In 2021, Paul Aguilar found himself homeless for the first time in his life.
The fourth-generation San Franciscan’s fixed Social Security payments — which qualify him for subsidized life-saving HIV treatment — made him “not homeless enough” to receive conventional housing aid but also unable to afford market-rate housing.
So, at 58, he found himself on the steps of Marty’s Place.
Located at 1165 Treat Ave. in the Mission, the century-old Victorian with faded yellow paint and purple steps is home to the city’s only HIV/AIDS sanctuary. Established by a Franciscan priest named Richard Purcell during the height of the AIDS crisis to give his brother Marty and other men a dignified place to die, it now provides affordable cooperative housing for survivors of the disease.
It’s a story that could be out of the pages of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City.” And the dozens of men who have lived at Marty’s Place found family, tolerance, and compassion. “Housing is healthcare,” Aguilar said. “You can’t take your meds if you don’t have a place to keep them.”
However, by the time he needed it, Marty’s Place was under threat.
Property owner Mission Action, a local affordable housing nonprofit formerly known as Dolores Street Community Services, had posted notices on the front door seeking to terminate the co-op arrangement. While Marty’s Place wouldn’t be required to vacate the property, the signs gave Aguilar pause.
“The last thing I need in my life right now is a landlord dispute,” he said. “But something deeper about this place kept calling to me. It’s the community.”
After Purcell’s death in 2011, Marty’s Place was resurrected in its current form in 2015 when Mission Action, through another community organization, agreed to lease the property to residents to operate and maintain on their own. They would come up with their own rules, collect rent, and lease up the house’s six available rooms to whomever they chose. That contract lasts until 2030.
But since 2021, Mission Action has been trying to prematurely terminate the deal, accusing the residents’ group, known as Marty’s Place Affordable Housing Corporation, of missing rent payments and breaching the contract.
The residents, in response, called out the nonprofit for failing to maintain the property and dispute its interpretation of the contract.
The clash culminated in Mission Action suing MPAHC in April to terminate the agreement, calling legal action a “last resort” as the building has not been fully leased for years. Meanwhile, Aguilar and his last remaining housemate, MPAHC founder Michael Rouppet, say it’s a cynical attempt to drain residents of resources and seize control of the property.
This week, the pair held a press conference outside the house calling for an investigation into Mission Action’s financials and demanding the resignation of Executive Director Laura Valdez.
“We are supposedly in a new age of accountability for nonprofits in this city,” Rouppet said. “Where has our rent been going? Why are they using precious resources to go after us with lawyers when we could have been partners all along?”
According to Mission Action’s latest financial report, the nonprofit took in more than $25 million last year and accrued more than $23 million in expenses.
‘Death by a thousand cuts’
Mission Action is pursuing a jury trial to rule on key tenets of the ground lease agreement with MPAHC. The nonprofit says it was gifted the property by Purcell in 2011 to provide shelter, housing, and wraparound services to “homeless indigent individuals living with HIV/AIDS,” and the house was not meant to be permanent housing or a housing co-op.
Furthermore, the plaintiff alleges that MPAHC failed to pay “necessary rent” on time. Since the house hasn’t been fully occupied since before the Covid pandemic, Mission Action also says the shortage of rent income demonstrates mismanagement and cites unnamed residents who left the house because of an “abusive” environment.
Rouppet dismissed that as a misinterpretation of the normal strife that would occur in any shared household.
“All former Marty’s Place residents have left on their own or with a mutually agreed upon move-out arrangement,” he said. “We could fill this place up again, but why would anyone want to go through the process with this [legal] stuff hanging over our heads?”
Additionally, MPAHC believes it owes only rent collected, rather than for the entire property.
Per the contract, the initial monthly rent owed by Marty’s Place was $5,220. That has increased annually in accordance with the city’s affordable housing guidelines. But for each month MPAHC collects less than the total rent due, the amount can be reduced by mutual consent.
MPAHC has struggled to keep pace with court proceedings due to a lack of resources. If it cannot raise funds to have a lawyer represent it at the next scheduled hearing, the court will automatically rule in Mission Action’s favor.
“It’s death by a thousand cuts,” Rouppet said. “It’s hard to find attorneys willing to do pro-bono work when it’s two nonprofits suing each other.”
Marty’s Place is an outlier in the affordable housing landscape. Residents pay, on average, $1,000 a month for a room and share the Victorian’s common spaces. “It’s like a fraternity house but without the house mom,” Rouppet joked. “And it’s not for everybody.”
The house is governed by consensus, with members voting on policies such as quiet hours, drug and alcohol use, pets, and guests. Prospective tenants can be referred only through partner agencies, such as the AIDS Foundation, and must go through an arduous interview process.
In October, Rouppet and Aguilar submitted a proposal to gradually purchase the property from Mission Action in hopes of avoiding litigation. This garnered initial interest from Valdez before she stopped responding to a text message exchange that was reviewed by The Standard.
Soon after, MPAHC was served a notice from the court to continue with proceedings or risk default judgment. “Should the court rule in our favor, the ground lease agreement with MPAHC would be terminated,” Valdez said in a statement. “Residents would continue to be residents at 1165 Treat Avenue but MPAHC would no longer be the property manager.”
For Rouppet and Aguilar, having the agency manage the property is what makes Marty’s Place special, creating a community in an otherwise lonely life as aging HIV survivors with few personal connections remaining, Rouppet explained.
“This is a model that should be replicated, not destroyed,” he said. “How is it that we’re the only ones left?”