Veritas tenants reached out to the Castro Merchants Association, who hosted December’s Castro tree lighting with major sponsorship from Veritas Investments, conveying their disappointment with the Association’s decision to work with Veritas. Their president sympathized with tenants and asked for people to send emails to their email address to show the rest of their leadership that partnering with Veritas is unacceptable.
Please send an email to info@castromerchants.com
“Dear Castro Merchants Association, my name is __, and I am a SF resident and [frequent shopper in the Castro / long-time Castro resident / etc.]. I was disappointed to see the Castro Merchants accept sponsorship from Veritas for their annual December tree lighting. I am asking the Castro Merchants to take steps to distance themselves from Veritas Investments, SF’s largest corporate landlord whose business practices have priced and forced out many long-time businesses, including along Church St. Please consider writing a statement in support of residential and commercial tenants who are suffering from high rents and rent increases, especially passthrough rent increases. I hope you’ll sincerely consider this request. Thank you!”
Additional talking points:
– Veritas’ business practices push out working people from San Francisco.
– They force customers and employees of the Castro Merchants out of their apartments because of exorbitant rent increases.
– Castro Merchants will not be able to hire people in the future because housing is unaffordable.
– Veritas is taking money from residents in the form of higher rent that they then cannot use their income to support Castro Merchants by purchasing goods and services.