Over a hundred protesters turned out for the Veritas Tenants Association’s march on Veritas HQ last week to shut down Market Street and demand a #VTAContractNow! Veritas’ unfair rent hikes and retaliation against tenant organizers affect every San Franciscan, but especially its working class, aging and disabled populations, and LGBTQIA+, Black, immigrant communities—so we showed Veritas saw that it’s not only the VTA standing against them, but a broad coalition of SF political leaders, drag queens, labor leaders, mutual aid groups, and community organizations.
The march concluded with powerful speeches from Juanita MORE!, Supervisor Dean Preston, Honey Mahogany, and members of UNITE HERE Local 2 and United Educators of San Francisco. Later that day, the San Francisco Democratic Party passed a unanimous resolution in support of the VTA declaring that Veritas’ violence against rent control tenants “is life-threatening, exacerbates homelessness, and is harmful to the City economy.”
Veritas tenants need a fair contract now to keep rents low and protect their right to organize—for the good of ALL of San Francisco. The power is with the people of the VTA, and they’re not going anywhere until Veritas comes to the negotiating table. Many SFADC organizations and other allies came out in solidarity, including Jobs with Justice San Francisco, South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN), the Chinese Progressive Association, West Side Tenants Association, [people. power. media], the Brass Liberation Orchestra, and Causa Justa Just Cause!
Photos by [people. power. media] and Lenea Maibaum
For more on the VTA, see this article recently published in VICE: Massive Tenant Union Demands Its Corporate Landlord Bargain With Them, Roshan Abraham, April 11, 2023.