After earlier allegations of downright scary conditions at 1751 Market, a San Francisco apartment building at the center of a lawsuit brought by dozens of tenants, a startling picture is emerging of the conditions inside. As with the case of other area landlords—including two who famously sawed through a tenant's living room floor while he was inside—nightmarish tenant abuses tend to rely on a replenishable population of renters desperate enough to stick around. At 1751 Market, which the lawsuit characterizes as a rat-infested, gas-leaky deathtrap with persistent drug and prostitution problems, most of the tenants do not speak English and did not know their rights, according to attorney Edward Higginbotham, who represents the tenants in the suit against landlord Adib Khouri, who manages the building (and co-owns it with brother Faiq Khouri and Diana Khouri, also named in the suit). "I think he feels he has power over a vulnerable population," Higginbotham says. "He has threatened to deport people and families. People who I've confirmed are tenants the day before, they don't show up [at the deposition] out of fear."
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