The long-planned launch of a soup kitchen at 15th and Mission in San Francisco last spring that's run by French nuns — and funded by Tony Robbins — quickly ramped up a years-long dispute with the building’s homeowners association.The nuns from the Fraternité Notre Dame Mary of Nazareth House who run the Mission District soup kitchen say the 1928 Mission Street homeowners association has continued efforts to challenge or restrict their operations since the March 2025 opening, despite the kitchen serving meals and operating a food pantry several days a week in an area long marked by poverty, homelessness, and addiction, as the Chronicle reports.The kitchen opened after years of delays tied to legal and logistical battles between the HOA and the operators. As SFist reported back in 2016, the soup kitchen was previously based in the Tenderloin before relocating following a rent increase. The story gained national attention, and multimillionaire Tony Robbins stepped in to purchase the Mission property on the nuns’ behalf. The move ultimately triggered immediate opposition from the building’s HOA, which has reportedly since unfolded into a decade-long series of legal, planning, and day-to-day disputes over zoning, infrastructure, and building rules. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tony Robbins (@tonyrobbins) According to the Chronicle, the most recent conflict centers on a newly installed exterior sign above the soup kitchen entrance — a 7-foot-by-1.5-foot blue metal panel reading “Fraternité Notre Dame Mary of Nazareth House,” with a white cross. HOA board member Piers Mackenzie reportedly warned in an email that the sign violated building rules because it had not gone through the required approval process and did not comply with signage guidelines.Mackenzie said the HOA would arrange removal and bill the tenants if it remained in place. He later told reporters the board is not opposed to signage in general, but only to the sign’s placement above the doorway.Sister Mary Valerie and other members of the order told the Chronicle they view the dispute as part of a broader pattern of resistance to their presence in the building. The sisters say they were told for months they did not have access to an on-site parking space and ended up paying for off-site parking before later being advised they were entitled to a garage spot. The sisters also point to earlier conflicts during the buildout phase, including objections filed with the city before the soup kitchen was approved, extended negotiations over ventilation and soundproofing, and a water leak from an upper unit that led to a separate dispute over damages.The current site reportedly serves lunch on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and runs a food pantry for families on Tuesday evenings, drawing a mix of seniors on fixed incomes, low-income residents, and unhoused people. The Chronicle reports that the nuns’ attorney has advised them not to remove the sign, and as of midweek the HOA had not taken steps to take it down. It remains unclear whether any fines could be imposed under state limits on HOA penalties.Previously: Mission District Neighbors Are Now Opposing Nuns Trying To Feed The HomelessImage: Tony Robbins/Instagram ...read more read less