Mary: I came to this work because I was once a young person, a long time ago, and as a young person I ended up on the streets in San Francisco. I left home at a very young age, and, you know, there were no services I ever engaged with on the street that I felt really accepted me or that I felt safe with. And back in the day when I started we were still part of the free clinic. We were Haight Ashbury Youth Outreach Team, but it was definitely a different model, which was more for and by the youth.
And the youth really kind of drove the services. Look I don’t even know how I got roped in, in ‘99. My friend applied for the job for me to be honest. I did not apply for the job, but anyhow, I went on the interview, I got the job. The rest is history-
Maurice: History.
Mary: And then I became the ED and founder of HYA [Homeless Youth Alliance]. I just really fell in love with the work. It was a way for me to be part of a community that I felt was my community, but in a much more productive way for myself and a much more, kind of, empowering way. That kind of role modelled to other young people that long term change is possible, and also being part of righteous action and self determination, and really driving your own future was possible regardless of where you were. And that’s really kind of how HYA still operates. The kids sit on all the hiring committees, they volunteer at services, they decide what we should be doing. Most of the time we go along with it. [Laughter] Yeah, so we, yeah.
Maurice: Mind if I ask a question?
Mary: Yeah.
Maurice: What’s your idea about how and why drop-ins work? Because, I think you do it in a pretty unique way.
Mary: Yeah. I mean it gets weirder to talk about it now because it’s been so long. So we lost our drop-in a little over four years ago. But to me the kind of beauty of a drop-in center is that, if it’s run well, in my opinion, it allows people to come in exactly as they are, and to access HYA at any point, and any service, and kind of move in and out of, kind of, readiness and engagement.
Mary: So people can literally, they can come in—and some wouldn’t even say hi,—most of the time go directly towards the food because that is people’s basic need, is food. They could take a shower, they could put on clean clothes, and those are the really small things—or take a nap on the couch, or just like any teenager, watch shitty tv. The Simpsons was always on. Big Lebowski was a big hit.
Mary: Anyhow, so they got to—we had all these boxes of movies and they could watch whatever they wanted, and it was a really amazing thing that when people had a space to be themselves, that they could make these really amazing changes and kind of take a moment to step back from survival mode. And get into a mode of really evaluating where their lives were at and what they were ready to change about it. It’s like Maurice’s office was right across from the bathrooms, which is always great right because people—by that point they’ve eaten, maybe they took the shower, they put the clothes on, then they come out and they’re like ready to do something else.
Mary: And then Maurice is there and they’re like, I’m gonna go hang out with Maurice or I’m going to go into the case management office and get my birth certificate handled, or just check in with staff. And it was this really amazing place where the community felt at home and there was very little drama considering the amount of drama people have on the street. Everyone really respected the space. It taught the kids how to be more accepting of each other, and how to kind of look out for each other in different ways. We just role modeled how different engagement can look for people. I don’t know, what was it like for you?
Maurice: I think you’re speaking to what I was hoping you’d get at. It was sort of, it was a culture that you and your staff built.
Mary: Yeah.
Maurice: Yeah.
Mary: Very little rules. We only made rules when-
Maurice: When necessary.
Mary: Something went wrong-
Maurice: Yeah.
Mary: And we had to.
Maurice: That’s such a harm reduction philosophy.
Mary: Yeah.
Maurice: You make rules when you need them.
Mary: Yeah. I think our only rule when we opened was no racism, sexism, or homophobia. And then it evolved to 12-
Maurice: Yeah, like don’t show your genitals.
Mary: Yeah, don’t show your genitals, which I wouldn’t think needed to be a rule until it kept happening. [Laughter] Then it became a rule.
Maurice: Then it becomes a rule. [Laughter] My favorite rule.
Mary: You know, like don’t touch without permission. That’s something you don’t really think about but as people learn to set healthier boundaries, that was something people wanted. They were like, “Ah, I actually want to be asked before you go in for a hug, or you just are play fighting.” Because sometimes people are in a different state every day. So, the rules kind of evolved over time.
