Muslim school hasn't paid rent in 5 years, Matier and Ross report

Muslim school hasn't paid rent in 5 years, Matier and Ross report

The Nation of Islam school in San Francisco's Hunters Point, now at the center of a controversy over whether asbestos-laden dust from a neighboring development is sickening residents, has quite a history - not to mention a curious lease arrangement with the city.

It sits on city land, and the school was supposed to pay rent - but in the five years since it opened, it hasn't been billed a dime.

It's a classic example of how the patronage politics that defined the Willie Brown era at San Francisco City Hall still rattle around to this day.

The Nation of Islam and its local leader, Minister Christopher Muhammad, are demanding that Lennar Corp. hit the brakes on its huge housing development under way at the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard until the company keeps the naturally occurring asbestos dust at the site from floating over the neighborhood - particularly over the Nation's school on Kiska Road, just opposite the development.

Muhammad says some of the 90 students at the school are among people who have suffered nosebleeds, bronchitis, headaches and other health problems since Lennar began construction last year. City health officials insist they're making sure the dust is controlled and that the neighborhood is safe.

While the health debate rages, the story of how Muhammad's school wound up on public land next door to the Lennar project in the first place has been largely overlooked. As has the tale of how the group has managed to keep the land for five years without ever paying its $2,000-a-month rent.

The story goes back to 1997 when the San Francisco 49ers, who wanted a new stadium at nearby Candlestick Point, and the San Francisco school district, which wanted community help with a bond proposal, joined forces for what was to be a 49ers Leadership Academy to educate and motivate at-risk middle school students in the neighborhood.

The school district provided the portable classrooms, a principal was hired and 40 students were recruited for the program.

Then came team owner Eddie DeBartolo's fall from grace and the Niners' takeover by DeBartolo's sister, Denise DeBartolo York, and her husband, John York, who put the stadium plan on hold.

Four years and at least $600,000 in public and private money later, the academy sat unopened - with the school district paying $6,000 a month for security after repeated vandalism.

Enter Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, looking to expand their operation in Hunters Point and the Bayview.

Brown, who was constantly under pressure from Hunters Point constituents to do more for the community, helped strike a deal.

The city's Housing Authority would pay the school district $100,000 for the portable building that had been installed at the Leadership Academy site, then lease the school to Muhammad's nonprofit Center for Self-Improvement and Community Development for $2,000 a month.

The Housing Authority took over the buildings in 2002, but no one has ever billed the Nation of Islam.

Housing Authority chief Gregg Fortner says he never asked Muhammad's group for any of the rent because the school district never billed his agency for the portable classrooms. "The money is still owed," Fortner said, "and the school district will probably ask for it after you run the article."

A school district representative told us officials were investigating the matter and needed more time to respond.

And now there's another wrinkle.

According to Lennar spokesman Sam Singer, Muhammad has rejected suggestions that the school be temporarily moved until the dust over the shipyard construction settles - literally. Instead, Singer says the minister has told company reps that he wouldn't agree to anything less than a permanent new home for the school.

He said Muhammad has been eyeing a $2.4 million property for sale that just happens to wrap around the Nation of Islam's mosque and second school campus at an old Wells Fargo Bank at Third and Revere streets.

Despite our attempts over a week, including leaving repeated phone messages and visiting his mosque, we were unable to reach Muhammad for comment. In an earlier conversation with us, however, he denied ever asking to have his school relocated.

As for the mosque he operates - its finances are just as interesting as the school's.

In the late 1990s, Charlie Walker, a Hunters Point trucker/activist and friend of Brown's, used a $51,000 federal grant from the mayor's office to buy the bank building for what was labeled as an economic development project.

Instead, Walker turned around and flipped the property to Muhammad's group. City officials say they don't know if any money changed hands.

The feds cried foul, calling it a misuse of public funds.

According to Fred Blackwell, head of the Mayor's Office of Community Development, the city wound up getting out of the fix by cutting a check for $475,000 (the building's appraised value in 2003) to reimburse the feds. To make up the difference, the feds gave the city an equal amount to be spent on a city health clinic.

"It was a clever deal," Blackwell said.

As for the Nation of Islam?

The group apparently got both a mosque and a school paid for with taxpayer money.