The Boston Globe recently had a story about a San Francisco area landlord who was evicting a 97 year old lady, notwithstanding that she had lived in her apartment for 66 years, and that she has cancer.

Really?

The guy can’t wait a couple of years for her to die, before turning a massive profit on the sale of his unit?

Now, it turns out that this guy was the product of a bitter divorce, and it was his wife’s family that had made the oral agreement with the elderly woman that she could live there as long as she remained alive.[1]

So this particular woman, whose name is Marie Hatch, is going to be alright. The publicity surrounding the case went viral, and various attorneys (yes attorneys, and more than one!) stepped forward and offered to represent her for free. The landlord, whose name is David Kantz, will be rapidly hopping down the same path blazed by “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli to Internet infamy, for being a compassionless jerk.

But here is the kicker. Marie Hatch pays $900 per month, which she splits with her 85-year old roommate. Yet, rents for a two-bedroom apartment in San Mateo County have average rents of $3,222 per month, according to the news article.

Yes, $3,222 per month.

Excuse me, but who the fuck can afford that for a two-bedroom apartment?

I mean, San Matteo County is nice. But we’re not even talking San Francisco here. We’re talking Burlingame, which is just a suburb south of San Francisco. Close to the airport. What kind of a country do we live in that an elderly lady would need to pay $38,664 in annual rent just to live in a suburb of San Francisco?

[1] Her original landlord, a friend named Vivian Kruse, told Marie Hatch that she could stay in the home until her death. After Kruse passed away, the verbal guarantee was passed down to her daughter, and then to her granddaughter. When Kruse’s grandaughter, Pamela Kantz, 55, was murdered in 2006, her husband inherited the property and declared the verbal guarantee void. David Kantz reported that he and his wife were in the process of getting divorced at the time of her death.