Dr. Mahendra Dave, Indian Leader and Hotel Leasing Pioneer, Dies At 66Randy Shawbyline‚ Oct. 17‚ 2006Dr. Mahendra Dave, an owner of the Seneca Hotel who pioneered the Indian community’s involvement in San Francisco’s hotel leasing program, died yesterday after a long bout with cancer. An SRO owner representative on the 6th Street Project Area Committee prior to the onset of his illness, Dave and his wife were physicians in India before coming to America to ensure their kids a good education. Brilliant intellectually and deeply spiritual, Dave was widely viewed as the conscience of the 6th Street hotel owner community. The death of Dr. Mahendra Dave comes at a time when San Francisco’s SRO homeless housing program ---which includes the Health Department’s Direct Access to Housing program and Human Service’s leasing and Care not Cash programs---primarily links nonprofit groups with Indian-American hotel owners. The first Indian hotel owner to offer his hotel for lease, and the person to whom the rest of the community turned to for guidance on the question of leasing, was Dr. Dave. |