"...Sanbonmatsu estimates as many as 30 people were using this SRO bathroom ..."By Joe Eskenazi
James Sanbonmatsu's camera probably has a callus growing over it by now. He's photographed so many breathtakingly squalid chambers of human misery it's hard to imagine it's not so.
Sanbonmatsu doesn't seem like the type to lift a flute of champagne at the gala opening of an art. And yet, none too long ago, there he was at the Gallery of Social and Political Art in Boston amid photos of his day job – a housing inspector for the City of San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection.
"Some people have baby pictures. I have these," he says. "My father is something of an artist and all of my uncles are painters. When I went home for Christmas one year, my father thought [these evidence photos] would look good on the wall."
A trio of Sanbonmatsu's S.F. shots are currently on display at the City & County Planning Department at 1660 Mission St. If you're in the neighborhood it's worth dropping in — but don't even think of staying a moment past 5 p.m. or the cantankerous old guard will loudly order you to leave (trust us). The building is open from 8 a.m. until, yes, 5 p.m. from Monday through Friday.
The photo accompanying this article, incidentally, was taken last year at a Chinatown Single Resident Occupancy (SRO) hotel at 45 Ross Alley; the leaking water in a community bathroom corroded and deteriorated the wall studs and floor joists. The owner was fined and a lien was placed on the property prior to the violations being ameliorated in May. Sanbonmatsu estimates as many as 30 people were using this SRO bathroom.
"I want people to get a slice of another side of life," he says. "Some people see this kind of thing every day. Some people never do. A lot of people doing business [at 1660 Mission] don't see this kind of thing. It's a good place to have these photos so they're exposed to it."
Hypothetically, what could you do if this sort of thing was happening in your apartment bathroom? Well – take a deep breath here if you're reading this out loud – you could call up the DBI and bemoan your situation. They might put a housing rights non-profits on the case which would contact your landlord on its own or, possibly, with the cooperation of the San Francisco Apartment Association (still with us?). The landlord then may choose to make the repairs but if he or she refuses, your plight bounces back into the DBI's jurisdiction. If it sees fit, the DBI may fine your landlord or sue them for code failure (and…exhale!).
If that sounds laborious that's why Sanbonmatsu co-founded the City's Code Enforcement Outreach Project 11 years ago to help shepherd tenants through the Byzantine enforcement maze and ensure decorum on all sides.
The bathroom at 45 Ross Alley was fixed before it could collapse. But Sanbonmatsu has been to plenty of SROs where that wasn't the case.
"And I have photos of that, too," he notes.
