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“Jacob” – a senior living with HIV – originally came to ALRP back in 2024 when his landlord first brought an eviction case against him. Initially, the court ruled against Jacob, but his landlord failed to complete the required paperwork for the case to move forward, and it was held at a standstill, leaving Jacob in limbo. Meanwhile, Jacob continued to experience various issues in his unit and in his building at the hands of property management, resulting in extreme stress and anxiety.

Jacob’s landlord subsequently refused to accept his rent payments and began a separate non-payment case against him. That’s when Senior Housing Attorney Kai Shintani and Berkeley Law Public Interest Fellow Cameron Washington stepped in.

Senior Housing Attorney Kai Shintani

Kai discovered that, without informing Jacob, his landlord had illegally terminated Jacob’s housing subsidy several years earlier, in violation of state law and the rules of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Upon further prompting, his landlord attempted to blame Jacob for failing to re-certify his subsidy, claiming that Jacob was on the hook for the market value of his unit.

Obviously, the landlord was wrong. Under threat of a summary judgment, they agreed to a moveout settlement, waiving almost $59,000 in alleged back rent. Kai and Cameron as well as our Director of Social Services Kim Kruse worked closely with Jacob’s medical social worker to secure a new housing subsidy from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

Now, Jacob is relieved that he can finally move out of this stressful environment and will be able to use his new subsidy to find stable housing.