Greggory Johnson’s shortness of breath began shortly after he moved to San Francisco in 2016. In the years since, it has only gotten worse.Johnson, 62, said he often gets winded just walking up the stairs to his third-floor apartment in the Vincent Hotel, a seafoam green building in the Tenderloin that has been transformed into housing for low-income San Franciscans.
“SRO residents suffer among the worst urban environmental injustices, given the conditions of their buildings,” said Carolina Correa, a spokesperson for the San Francisco environmental-justice nonprofit Brightline Defense. “They’re low-income communities, they’re people of color, they’re folks who rely on financial assistance. That’s why they live in SROs. Air quality is really top of mind — and it’s out of their control.
“Personally, it’s right up there with the top echelon of needs — because that’s health,” he said. “Why is it so overlooked? Well, how long does it take for someone to develop lung damage from breathing poor air? If you don’t see it, you’re not going to know until it’s literally too late.” For Johnson, air pollution is a toxic roommate — a black substance that settles on windowsills, piles into corners, and cakes onto screen doors. Johnson frequently cleans the particles, only for them to reappear within days.
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Tennis, 74, considers himself “fortunate” because the building he lives in was recently refurbished. Now, each room has a heater and air-conditioning unit that cleans and cycles the air. The impossible dilemmaAs climate change accelerates, California’s wildfire season has become longer and more intense, posing another hazard to people already breathing in the dirtiest urban air: wildfire smoke.
Johnson chooses to keep the wildfire smoke out. When wildfire smoke and heat converge on San Francisco, he closes his windows, places a rug in front of the door, and seals other openings to the outside. Then he powers off “everything he possibly can” — his TV, refrigerator and lights.