This is one of the 'master lease' contracts that Randy Shaw pioneered in which his company, tenderloin Housing Clinic, 'master leases' a Single Room Occupancy hotel (SRO) from the owner and assumes almost all responsibility and effectively becomes the new landlord. This contract is usually not public as it is a private agreement between Tenderloin Housing Clinic and a private landlord and is separate from the San Francisco mayors Office of Housing Contract with Tenderloin Housing Clinic to provide services for formerly homeless people
This contract is public because it is included in a lawsuit in which a tenant sued 909 Geary, the Hartland Hotel because of noise nuisance from a bar housed in the building. It was then discovered that 909 Geary, the owner, is not responsible for the other tenants and that Tenderloin Housing Clinic is responsible because of this contract
This kind of 'master lease' contract is not very common and has caused initial confusion with attorneys and the press. The latest example being the San Francisco Chronicle which ran a story on the All Star Hotel and was then threatened with a lawsuit by Randy Shaw which resulted in a correction in the Chronicle
While it is true that the Department of Building Inspection only has the owner of the building in it's records on file, the fact of the matter is that Tenderloin Housing Clinic is responsible for nearly all of the maintenance of the building except for 'major structural repair or repairs that cost over 10,000 dollars' because of this master lease contract
The contract is very clear about what the responsibilities of Tenderloin Housing Clinic are and spells out that THC is in fact responsible for 99% of the complaints that arrive at DBI. DBI doesn't know this because all they have is the owners name on file. But even if the owner gets the complaint, the owner just passes it to THC because of this contract
Tenderloin Housing Clinic even goes so far as to rehabilitate rooms, by installing new tiles and repainting, tearing out carpets and installing new tiling in public areas, all paid for with city funds. THC has even installed entire community kitchens in the buildings, paid for with city funds, so that there is significant capital improvements to the privately owned buildings done with public money. This means that if the contracts ever get cancelled, the private owner has just walked away with free capital improvements to his building paid for with your tax dollars
And now for the first time in public, here is one of the 'master lease' contracts between Tenderloin Housing Clinic and the owner of 909 Geary. The actual contract starts on page 15
Tenderloin.housing.clinic.master.lease.indemnity by Jeff Webb