San Francisco's city attorney is suing the owner and occupant of a building where he says 20 people were living in squalid, unsafe conditions in the basement of a commercial laundromat.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported the lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the owner and master tenant of the building in the city's Mission neighborhood of violating fire, electrical, plumbing and other municipal code violations.
Fire officials called the building a death trap and called the fire code violations egregious.
Firefighters discovered the occupants when they responded to a call on Christmas Day last year, the newspaper reported. Inside they found exposed wiring, leaky pipes, one functioning shower, a rat and cockroach infestation and illegally partitioned rooms.
The lawsuit says tenants were being charged between $300 and $900 each.
