Leaving bay area

Currently, Oakland residents are prohibited from evicting tenants over COVID-related rent debt. Similar to other cities, Oakland passed its eviction moratorium in March 2020 to protect tenants from losing their homes if they couldn’t pay rent due to job losses or other economic hardship spurred by the pandemic. Evictions could still occur if the tenant created a health or safety threat at the property or if the landlord was removing the unit from the rental market for at least 10 years.

Oakland is one of many cities in the region under pressure from landlords to put an end to pandemic-era prohibitions on evictions while trying to ensure that lifting them won’t result in a flurry of evictions that could leave some people homeless.

“This proposal will revoke the eviction moratorium in phases in order to help avoid a surge of evictions leading to an increase in homelessness, and allowing property owners to proceed with urgent evictions,” Bas wrote in a press release.

San Francisco approved a similar plan this month to wind down its eviction moratorium and Berkeley extended its moratorium until the end of August. Alameda County will end its eviction moratorium at the end of April.

Oakland’s ordinance will establish a timeline for how to end the protections. Starting on May 1, landlords can evict tenants for nonpayment of rent if they cannot show proof of COVID hardship. After Sept. 1, the moratorium will be fully lifted. After July 1, 2024, the moratorium on rent increases will be lifted.

Bas and Kalb’s proposed ordinance also includes a number of new protections for tenants. If tenants are unable to pay rent prior to Sept. 1 due to financial hardship caused by the pandemic, they will have access to a lawyer.

In addition, a tenant cannot be evicted for owing less than one month of fair market rent, Bas and Kalb said in a press release.

The City Council is expected to vote on the legislation on April 18.

Reach Sarah Ravani: [email protected]; Twitter: @SarRavani

But a break may just be what the doctor ordered. Tuesday’s historic storm left a trail of wind damage and flooding across the Golden State, along with unusual phenomena that included two-eyed landfalls in the Bay Area and Central Coast and tornado warnings in Southern California. This severe weather left the atmosphere over California with little energy, so Thursday’s showers will likely fizzle before they cross the Oregon-California border.

Still, some moisture might survive long enough to pull light rain to the Bay Area. The North American weather model depicts a chance for some showers to flow into the Marin Headlands and Santa Cruz Mountains by Friday afternoon, carried by northwest winds that will crank up after 3 p.m. and reel in moisture to most of the coastline.

Light showers may begin after 5 p.m. Thursday while drizzles and mist will be rampant along the coast, San Francisco Bay and most hillsides in the Bay Area. Chances for rain will range between 15% to 30%, with the lowest chances in the Bay Area’s inland valleys.

All in all, Friday will be a day with intermittent sunshine and a chance for spotty showers.

Thursday breakdown

San Francisco: A mix of clouds and sunshine is on tap today as moisture from a distant low-pressure system over the Pacific Ocean rolls in. Winds will blow from the northwest and raise 15- to 25-mph gusts. Winds will also gust to 20 mph east of Sutro Tower. Residents along Twin Peaks, Bernal Heights and Mount Davidson can expect brief drizzles this afternoon and evening.

Look for daytime highs in the lower 50s in the Sunset and Richmond districts and most bayside neighborhoods like the Embarcadero and Hunter’s Point. Daytime temperatures in downtown, SoMa and most of the Mission will climb to the mid-50s as sunshine peeks through this afternoon. Temperatures and winds will steadily fall tonight, with nighttime lows in the lower to mid-40s.

Pacific Coast and Peninsula: Coastal patches of fog will be possible this morning along Highway 1 between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, along with mist through 11 a.m. Most fog will clear out, but low visibility will remain an issue there and along stretches of the San Bruno Gap this afternoon thanks to overcast skies with intermittent sunshine.

Some clouds will raise a chance for drizzles this afternoon and evening on the hillsides of the 280 corridor between Daly City and Foster City, while the rest of the Peninsula will stay drier and cool. Look for daytime highs in the mid-50s as a cool northwest breeze rolls up to the coast and spreads to all corners of the Peninsula. Nighttime lows will steadily fall to the 40s.

North Bay: Residents in the Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Napa valleys are in for a cold morning with temperatures in the upper 30s. There will be a slight risk for frost in some of the hillsides, along with patches of ice in remote roadways near Guerneville and Healdsburg. As for the inland valleys, look for a quick uptick in temperatures as sunshine filters through and raises daytime temperatures to the lower 60s.

Light northwest winds will trickle into most of Marin and Sonoma counties just after 1 p.m., cooling the coast and raising a slight chance for drizzles. Some of these winds will gust to 25 mph and spread mist in towns along San Pablo Bay and the delta, including Novato, San Rafael, Fairfield and Vacaville. This will help keep daytime highs in the mid-50s near the water.

After sunset, temperatures will drop to the 40s along San Pablo Bay while the inland valleys and highlands can expect colder temperatures in the upper 30s.

East Bay: Light northwest winds will usher in clouds and a chance for drizzles across parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Look for a steady rise in daytime temperatures before some of the breezier winds gusting to 25 mph roll into the I-80 and I-880 corridors this afternoon. Daytime temperatures from Richmond to Hayward will hover in the mid-50s, while the Oakland and Berkeley hills should reach the upper 50s by 3 p.m.

Skies will gradually clear later, but mist and drizzles can’t be ruled out for the foothills of the San Ramon and Livermore valleys. Most residents east of the Caldecott Tunnel, including Walnut Creek, Dublin and Livermore, likely won’t notice this drizzle because it will be so light. Partly cloudy skies will spread out just before sunset and temperatures will generally fall to the 40s by the water and upper 30s in the inland valleys.

South Bay and Santa Cruz: Aside from stray drizzles near the Cupertino hills, Mount Hamilton and the Highway 17 pass near Los Gatos, the weather is slated to be quiet across most of the South Bay and Santa Cruz Mountains. Light northwest winds will raise a few brief 15- to 20-mph gusts in parts of western Santa Clara County, including west San Jose, Mountain View and Saratoga, but most of the region will see light winds.

These winds will also carry clouds toward the South Bay, keeping skies partly cloudy with occasional overcast conditions. A similar trend is on tap for Santa Cruz County. Look for daytime highs in the upper 50s in the Santa Clara Valley and the 101 corridor between Morgan Hill and Gilroy while the mountains and coast will generally stay cooler in the mid-50s. After sunset, temperatures will fall to the upper 30s in the valleys and the 40s closer to San Francisco and Monterey bays.

Reach Gerry Díaz: [email protected]; Twitter: @geravitywave

Five years into Alto’s existence, the answer to that question seems to be yes — so far. The tech company is profitable in all three of its mature markets (Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles) according to CEO Will Coleman — who said it takes 36 months for a market to mature — and successful enough to expand into three additional major markets in the past 18 months, including San Francisco.

But the question of whether Alto can succeed in San Francisco specifically seems to be far more up for debate.

Despite a business model that you’d likely find overwhelming support for in the city — no California county voted more vehemently against Proposition 22 , which allowed Uber and Lyft to keep treating drivers like independent contractors, than San Francisco in 2020 — San Francisco’s slow recovery post-pandemic and onslaught of tech layoffs and real estate vacancies have left the market in neutral when it comes to Alto.

“San Francisco is recovering more slowly than other cities in the country; people are not in the office as frequently; there are fewer people in the city going out at night,” Coleman told SFGATE in a December interview. “We track OpenTable data they made public during the pandemic, and most nights, San Francisco is 60% below pre-pandemic levels. Miami is 6% above.”

And while Alto has 100 drivers in the Bay Area and around 50 leased cars (more on that in a minute), it still offers service only until 11 p.m. at night Sunday through Wednesday (until midnight on Thursday and 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday). According to a recent promotional email from the company that noted it was “banking” on riders’ support, Alto was also a customer of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (Coleman said the company is “ going to be fine ”).

What’s more, it seems it’s likely going to be a long, long while before anyone can reliably use Alto throughout the Bay Area. There’s zero service anywhere from the East Bay, North Bay or South Bay, and despite the company’s proclaiming it offers “service to Silicon Valley,” Palo Alto is the southernmost city you can get service out of . Compare that with a mature market like Los Angeles, where its fleet is closer to 125 cars, covers 975 square miles (compared with just 187 square miles in the Bay Area), and offers service until midnight five nights a week and until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, and San Francisco has a seemingly long way to go.

That isn’t great news for Bay Area riders or drivers.

Let’s start with the drivers. The Dallas-based tech company provides its drivers with newly leased luxury, six-seat, Wi-Fi-equipped SUVs with an “ALTO” decal on each side, meaning two things: You’re never getting a wild-card backseat covered in “Dexter” plastic, and drivers don’t bear many costs associated with driving their own cars (gas, maintenance, wear and tear, crashes) like they do with Uber or Lyft. Longtime ride-hailing service drivers I spoke with during rides over the past several months all said they were making more money driving for Alto, which offers $20 per hour in base pay in the Bay Area, with some shifts paying up to $28.50 per hour (usually during peak periods late night on a Friday or Saturday). A driver-led study of Uber and Lyft drivers from Nov. 1 to Dec. 12, 2021, found they net less than $7 an hour when costs associated with their vehicles are taken into account — a number that Lyft and Uber both refuted.

“We’re paying for our drivers whether you’re in the back seat or no one is in the back seat, so it’s really important to forecast correctly,” Coleman said.

This brings us to the riders. Alto essentially uses a hybrid cab and ride-hailing model — it has a traditional human dispatcher, who helps get the right driver to the right rider, and pairs that with a very familiar consumer-facing mobile app. There’s a $12.95 monthly membership fee, which initially is frankly off-putting but is useful for Alto’s business model; Coleman said knowing how many riders the company has allows it to dynamically put the right number of cars on the road every day. A fully mature market with 150 cars may have only 30 to 40 on the road on a regular Tuesday, whereas Alto will have all 150 on the road for something like Outside Lands or a Warriors game. As the number of members grows, the fleet grows.

“The vast majority of time, our competitors’ markets are oversupplied. Wait times are far too short — unsustainably short — and drivers aren’t earning enough,” Coleman said. “There are too many cars on the road, too many emissions, and it’s ultimately bad for cities.”

Even though Alto markets itself as a luxury service on its website (it has wild member perks from partners like $50 off a flight on the semiprivate JSX or 50% off a Soho House offering), I found that Alto’s prices are oftentimes as cheap as — or cheaper than — Uber or Lyft after several months of using the service. Here’s how a typical trip broke down: A short 1.5-mile ride in SoMa from 4th and King to 5th and Mission was quoted at $12 on Alto, $12.87 for a standard Lyft, and $9.95 for an UberX. Alto tacks on an 18% service charge (an extra $2.16 in this case) and doesn’t have an option for tipping. Lyft has a flat, all-in $3.60 service fee — plus, I usually tip a couple of bucks for a short ride. Uber has a bunch of fees (one of which includes a “Temporary Fuel Surcharge” you likely don’t know you’re paying) — plus, same deal, I usually tip a couple of bucks. The all-in cost of the Alto ends up being $14.16. A Lyft would’ve been $18.47. An Uber would’ve been $14.89.

Over the past few months, I tried to take a bunch of trips of different lengths to see how the prices compare, and the only time there was really any sort of major difference was on extremely long rides (a 26-mile ride down the Peninsula outside Alto’s core coverage area came to a heftier $86.69 — the Lyft would’ve been $57.56 and an Uber $67.14).

“Building supply to match the highest peak is very unprofitable. That’s one thing our competitors struggle with,” Coleman said. “Knowing how many members we have, we know how many vehicles and drivers we need to serve them.”

That variable fleet means you’re going to wait, though. Not by a great magnitude more often than not, but if you’re in a major hurry, a couple of minutes here or there is impossible to ignore. I eventually start calling cars further in advance to offset that delay, which works just fine since they won’t cancel on you and they will wait, but it’s definitely an adjustment — one that Coleman said he’s confident riders can make.

“You’re going to have to wait 10 to 15 minutes for an Alto and six minutes for Uber,” Coleman said. “But we’ll be there consistently. Nobody’s going to cancel because you’re in a place it takes longer to get to. If your meeting runs over, the driver’s not going to leave you. The driver doesn’t care; they’re getting paid regardless. When you call an Alto, you’re not calling someone else’s car. Ten minutes is just not that long, and it’s what’s required to make the model work.”

Will the model hold up in the Bay Area, though? Will the limited (at least for now) coverage map turn people off? Will a more ethical, luxury product paying people properly be enough for Alto to actually stick in the Bay Area?

In December, Coleman said it could depend on whether San Francisco continues to rebound. “We’re cautiously monitoring that situation, and we’ll expand as the city comes back to life,” he said. Reached in March, a spokesperson noted Alto would “like to continue expansion in the Bay Area to include the East Bay over the next year.”

Guess we’re about to find out.

Marty’s Place Affordable Housing Corp. is a rarity in a city plagued by sky-high housing costs: a space dedicated to people who are both low-income and HIV-positive. Two of its current residents, Paul Aguilar, 59, and Michael Rouppet, 54, also share something else — they are among the first generation to age beyond the AIDS epidemic, living with HIV as they approach their senior years.

In the living room stands a tall glass case filled with pictures of previous residents — strong-looking men with pets, in parks, smiling brightly. One notable face is Glenn Burke, the first Major League Baseball player to come out as gay. The Oakland athlete, who spent his four-year sports career with the Dodgers and A’s, died in 1995 of complications from AIDS.

When Aguilar tested positive for HIV in 1988 at the age of 25, he was told he might have five years to live. “Something funny happened on the way to my funeral,” he said. “I didn’t die.”

Like thousands of other people with AIDS, Aguilar was given a new lease on life thanks to the introduction of antiretroviral drugs in the 1990s. The medications drive HIV down to undetectable levels, halting the chance of transmitting it to others and allowing people to live longer, healthier lives.

With his reprieve from HIV’s most devastating consequences, Aguilar has had to learn not only to live with the virus, but also to age with it — while lacking the traditional support system of a spouse or children. Losing family to homophobia and friends to AIDS means that many long-term survivors reach old age without such help.

“I know people who have no biological contacts,” Aguilar said. “Their friends are the family they’ve chosen when they got to San Francisco, then AIDS started killing them off.”

According to the National Institute on Aging , nearly half of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States are over 50, as new drugs and better treatment have extended lives and fewer younger people contract HIV due to preventive antiviral treatments. A 2021 report by the San Francisco Department of Public Health found that in San Francisco, nearly three-quarters of those with HIV are age 50 and above.

While most people feel the physical effects of aging, it may happen sooner to those with HIV, even if their viral loads have been rendered undetectable due to medication. Various studies have linked HIV to heart, kidney and cognitive impairments and have found that older people with the virus tend to have more than one chronic condition. Recently published UCLA research also found evidence of accelerated aging at the DNA level in men with the virus. Researchers and physicians are trying to understand why.

Dr. Meredith Greene, an associate professor of geriatrics and an HIV specialist at UCSF, said tobacco, alcohol and substance use may contribute to the phenomenon, and so may the lifesaving medicine that has made such a drastic difference in people’s lives.

“Sometimes it’s also the effects of antiretroviral drugs,” Greene said. “For example, some of the antiretroviral drugs are known to decrease bone mineral density, which can lead to osteoporosis.”

According to Greene, these conditions, and the early onset of them, can become difficult to manage in a health care system that is still learning how to care for older people with HIV.

“Many people I work with at some point were told they were going to die from AIDS, and many of them find themselves 30 years later wondering, ‘OK, I was not prepared for that,’ ” Greene said. “They didn’t plan for retirement. In fact many people quit their jobs or were on disability, so there’s a lot of unique social and economic things happening there.”

Though all current Marty’s Place residents have experienced homelessness or other hardships, the co-op is not officially classified as public or supportive housing. It’s not operated by the government and receives no state funding, nor does it provide case workers or other services offered in some housing situations.

It’s affordable, but not free: The residents pay anywhere from $800 to $1,500 per month, depending on the size of their rooms, and contribute “sweat equity” to housework and management of the co-operative. They’re welcome to apply for outside rent subsidies.

The co-op is a registered nonprofit, overseen by a five-member board that includes both residents and nonresidents. Chores are divided among residents, who agree to run the house democratically and compassionately, noticing when someone isn’t up to the task. It is funded entirely through private donations.

According to Rouppet — a founding member and the longest tenured resident, as well as president of the board of directors — the social housing model frees Marty’s Place from some of the requirements and responsibilities of supportive housing.

There are bylaws and an application process for new members. Marty’s Place can house a maximum of six people — two other men, Jimmy Strahan and Brian Bourassa currently share the space — and residents can stay as long as they’d like. The corporation is currently reviewing applications for the other two spots.

The approach is similar to that of any intentional community: people with common goals, values or experiences — in this case, living with HIV/AIDS — sharing a home. The co-op is open to people of all genders, backgrounds and ages, which, according to Aguilar, adds to its richness.

Marty’s Place was founded in 1993 by Richard Purcell, a Franciscan friar who moved to San Francisco in 1989 to care for his brother, Marty, who was dying of AIDS.

After Marty died, Richard continued to use the house to care for other low-income people who were diagnosed with AIDS. After Richard Purcell died in 2011, the property was transferred to the San Francisco Community Land Trust and Dolores Street Community Services, a San Francisco nonprofit that serves people with HIV/AIDS, many of them long-term survivors.

The phrase “long-term survivor” is primarily used to describe people who contracted HIV before the availability of antiretroviral drugs.

Aguilar, a fourth-generation San Franciscan, became an adult at the advent of HIV/AIDS — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s first report on the virus came out just two weeks before his 18th birthday.

“In August 1981, my first close friend died, and they haven’t stopped dying since,” Aguilar said.

At 30 years old, after realizing he might not die young, Aguilar went to college and met the man who would become his husband until 2011. A decade later, he ended up homeless for two months during the COVID-19 pandemic and applied to be a resident of Marty’s Place, where he moved in 2021.

While San Francisco’s Plus Housing Program helps HIV-positive people with housing subsidies, the program does not provide assistance for those experiencing homelessness, making Marty’s Place a lifeline for some.

The social, almost familial, environment at the house helps address loneliness, another risk factor among older people that can adversely affect their health. According to the CDC , older adults experience loneliness at higher rates because they are more likely to live alone, have a chronic illness or have lost family and friends. These issues are especially prevalent among HIV-positive people.

“On one side of it is people who are rejected by their social networks and ostracized because of their HIV status,” said Mark Brennan-Ing, director of research and evaluation at the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College in New York. “The other side of it is a perceived stigma and people isolating and withdrawing because they don’t want to deal with the stigma.”

During the recent holiday season, Marty’s Place residents hosted the Harvey Milk Democratic Club’s Holi-gays Party and Meeting.

Dozens of people flooded the home. Snacks and wine bottles covered the countertops while residents filled drinks, made introductions and gave out hugs. Toward the end of the party, Aguilar, wearing a red suit detailed with snowmen, Christmas trees and mistletoe, performed classic Christmas carols as a guest played the piano and sang backup. On Aguilar’s suit was a pin that read “HIV Housing is Health Care.”

“Having a place like Marty’s Place, living with as many as five other guys, you interact with their friends and their friends interact with you and their friends’ friends,” he said. “It becomes a community asset beyond just the residents.”

Aguilar has no plans to leave. “The thought of moving again?” he said. “No, thank you.”

While the four current residents are still able to accomplish day-to-day tasks on their own, they recognize that might not be the case in the coming years.

“There’s a lot of stairs,” Aguilar said. “There’s a lot of stairs to get to the front door, there’s stairs to get to the bedrooms. And now we’re like, ‘Oh, s—!’ because nobody thought about that and we’re getting to that age. So we’re starting to have those conversations now.”

Jeremiah O. Rhodes is a writer with the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He reported this story through a grant from The SCAN Foundation.

Reach Jeremiah O. Rhodes: [email protected]