Thomas Paine Square Apartments captured on April 30, 2025. Photo by Xueer Lu.

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood announced Tuesday that the Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing this fall about the Thomas Paine Square Apartments, a low-income housing complex in the Fillmore owned by the historically Black church Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The 98-unit complex, bounded by Golden Gate Avenue, Turk Street, Laguna Street and Webster Street, is run day-to-day by Domus Management, a Lodi-based firm in Central Valley.

The hearing is a result of multiple meetings tenants had with Mahmood over the past year, raising concerns over dangerous housing conditions, violent incidents and harassment, alleged security failures and alleged misconduct by management, Mahmood said.

“After meeting with tenants and hearing first-hand accounts of ongoing safety concerns and a lack of response from property management,” Mahmood said. “It’s clear there are accountability questions that need answers.”

The hearing will also look into Martin Luther King-Marcus Garvey Square Cooperative Apartments, an affordable-housing complex in the Fillmore that is also managed by Domus. The co-op reportedly issued mass eviction notices to 16 Black residents due to alleged back rent.

Mahmood intends to seek testimony from Domus Management, leadership from Bethel AME Church and the MLK Garvey co-op board, relevant city departments, tenants and their advocates and legal service providers.

Mahmood noted that if necessary, the Board’s Government Accountability and Oversight Committee, where the hearing will be held, will “consider using its subpoena authority to ensure key stakeholders participate.”

“We are exploring a hearing to better understand what is happening and ensure residents’ concerns are addressed,” Mahmood said.

Since the complex is privately owned, HUD-subsidized housing, said Anne Stanley, the communications manager of the San Francisco mayor’s office of housing and community development, “the city’s authority is limited.”

“A Board hearing can gather testimony, request information, surface concerns, and help identify gaps in oversight,” Stanley continued. “But it does not give the City authority over the property.”

Mahmood, for his part, said the hearing is about “accountability and solutions.”

“Even where the city’s authority may be limited,” Mahmood said. “We have a responsibility to elevate residents’ experiences, examine gaps in oversight, and identify legislative opportunities that can better protect tenants and affordable housing communities across San Francisco.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood listening to Thomas Paine tenants telling their stories in front of the Board of Supervisors on April 22, 2025. Photo by Xueer Lu.

The City Attorney’s Office confirmed that the office is still looking into Thomas Paine Apartments, but declined to comment on what measures it might take.

“It’s still on the radar,” said Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the office. “But we don’t have any updates to share at the moment.”

Anthony Sandoval, president of Domus Management, said he has “no comments regarding Supervisor Mahmood’s hearing on Thomas Paine.”

Bobby Sisk, the steward of the church, the board chair and president of the church-run nonprofit that owns the complex, did not respond to a request for comment regarding the hearing. Sisk is also the owner of W.S.B. & Associates, Inc., a security company that is contracted at Thomas Paine.

To many residents, whose detailed complaints have gone public through media reports from Mission Local and The San Francisco Standard over the past year, just getting a hearing feels like a win.

“This is the most we’ve ever gotten out of a District 5 supervisor for us. It’s really surprising,” said Jesica Salinas, a single mother living at the complex with her two sons. “It feels like he cares about us, like he cares about his job… And I feel there’s hope because of it.”

Media attention resulted in little change

For many residents, media coverage of conditions at Thomas Paine has yet to result in any substantial changes.

After Mission Local published the initial story detailing residents’ complaints on Thomas Paine in May 2025, Salinas said, Domus Management began to send her repeated notices that Domus workers needed to access her apartment for repairs.

These appointments, which happened about three times a week, Salinas said, were mostly no-shows. Still, she had to take time off work just to be in her unit in case the maintenance happened. To this day, Salinas said, the mold and water damage in her unit, which she said aggravates her younger son’s asthma, remains unrepaired.

The notices — and lack of repairs — made Salinas feel she was being targeted for speaking to the media. “For me, it’s stress. It’s anxiety. Depression,” Salinas said. “It’s not a fun thing to live here.”

Sandoval, Domus’ president, said he was unaware of such notices being posted. “Domus would only post if there was an emergency or a scheduled inspection by HUD or a Lender.”

Anona Lee, a 30-year resident and co-chair of the Thomas Paine tenants association who also spoke to the press, said that her unit was also awaiting repairs.

“They need to be investigated because they are messing up people’s lives,” Lee said. “We’re low-income people. It’s already hard enough to pay our rent.”

Xueer works on data and covers the Excelsior. She joined Mission Local as part the inaugural cohort of the California Local News Fellowship in 2023.

Xueer is a bilingual journalist fluent in Mandarin. She graduated from UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism with a Master's Degree. In her downtime, she enjoys cooking and scuba diving.

You can reach her securely on Signal @xueerlu.77.

There are buildings run by well-intentioned nonprofits in similar condition elsewhere in SF, such as in the Tenderloin. I am surprised the reporter did not address the role of the Department of Building Inspection in all of this. Shouldn’t DBI issue citations for these kinds of conditions? For some reason, they have staff issuing graffiti citations but they don’t do so when the building condition actually threatens the health and safety of the tenants? I have often wondered if the reason these kinds of violations are not addressed by DBI is because they are so severe that everyone involved is worried that the building would have to be declared uninhabitable and vacated. Maybe DBI could be asked to address this at the hearing?

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Under such persistent circumstances of neglect and unwillingness to engage on the part of both the property owner and the property management company, the best solution would perhaps be to get all the tenants out of this property and into better housing situations with more control by the city. San Francisco needs more affordable housing! Perhaps all tenants here should be added to the mayor’s office of housing lottery listings so they can be moved into new and safe affordable apartments.

Don’t even have to read. Time to stop giving these people money to not provide

Good luck. Mahmood used to live in the same building as I do. This beautiful new building does have issues with illegal acts on the block. But the block was safe enough for him to win the District 5 election but not safe enough to help improve the block as an elected official. Hm.