Six households at 2055 Powell Street in North Beach are fighting to stay in apartments some have called home for decades, after a group of new owners invoked California’s Ellis Act to clear the rent-controlled building. Official filings show six eviction notices under Rent Board case numbers M252015 through M252020 were submitted for the building on November 3, 2025, setting off a legal battle that is now playing out in San Francisco courts.
Among the tenants is Yok Lin Chui, who immigrated from Hong Kong in 1971 and has lived in the Powell Street building for more than 50 years. As reported by NBC Bay Area, Chui said she does not know where she would go if forced to move, and that she does not even know how to take a taxi to get around. She hopes to find housing assistance from the city, but for now remains one of six households refusing to leave quietly.
Also fighting eviction is Bernard Dethiers, a tenant in the building for more than 30 years who serves as president of the San Francisco Taxi Coalition, a local advocacy group representing taxicab medallion holders and drivers before city transportation authorities. Dethiers refused an offer to buy into the tenancy in common that now owns the building, and he told the outlet that the tenants are fighting for other rent-controlled tenants across San Francisco. He added that he believes the Ellis Act is legal but immoral.
A Childhood Home Now at Risk
Meagan Cunningham moved into the building as a child in 1987 and now lives there with her adult son, Max. A voice-over artist by trade, Cunningham said losing the apartment could end her North Beach life — and perhaps her San Francisco life altogether, according to the same report. She said two of the new owners had previously rented units in the building themselves…