San Francisco Chronicle: …The basement beneath the Clean Wash Center at 4690 Mission St. was known as 5 Persia Ave., an address that doesn’t exist on any map. It was unknown to city building and fire authorities until firefighters, acting on an anonymous tip, inspected the illegally converted storage space one month after the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland killed 36 people at a converted warehouse Dec. 2. Soto and 18 other former tenants, many of whom speak little English, are now suing their former landlord for damages after the city determined it was too hazardous for them to remain there. “No one should be living in this place,” said Idin Kashefipour, their attorney…

Lt. Jonathan Baxter, a spokesman for the Fire Department, called the basement a “death trap.” “We determined immediately that there were very egregious fire code violations that were present, that we believed would result in death of occupants if a fire or disaster occurred at that building,” Baxter said. A little more than a month after the inspection, city officials found that none of the code violations had been fixed. They gave the residents 48 hours to leave…The suit contends that the residents’ ouster constituted a no-fault eviction under the city’s rent ordinance. That would entitle those who lived at 5 Persia to thousands of dollars, including reimbursement of the rent they paid to Paredes and money for their “severe emotional distress,” according to the suit.

SF Chronicle: Inside the SF Laundromat basement where 2 dozen people lived

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