Eugene Burger Management Corporation (EBMC) is mismanaging the Potrero Annex-Terrace and Sunnydale housing complexes, according to a San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) report.
Located around 26th and Connecticut streets, the Annex-Terrace complex encompasses roughly 600 housing units with nearly 1,300 residents, 43 percent of whom are Black. Mostly consisting of standalone three-story rectangular structures stacked on hillsides, buildings are beset with broken elevators, plagued by cockroaches and rodents, with poorly maintained plumbing.
In January, EBMC failed all SFHA’s requirements, including reducing threats to residents’ life or safety within 24 hours, delivering monthly performance reports, collecting rents and managing delinquencies, and charging leases with no more than five percent errors. Similarly, EBMC didn’t meet Section 8 Housing Quality Standards, which consist of such metrics as functioning windows and working appliances, though it achieved the criteria in February.
According to SFHA, EBMC failed to classify work orders related to “life-threatening conditions,” such as plumbing and sanitation defects that expose occupants to risks of illness or injury. By not categorizing conditions as life-threatening and thus emergencies, EBMC circumvented the 24-hour response time required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
It took an average of 39.5 days for EBMC to respond to nonemergency work orders. That reflects residents’ experiences, according to Mission Local. One tenant, who has lived in Annex-Terrace for 11 years and asked to remain nameless, said that it took two months for her broken toilet to be fixed.
EBMC failed to remove abandoned vehicles or cut back overgrown vegetation, exacerbating poor conditions at Potrero Annex-Terrace and Sunnydale.
Maria, an Annex-Terrace resident since 1999, told Mission Local that when she complained about mice to EBMC she was told not to worry, as mice weren’t dangerous.
“Mice don’t bite,” she said an EBMC employee told her.
Other dangerous events have occurred this year at Annex-Terrace. In late January, a fire broke out at 706 Missouri Number Three Turner Terrace that ended with one adult dying after succumbing to injuries, according to SFist. Less than a week later, on the same block, a 44-year-old Dublin man was killed by gunfire and a barrage of bullets hit nearby homes and vehicles. The San Francisco Police Department said a shootout occurred with multiple guns.
“Officers arrived to find casings, blood, multiple vehicles and residences hit,” Tweeted Deputy Chief of Investigations Raj Vaswani.
SFHA was previously responsible for the public housing complex. However, in September 2022 it relinquished all management to EBMC, which collects at least $200,000 annually in fees, and likely additional revenues associated with repairs and maintenance. The Housing Authority touts itself as a “high-performing contract management and performance monitoring organization,” according to its website.
While declining to comment on EBMC’s scorecard, the Housing Authority told Mission Local, “The management, inclusive of maintenance, is the responsibility of [Eugene Burger]. The Authority is no longer the employer; as a result, no information about credentials of their employees are available to us.”
SFHA and EBMC declined multiple requests from the View for comment.
