‘I didn’t know why he wanted to help me’: Woman at center of housing controversy preps for move, thankful for Robbins’ help

Hatch sued the landlord for elder abuse but then died March 3 after living in the same home for 66 years.

Rothrock was then left to find a new place on her own but, with only a fixed income to live on and a scarcity of affordable housing in the area, she had no idea where she would wind up until she got a call from motivational speaker Tony Robbins.

Rothrock, however, did not know who Robbins was.

“I didn’t know why he wanted to help me,” she said Monday.

Robbins pledged to help her pay the rent for a number of years and Supervisor Dave Pine’s office and officials with the county’s Aging and Adult Services helped her land an apartment at Lesley Terrace, which provides assisted-living services for seniors.

But Rothrock is a bit heartbroken for a variety of reasons.

First she lost her companion of 32 years when Hatch died and now she will have to leave the city she has come to love.

“I’m really sad to be leaving Burlingame,” she said.

Packing, too, has not been fun as she has sciatica and is in pain almost constantly.

She is moving some things to storage but has donated many items to Pick of the Litter, the thrift store operated by the Peninsula Humane Society.

She has also donated some items to Burlingame Advocates for Renter Protections, a group trying to put a rent stabilization measure on the November ballot.

“Landlords have removed themselves from the consequences of their actions,” Rothrock said about the area’s escalating rents.

Greed, she said, has helped fuel the housing crisis.

She even feels contrite for securing a place to live as thousands of others in the area have been on wait lists for years to find an affordable home.

“I’m trying not to feel guilty about having a place but at least I will have somewhere to rest my head,” she said.

Rothrock spoke with Robbins once on the telephone and is not certain exactly what his offer is. The lawyers are handling it, she said.

Robbins could not be reached for comment Monday. An assistant said he was traveling to Australia.

Although Rothrock is grateful for all the outpouring of affection from Robbins and the people she sees every day in downtown Burlingame who express concern, she realizes her life is about to change forever.

She considers herself fiercely independent even without a car. The move to Belmont, however, may change all of that, she said.

“Loss of independence is what it comes down to for me,” she said.

Lesley Terrace is located in the Belmont hills near the Carlmont Shopping Center.

Walking the hills, she said, may become impossible.

In the meantime, she is packing up boxes with the help of some friends but is not even sure at this point what her move-out date is.

She may not have know exactly who Robbins was but did read an article earlier this year when he saved a soup kitchen run by nuns in San Francisco.

Just last week, Robbins also offered to pay the rent for a 100-year-old Riverside County woman recently evicted.

“Tony Robbins is awesome. His generosity and compassion have transformed this very difficult experience into one of hope and kindness, providing Georgia Rothrock with a home for the rest of her life. Truly Georgia and I are eternally grateful to Tony Robbins. Our heartfelt thanks go out to Tony Robbins,” Rothrock’s attorney Paula Canny wrote in an email.

It was landlord David Kantz’s attorney who brought Robbins into the picture, Canny said last week.

Kantz is still being sued by Marie Hatch’s son, Gary, for elder abuse.

Hatch had been promised that she could live in the house for life based upon a decades-old contract with Vivian Kroeze but the estranged husband of Kroeze’s granddaughter, Kantz, started eviction proceedings initially just before the holidays.

Under California law, elder abuse claims survive the death of an elderly plaintiff.

bill@smdailyjournal.com

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