The owners of 639 Geary Street issued letters last month to 33 low-income tenants informing them that their rents were going to be raised to market rates after more than 20 years of being rent-controlled units. The city helped subsidize the development back in 1988 with the condition that 20 percent of the units in the building would be kept affordable — an agreement the landlord says expired in April of this year. In truly classy fashion, they wasted no time in informing all 33 of their less fortunate tenants that their rents would be promptly raised beyond their means. City Attorney Dennis Herrera is now stepping in to get a judge to rescind the rent increases until this can get worked out.

Tenants had a deadline of today to either agree to the increases or move out, and that deadline has already been postponed.

SFist notes that in the currently frenzied rental market, market-rate units in this non-descript and sterile apartment tower are starting at $1800 for studios and $2,500 for a sixth-floor one-bedroom. Another one-bedroom unit listing just one floor up says simply, "Please call," meaning the rent is too offensively high to be advertised.

We'll see how this one shakes out.

[Examiner]