South San Francisco live-aboard boatowners battling marina eviction order

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO -- Live aboard boat owners, who are facing eviction from the Oyster Cove Marina next month, came before the city council Wednesday night to plea for a delay in the move out order.

Matt Klein, a marina resident who has lived there for 17 years, said officials have decided to send them adrift without any dialogue with the boat owners.  

"We want to remind them what we're facing, what's been done to us and the fact that there's been no dialogue," Klein told KPIX. "People are just pressed too much right now."

Klein knows the city council is limited in their authority because the marina is private property. City leaders said Wednesday they have talked to the marina owner and they're working on more accommodations for the residents.

He says any effort made by residents like him has failed to get a response from the owner. 

Lucia Lachmayr has been a part-time resident at the marina who has lived there 11 years.

 "It's painful and that's one of the reasons I want to fight for them," Lachmayr told KPIX.

Lachmayr has another place to stay when she is forced to move her boat out, but she worries for others who rely on the marina as a permanent home.

She says they do not have the resources to make upgrades to their boats and find a new marina willing to take them as live-in residents. 

"It's really dangerous, it's really bad for the environment and it's really unsafe for these folks," she told KPIX 5, explaining some residents will try to anchor out their boats in the Bay and live on the water at all times. "As elders, somebody's going to get badly hurt."

In addition to speaking at the council meeting on Wednesday, the residents at the marina plan to appeal their case to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

The BCDC is considering an option to assist 33 residents move to another nearby marina for up to a year. But after their temporary stay, the boat owners would need to find a new home, which may be on land. 

"They know each other, they rely on each other, and you know whatever happens, there's not going to be an Oyster Cove Marina so their lives are going to be upended for a period of time," said South San Francisco Councilmember Mark Addiego, who is also a commissioner on the BCDC. "But hopefully we can get them accommodations where they will feel well taken care of."

Addiego told KPIX 5 before Wednesday's meeting that he hopes the temporary move to another marina will help give the residents the time they need to find affordable housing in the city off their boats.

He knows there are waitlists but says the city might be able to help them with the process. 

Addeigo said the developer has been tone deaf on this issue, not acknowledging that the marina has become a neighborhood and community for these boat owners. 

"I see these people, I know and care about, hurting," Lachmayr said. 

The residents want the BCDC to increase the limit on the percentage of boats that can be docked with full-time residents in Bay Area marinas. They say the current cap of 10 percent will make it difficult for all of them to find new places to move their boats.

Addeigo said it would take months for the Commission to make that kind of policy change and these residents may not be able to wait that long. 

"It's not kind, it's not fair, and it's not humane and I find it reprehensible frankly," Lachmayr said about the process. 

KPIX 5 reached out to two companies the residents said they had heard from about possible evictions this summer and neither responded back by Wednesday night. 

Earlier this year, Kilroy Realty did tell KPIX 5 that it is was working with the boat owners to make the transition easier, giving them four months' notice and waiving rental fees. 

Residents say they would have needed at least two years to save up for this move and believe they should have received more money from the company to compensate them for the cost to find a new home. The company has said previously, it is re-evaluating the use of the property where the marina sits. 

"Anyone in the Bay Area can tell you this, we pay exponential rents," Klein said. "There are a lot of people who are in a real housing crisis now, we're some of them."