San Francisco, known for its big booming tech industry and outrageous costs of living and the self absorption necessary to achieve those things, is also home to the other side of that coin—the impoverished and selfless. In a place where a two-bedroom apartment is going for around $5,000, it’s hard to be anything less than wealthy. Forget about being two nuns living on their small pastry business, who feed the homeless three times a week from their soup kitchen.
The nuns are in danger of becoming as homeless as the downtrodden folks they help — the landlord is evicting them. He raised their rent by more than 50 percent, they can't afford it, and the lawyers are fighting it out.
It looks like the nuns have about one month to hit the bricks. And practically everyone whose lives they have touched is incensed, from the hungry homeless to those who run other nonprofits.
It does not look good for the sisters but they do have a lawyer, working for them pro bono.
The sisters’ lawyer, Daniel Fitzpatrick, said owner Nick Patel wants to evict them because there is new development proposed in the area and there is money to be made. He is fighting the eviction, pro bono, on the grounds that the soup kitchen is also the nuns’ residence because they sleep in the back.
Fitzpatrick said the rent was raised from $3,465 to $5,500 a month as of Jan. 15, and he advised them to fight it. As it is now, he said, the nuns can barely meet the lower rent by selling their pastries.
Jesus Christ! San Francisco.