Every resident of our hotels is a formerly homeless adult. Whether they’ve been homeless for a month or most of their lives, tenants enter the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC) with many needs that need to be met in order for them to improve the quality of their lives. We offer on-site support services to tenants living in our SRO hotels and also to residents of the city’s Shelter Plus Care program units at the Cadillac and William Penn hotels. Overall we provide supportive services to over 2,000 of our city’s most marginalized citizens.

In order to best serve our tenants, the Support Services Department provides goal-oriented case management services that utilize the Harm Reduction model. We emphasize a nonjudgmental, empowering approach with our tenants and do not force our tenants to engage in services. All our services are voluntary. The services provided include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Linking tenant to health care, substance abuse and mental health services
2. Connecting tenants to employment services
3. Assisting tenants with benefit advocacy
4. Promoting a sense of self-sufficiency
5. Helping tenants stabilize their housing situation
6. Resolving conflicts and responding to crisis situations
7. Providing information on resources in the city
8. Facilitating weekly community group activities such as a coffee hour or distributing free healthy food at the food pantries
9. Building a sense of community within each hotel

The Support Services Department works closely with our Property Management Department to help tenants retain their housing. In addition, the Support Services Department works in conjunction with the Behavioral Health Roving Team from UCSF to link clients who need extra support in their hotels or who are at risk for eviction due to behavioral or delinquent rent issues with clinical social workers who can provide them the one-on-one intensive case management services they need to stay housed and stable

The goals of the Support Services Department are to:

1. Help residents maintain enough stability to retain their housing so that they are able to divert energies previously used for survival into accessing services and building a foundation of support.
2. Augment tenants’ ability to enrich their self-respect, confidence and awareness as well as improving their quality of life.
3. To ensure that all tenants are aware of and have access to the full range of support services available to them.
4. To provide thorough, effective and dependable case management on a voluntary basis to every tenant who requests it.
5. To work collaboratively with tenants to minimize, modify or resolve issues that may jeopardize their housing.
6. To infuse each hotel with a strong sense of community through conflict resolution, social events and workshops that foster a culture of health.
7. To support tenants to access information about their rights.