San Francisco supervisors on Thursday said they would subpoena executives connected with a troubled housing complex in the Western Addition where residents have long complained of poor housing conditions. The executives failed to show up to today’s hearing, where scores of tenants spoke out.
“They’re not engaging with the department, they’re not engaging with the supervisors,” said Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who held the city hearing in response to tenant complaints at the Thomas Paine Square Apartments, a 98-unit low-income housing complex.
“We have to take unprecedented action with a subpoena to call them before the board, which hasn’t actually happened in many years,” he said.
For over a year, residents have spoken out about intolerable housing conditions, violence from other residents, and alleged misconduct by management. Three staff members of Domus Management, the Lodi-based firm that manages the complex, allegedly stole Christmas presents from a unit in December 2025.
Mahmood represents the Fillmore and Western Addition and has held past hearings at the Board of Supervisors in response to those complaints.
He has said the city’s power over the complex is limited, and last year described the situation as “complicated” — as a HUD-subsidized housing development, Thomas Paine isn’t within the purview of either the Board of Supervisors or the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
“I want to make it clear that you are being heard here today by me and by the city, and I take seriously the need to tackle the underlying systems that allow for situations like the ones that we heard today to persist,” Mahmood said, describing the hearing as a chance to collect evidence on the record and “build a case.”
Some 70 residents from Thomas Paine and other complexes managed by Domus attended the hearing. One after another recounted experiences of negligence, deplorable living conditions, allegedly fraudulent rent charges, and retaliation — including attempts to evict tenants who had complained.
Debora Howard, a tenant at Thomas Paine Square Apartments, gave her testimony at the hearing on Oct. 1, 2026. Photo by Xueer Lu.
Mahmood called for the property owner, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically Black church in the Fillmore, and its property management Domus to be held accountable, saying he would also “explore” legislation to strengthen protection for residents in the future.
Many of the tenants present specifically named Bobby Sisk as playing a key role in the troubles at Thomas Paine. Sisk is the steward of Bethel AME, and also the president of the Allen Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit that oversees the complex’s contracts with Domus, the property managers and with W.S.B. & Associates, Inc., a private security firm owned by Sisk.
Sisk did not show up to the hearing. Neither did legal representatives for Sisk, the nonprofit Allen CDC, Bethel AME church or Domus Management.
“If anyone from Domus is here, please come forward because we are dying to talk to you,” Mahmood said at the hearing. No one spoke up.
At the hearing, Mahmood also heard testimony from residents of two other low-income housing complexes in the Fillmore managed by Domus, Martin Luther King-Marcus Garvey Square Cooperative Apartments and Ammel Park Cooperative Homes.
Martin Luther King-Marcus Garvey Square co-op reportedly issued mass eviction notices to 16 residents claiming that they owed back rent. Domus did not, those residents said, make it clear how much back rent they owed, and reported receiving bills for wildly diverging amounts.
No representatives from either of those co-ops showed either.
“The properties that the allegations are against didn’t come today. [We] had an empty chair,” Mahmood said after the hearing.
“There are a lot of questions that I think should be answered by people that unfortunately are not here today,” added Tuesday Thorton, a staff attorney at the Eviction Defense Collaborative who represents two residents at King Garvey co-op.
The Board’s Government Accountability and Oversight Committee will subpoena the following people to testify at a Dec. 3 hearing:
Domus Management Company, specifically: Anthony Sandoval, the company’s president, and Christine Mason, the most recent manager
Mercedes Gavin, counsel for Martin Luther King-Marcus Garvey Square Cooperative
Board of Directors of Martin Luther King-Marcus Garvey Square Cooperative, Inc., specifically: Linda Yoakum, Sean Kim, Emilia Penate and Lavonne McIntosh
The officers of the Allen Community Development Corporation, specially: Rev. Cecil L. Williams, Jr., Alice Johnson, Nicole Acker, Bobby Sisk, through their legal representatives Vernon Goins
Board of Directors of Ammel Park Cooperative, specially: Ezra Mosgan
Thomas Paine Square Apartments captured on April 30, 2025. Photo by Xueer Lu.
For years, residents at Thomas Paine, which is bounded by Golden Gate Avenue, Turk Street, Laguna Street and Buchanan Street, said they felt like their complaints were not heard by City Hall, a 15-minute walk away.
For many, including nine who spoke on Thursday, the hearing has been a long time coming. Their immediate goal is a new security company, and new property managers.
Anona Lee, who has been living at the complex for 37 years, said her expectations of a property manager are simple: “When you call, they come to fix it. That’s it!”
“Treat us right!” she added
Denise Benjamin, another Thomas Paine tenant who said she has dealt with cockroaches for a year, said she hoped the hearing would mean “something is done about [the conditions] finally.”
Patrick Cochran, an organizer who has been helping the tenants since 2021, feels the same.
“I’m extremely grateful that the supervisor stepped up to the plate,” Cochran said. “He’s fought for us.”