Dear San Franciscans,
When I moved to San Francisco from the South Bay, I loved the unique mix of people, cultures, tastes, and backgrounds in the city. I took a particular interest in the neighborhoods and buildings that brought everyone together, which prompted me to launch Veritas with the purchase of a six-unit apartment building in the Mission District. I lived in that building and the diversity among my neighbors was what first drew me to the city.
Veritas was founded on the philosophy that we would always put our residents first, and today that’s more important than ever. That’s why along the way we launched our Residents First initiative, or as we call it, R1. To meet our residents’ needs we hold ourselves to the highest standard of customer service and are committed to building trust, respect, and transparency. It’s what sets us apart from other apartment operators and it permeates every aspect of our business – from how we interact with people on a day-to-day basis to the way in which we support our communities.
Now entering our twelfth year, Veritas is committed to providing great places to live for San Franciscans, with apartment buildings in neighborhoods across the city. We are proud of our track record in providing the utmost care to our valued residents, to the homes in which they live, and to the buildings themselves. These buildings, which reflect the great diversity and character of the city we all love, range in size from four units to over 100, and we’ve restored many that are over a century old.
This is how we’re working to put residents first:
1.
Our First-In-Nation Ombudsperson:
We want our residents to know they have deeply knowledgeable resources beyond just our management team available to help navigate challenges. That’s why we engaged Debra Walker, a long-time San Francisco tenant advocate, to be the apartment industry’s first resident ombudsperson. Her sole focus is to identify, raise and resolve resident issues and we’re pleased to offer this service as we further strengthen our commitment to putting residents first.
2.
We Preserve Affordability:
Veritas residents benefit from deep affordability, with an average rent that is close to 40 percent below market. We also recognize the burden that operating and maintenance passthrough costs can impose on our residents in an incredibly competitive housing market. Unlike other operators, we are the only one to publicly commit to no longer pursue these.
3.
Keeping Residents in Their Homes:
We are proud to support long-term housing with our resident base having an average tenure of 10 years. To further this, we focus on resolving resident challenges early-on, resulting in one of the lowest eviction rates in San Francisco at less than one quarter of one percent, well below the city’s average.
4.
We Give Back:
We’re honored to lead among real estate operators in joining the Pledge 1% campaign, and are committed to giving back our time and resources to the San Francisco Bay Area. As part of our Pledge 1% investment, Veritas’ employees will volunteer over 3,000 hours in the coming year to support causes and non-profits in the Bay Area and beyond. Recently, we officially launched our social impact initiative, Veritas Spark. As part of the launch, Veritas’ employees volunteered over 500 employee hours and collected more than 3,500 gallons of trash while working to clean up the Mission District.
5.
Helping Our Most Vulnerable:
Through our recently launched voluntary hardship waiver program, we have immediately waived charges resulting from capital improvements for Veritas residents with a particular hardship or situation that makes such increases difficult or impossible to absorb. These improvements keep our buildings safe and up to code, and include seismic retrofitting and the installation of updated fire safety systems. We will continue to partner with the city and our community to advance innovative programs that work to better house San Franciscans.
We stand by our Veritas values, and are proud to provide high-quality, rent-controlled homes for thousands of residents in this great city. And in turn, we want to thank the thousands of Veritas residents who have expressed their appreciation for the care we provide every day.
Sincerely,
Yat-Pang Au
CEO
