A 70-year-old woman who has enjoyed the same rent-controlled Mission apartment for four decades is now facing some newly aggressive tactics from a landlord who wants her out. As CBS 5 is reporting, Sylvia Smith has lived at 1135 Guerrero Street under three previous landlords, but the current one, Anne Kihagi-Swain, seems intent on clearing the place of its current tenants however she can.
Kihagi-Swain's eviction tactics have been the subject of protest for some months now, and as Smith says, she's not alone in being a target.
In Smith's case, though, Kihagi-Swain is alleging that Smith has been "buying drugs for neighbors, and buying marijuana for all [the] neighbors in the building." Kihagi-Swain has also allegedly been stopping mail delivery, cutting internet cables, and other shadiness.
Kihagi-Swain's lawyers are calling the tenants all "troublemakers," and saying that she is simply executing her rights as a landlord. She owns nine or ten buildings around San Francisco, and according to this Facebook post from the Tenants' Union, she employs "infamous eviction lawyer Karen Uchiyama" and has made a widespread practice of harassing and attempting to evict tenants in all of her buildings.
And it looks like Kihagi-Swain is no stranger to the courts when it comes to her investment properties. She was the defendant in a 2004 lawsuit brought by her (probably ex-) husband alleging some kind of shady dealings with regard to several rental properties they owned jointly in Los Angeles. The final judgement was for the plaintiff, her ex.
Related: 98-Year-Old Woman Still Fighting Eviction From Her Home Of 50 Years [Update]