Local Businesses Ask SF’s Largest Landlord to Donate $3.6M From Small Business Loan

San Francisco merchants and tenants want the city’s largest landlord, Veritas Investments, to give $3.6 million from its federal small business loan to true small businesses, they wrote in an open letter Monday.

Veritas, which operates 256 properties in San Francisco, is not a small business and therefore does not deserve the federal loan they were awarded, the groups allege.

Libby Staub, a Veritas tenant and owner of Drop Shadow Signs, said shops in the North Beach neighborhood where she lives and across San Francisco are far worse off than Veritas.

“They could really benefit from this payback, if Veritas would just give the money back,” Straub said.

On Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the loan should be returned because it was intended for small businesses. Veritas said it will repay the Paycheck Protection Program loan within two years when it is due.

The open letter from the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association, Calle 24 Latino Cultural District, the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, Veritas Tenants Association, and other groups, also demanded Veritas forgive missed rent for both its commercial and residential tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to keep front-line Veritas staff financially solvent during local shelter-in-place orders.

Those San Francisco merchants groups also told KQED that “about half” of all small businesses they spoke to were able to obtain a federal PPP loan.