar evaluations, I was not granted this raise. The reason given for the denial was lack of available funding in my college. However, the 5% rent increase has not been rescinded. Thus, I am taking a 5% pay cut simply by continuing to live in University Housing.

My grandfather grew up in the Mission District. My great uncle was one of the last living survivors of the 1906 quake. Many of my dead are buried in Colma. I was born on the Peninsula, and was raised mainly by a single parent who did not receive child support, and who waited tables to survive. I lived through the trauma of my other parent committing suicide when I was 13 years old. I have been on my own, working full time, paying rent, since the age of 17. I am the first person in my family to graduate college with a B.A., and am currently completing a graduate degree.

I am grateful that San Francisco State University has lent me the opportunity to experience higher education. In return, I am an efficient, loyal and happy employee. To serve our unique student population is deeply rewarding beyond financial compensation. I value the rich life I have created here. However, if my salary does not keep up with the increase in my rent, I will be forced to consider making a drastic life change simply to survive. As it is, we live paycheck to paycheck. The thought of relocating is extremely stressful. With current housing prices as they are in the Bay Area, I would be compelled to relocate away from my long term community (family, personal and academic). As an independent person, it is deeply horrifying to find myself in this position: unable to fund a move somewhere we might be able to afford. Thinking about relocating my family away from our home makes my stomach go queasy.

Before moving to University Park South, my wife and I lived in a smaller and less expensive apartment in San Francisco. We moved because we were assured the UPS housing was rent controlled. Although significantly higher than our previous rent, and just barely what we thought affordable based on my SFSU income and my wife's freelance income, we thought of the faculty housing as an opportunity for us to have a forever home close to campus, where I can devote myself to building my program in the arts at SFSU and we can start a family. Had we known the university would increase the rent 35%, we would have stayed in our previous apartment and saved almost $40,000 in the past 3 years.

With this rent increase, we will not be able to continue in faculty housing and will be forced to move far away from campus. I will have less time on campus to devote to my students here at SFSU that I care so much about. With increased commute times and an uncertain future, my wife and I will have to have serious conversations about when we can start a family. Our rent is 72% of my take home salary after taxes, and that percentage is only going to increase. We hope that San Francisco State University recommits itself to the community of faculty and students here in University Park, and reverses this rent increase.

• Resident UPN: 5 years
• SFSU Lecturer: 5 years
• Moved from out of state for position
• Single father of son with special needs
• University Housing the ONLY way I can afford to stay in the city and support my son who lives up the hill from my apt
• First unit had black mold and undergoing “mold mitigation”
• Moved me to another unit which was infested with mice for nearly a year until I threatened to call health dept (I have photos if needed)
• University Housing said it was graduate and faculty housing NOW it’s a de facto dorm/frat house (Housing refuses to do anything & RAs ineffective)
• Has made it a hostile work environment with threat of 34% increase
• Unnecessarily peaked my anxiety/stress with feeling threatened about having to move (potentially)
• Head of University Housing says I have no rights as an affiliate.

The 5% annual increase per year means I have less resources available to support my family who depend on me. We received a meager salary increase and the surprise rent increase renders it a salary decrease for us. It means we have diminished ability to pay for market rate on-campus childcare. It means we can’t afford to shop at Trader Joe’s and keep a Costco membership, and we will routinely need to rely on the food bank to stretch our budget and for fresh foods. It means we can’t afford a membership in the Zoo and Academy of Science to participate in the City’s cultural life. Finally, less frequent health and dental appointments for the entire family means more potential vulnerability to illnesses.