"In the summer of 2019, Elizabeth Bell's apartment building in San Franciscos Mission District went up for sale, and real estate agents were soon giving tours to prospective developers. As fear of eviction or rent hikes sank in, Bell, 74, started getting heart palpitations." Her apartment was cheap and rent-controlled, which, on her social security income supplemented by gig work, was necessary in order to stay in San Francisco, where she has lived since 1975, High Country News reports. Housing advocates directed Bell and other tenants to Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), a longtime Bay Area nonprofit that has emerged as a leader in an anti-gentrification effort known as a right-to-purchase policy, where local nonprofits obtain residential buildings to prevent development and displacement. The average income of residents in properties acquired by MEDA is more than 30% lower than the area's median income. As Covid-19 saw a rise in unemployment rates, tenant-protection policies are gaining traction.

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