What was supposed to be a celebration for a nonprofit that provides affordable mental health care to hundreds of LGBTQIA+ clients from its clinic in the Castro became a plea for help as it fends off displacement.
San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safaí planned to honor Queer LifeSpace on Saturday by presenting a certificate for its 13 years of service and internationally recognized training for queer-affirming therapists.
But the clinic’s executive director, Ryan MacCarrigan, turned the ceremony into a rally against displacement because he said the landlord has been shaking him down for “dubious fees and penalties” that are setting him up for a “sudden and unjust eviction.”
The property managers even started showing the clinic space to other prospective tenants, MacCarrigan alleged, “in a highly unethical breach of the active lease agreement.”
“We think that the landlord is committing fraud and making unlawful claims that we owe money we do not owe,” he told The Standard ahead of the midday event, which drew a few-dozen supporters. “They’ve shown us the numbers, but no justification for the numbers. So we said, ‘Hell, no. This is ridiculous.’ And in response to that, they threatened us.”
