"I cannot afford a mansion here, but if I can own a street, I'm happy to own a street," Lam told KCBS. "First-generation immigrant here. I came here with just one suitcase."
The property was placed up for sale in an online auction in 2015, as the city sought to recover $994 in unpaid back taxes, penalties and interest.
Lam and Cheng snatched the property, which includes the street, the sidewalk and every other piece of common ground for $90,100.
"We just got lucky," Cheng told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Lam said she was uninterested in selling the land back to homeowners, but would consider charging residents for parking.
"We can talk about that, certainly," she said. "Because they are now parking on my land."
Residents have reached out to the Board of Supervisors and the homeowners association has sued the city and the couple, seeking to block or negate the purchase because the city didn't notify homeowners of the auction.
Amanda Fried, a spokeswoman for Treasurer-Tax Collector Jose Cisneros' office, said the city did what law requires and added, to her knowledge, the Board of Supervisors "has never done a hearing of rescission."
"There is nothing that our office can do," she said.
Lam maintained she and her husband are simply happy to own land in San Francisco and are confident the sale will stand.
"I'm pretty sure that the law is clear on my ownership, so I am comfortable that we will prevail," she said.
