Tenants at Step Up housing and other residents urge San Bernardino leaders to stop evictions at 450 North G Street

Dozens of San Bernardino residents and tenant advocates used the council’s public‑comment period to press the city to intervene after tenants at Step Up housing at 450 North G Street and similar properties received eviction notices or notices of large rent increases.

"This property was bought and renovated with millions in Project Homekey funds with a legal promise to remain affordable," Kathleen Castellanos, a San Bernardino Valley College student and resident at Step Up, told the council. "If there is no intervention, it will actively create more homelessness."

Speakers including Christian Shaughnessy, Ulises Benitez, Keith Benitez, Esther Gonzalez and others described the same cluster of concern: senior residents and low‑income tenants at properties that were converted from motels or other uses with Project Homekey funding now facing abrupt rent hikes and notices to vacate. Multiple speakers said management offered a $5,000 relocation payment to some tenants and that some notices list January deadlines; one speaker said an eviction notice could arrive around Jan. 11.

Esther Gonzalez, identifying problems at the 76‑unit former motel converted to supportive housing, said the state is suing the former developer, Shangri La Industries, to recover roughly $1.114 billion in alleged Homekey grant fraud, and she urged the council to enforce affordability covenants attached to the public funding.

"The building was saved with public money, and now people it was meant to protect are being betrayed," Gonzalez said.

Tenants’ advocates warned the council that displacing residents would increase the region’s homeless point‑in‑time count and asked for direct city action: demand compliance with existing affordability covenants, explore tenant protections modeled on other cities, and coordinate with county and state authorities to prevent imminent homelessness.

The council asked staff for follow up. When the mayor asked about options to assist residents of the All Star Lodge (450 G Street), the city manager said he would meet with housing staff first thing the next morning and contact the county to explore immediate assistance for those residents.

Council members acknowledged the public comments, and several pledged to work with staff and partner agencies to pursue solutions. The meeting record shows the city manager committed to follow up but does not record a specific enforcement action or emergency directive at that meeting.

The issue recurred across multiple speakers and speakers recommended policy options including a rent stabilization ordinance, a tenant‑majority rent board, just‑cause eviction protections and enforcement of Project Homekey affordability covenants.