Neighbors of a “nuisance” home where alleged serial stalker Bill Gene Hobbs once hung out say the tenants have made their lives hell.
The weathered Victorian on Blake Street in the sleepy Richmond District has been home to a number of residents who have allegedly harassed neighbors for years—recently threatening a handyman with a baseball bat, neighbors say.
Those living near the house told The Standard they are often met with aggressive behavior from the tenants and hear screaming throughout the night from the home.
“There’s all these cars illegally parked on the street, and lots of men and women—sometimes topless [women]—getting out,” one neighbor who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation said. Several Blake Street residents spoke with The Standard on the condition of anonymity about the problematic home.
The fixer-upper sold Friday to a “San Francisco-based investor with experience in dealing with inspection and rent-control issues,” according to listing agent Alex Lehr.
The home had been listed for more than three months, and the sale price dropped from $1.6 million to $895,000 in that time.
“The tenants will have to straighten out or get out,” Lehr said.
“Thank God," a neighbor reacting to the news said. "But they’ll have to deal with the tenants.”
‘It taints the whole neighborhood’
“This is a nice neighborhood; people around this place are nice. The only problem we have is the house. It taints the whole neighborhood,” another Blake Street resident said.
A local property manager who asked not to be named said he was threatened with a baseball bat by one of the home’s residents on Jan. 9.
“I was walking by, and everyone was standing outside, so I was like, ‘Oh, something’s going on.’ I thought maybe the house had finally been sold, like there was a showing, and I was like ‘Oh, are they finally gonna get those people out of there?’ and then one of the guys was like ‘What do you mean you people?!’ and he was walking towards me with this baseball bat,” the property manager said, who manages a home near the problem Victorian.
A neighbor down the block confirmed they saw the incident, saying, “One of the people living there [at the Victorian] was threatening him with a metal baseball bat.”
Videos taken by a resident and reviewed by The Standard shows a woman in a pink wig, yelling and running down the street after leaving the house.
Multiple neighbors said they hear the woman screaming most nights, along with other people yelling, often with the same name being called out.
“We call her the ‘Norman’ lady,” said one neighbor, referring to the name that the woman yells. “That house, it’s kind of a nuisance.”
City data shows there were 81 complaints of cars parked near the house in 2022 and 20 complaints of cars blocking driveways during that time, a stark difference from other streets nearby.
Photos and video taken by neighbors show cars double- or even triple-parked as people gather in front of the home, sometimes as late as 2:30 a.m., and that parked cars would block their garage every other night.
Bill Gene Hobbs
Residents living next door to the Victorian told The Standard they lived with alleged serial stalker Bill Gene Hobbs for several months leading up to his October arrest. They said that Hobbs would regularly visit the yellow Victorian.
Documents and video reviewed by The Standard confirm that Hobbs once lived with the residents next door.
“I would see him interact with people there, but I didn’t see what he did inside the house,” a former roommate of Hobbs said.
Hobb’s former roommates said that he was interesting to live with—he liked to watch action movies while sitting on the couch eating cornflakes, often making comments about the movie to himself. Hobbs worked for a time as a referee at Volo Sports, ate a vegan diet and played lots of Grand Theft Auto, his former roommate said.
“I think he thinks he’s like a character in GTA, that he can steal cars, and talk to women on the streets, and jump from house to house, and just live like that,” the resident said.
Hobbs even once pitched a former roommate, who was an independent filmmaker, on making a movie about himself, according to a former roommate.
Hobbs was arrested in October over allegations that he stalked and groped multiple women. He faces misdemeanor public nuisance, battery and assault charges, as well as felony count of false imprisonment in San Francisco, after he allegedly hugged a woman and carried her for 15 feet while she screamed for him to release her.
Finally Sold
The home’s former owner was the Roy C. Lee Revocable Living Trust, and a death certificate filed with San Francisco County shows that Lee died in July 2022. Ownership of the Blake Street home passed to Lisa Lee.
Lee was contacted for comment regarding allegations of the tenants’ behavior and the home’s sale last week.
Listing agent Lehr said that despite a lowered price, the new owner will have their work cut out for them, as the home will require significant work before it is of a livable standard.
Editor's Note: The name of a Blake Street resident previously included in this story was removed to protect them from possible retribution.