Deal delays eviction threat for San Francisco nuns

Saturday, February 13, 2016
FILE - In a Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 file photo, Sister Mary Valerie, center, hands out bags of popcorn at the Fraternite Notre Dame Mary of Nazareth Soup Kitchen in San Francisco.
FILE - In a Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 file photo, Sister Mary Valerie, center, hands out bags of popcorn at the Fraternite Notre Dame Mary of Nazareth Soup Kitchen in San Francisco.
kgo-AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File

CHICAGO -- Nuns who faced possible eviction from San Francisco's gritty Tenderloin district because of a rent increase have won a reprieve.

The San Francisco Chronicle says lawyers for the nuns and landlord, with help from motivational speaker Tony Robbins, reached a deal Friday allowing the nuns to stay for a year at their current rent.

That gives the sisters time to find a new home for their soup kitchen. Robbins promised to donate $50,000 to help.

The Fraternite Notre Dame has run the kitchen for eight years but in January the nuns were told their rent would jump about 50 percent to $5,500 a month. The nuns said they couldn't afford it and refused to pay.

A lawyer for landlord Nick Patel says he's glad there's a tentative resolution.