John,

Today, neighbors across the district received a new attack mailer from Dean Preston and the Tenants Union that shamelessly distorts our Supervisor Vallie Brown’s housing history, criticizing her purchase with friends of a small apartment building in 1994. We want you to know the facts.

FACT: This was 25 years ago and Vallie’s opponents are trying to distort the record.

In 1994, Vallie and her friends banded together to buy a small apartment building in the Lower Haight, after living communally in SOMA warehouses and getting evicted regularly. 

FACT: Vallie and her young artist friends scraped together a few thousand dollars to buy a small apartment building in the Lower Haight.  

Pooling what little they had and asking generous friends for down-payment loans, Vallie and her friends were able to pool enough money to secure a mortgage on a $275,000 building that was in probate court.

FACT: The building had fallen into disrepair and the tenants refused to pay rent.  

Vallie and her friends bought the building without knowing the whole story inside. The building was in complete disrepair and tenants had not paid rent in years. People came and went from the building, and one unit was being used just for storage. 

FACT: Tenants were asked to stay, but refused because staying would mean paying rent.

The reality is that the rent the tenants were asked to pay was less than market rate or whatever they could afford, but they still declined. This was in the 1990s when the neighborhood was depressed and the typical rent was less than $400 per month.  

FACT: For over 20 years, Vallie took care of the small apartment building and was the last of the original group of friends to leave.

Over the years, through the ups and downs, they shared and rented the building with low-income artists, Section 8 recipients, friends, and nonprofit workers. In 2014, after Vallie’s partner of 16 years died, she finally sold her home of 20 years. As her friends had moved on over the years, Vallie had secured additional loans from the bank to cover their shares, which left her with just enough equity to buy a new home for herself.

FACT: Vallie became a legendary activist and has spent the past 25 years protecting renters, creating new rental housing, and contributing to District 5.

Dean Preston, who lives in a mansion overlooking Alamo Square, uses his inherited wealth to use tenants to attack our neighborhood supervisor who he sees as simply a political opponent, despite her longtime engagement and activism in the neighborhood.

FACT: Vallie has a long history of fighting for tenants. As our Supervisor, Vallie has taken an active and creative approach to protecting renters.

Vallie created Displaced Tenant Preference to help at-risk or displaced renters find new housing and give them higher priority in lotteries for affordable housing, created Neighborhood Preference Policy to give existing local residents priority for new affordable housing in District 5, expanded the City’s program to buy at-risk rent-controlled buildings by $40 million, preventing Ellis Act evictions and permanently preserving affordable, rent-controlled housing, co-sponsored legislation to protect renters being “renovicted,” and is fighting against corporate landlord rent increases and pass-throughs.

Learn more about Vallie’s record fighting for renters and our neighborhoods.

This shameless attack just 24 days before the election isn’t going to stop our momentum. Please help set the record straight by forwarding this email to your friends and neighbors.