San Francisco’s beloved sex worker health clinic will have to find a new home after losing its building, but a fundraising campaign looks to the future.Â
OCTOBER 21, 2015 — St. James Infirmary, San Francisco’s center for sex worker health and services, will have to find a new place to offer its hot meals, counseling and STD tests. After 13 years at 1372 Mission, the organization was notified that landlord Mercy Housing has sold its building.
Stephany Joy Ashley, St. James’ executive director, told 48 Hills that staff and participants experienced a full range of emotions upon hearing the news that their month to month lease, held through the Department of Public Health, would not be renewed. (They’re still waiting to hear exactly when this will take place.)
“This space is one of the few places that some people feel safe in this city,” she said. “So of course there was a lot of anger, a lot of sadness. But a lot of our staff has wanted a better and bigger space for a long time.”
Over the last year, she said, the nearly window-less 1372 Mission has physically deteriorated even as the Mid Market neighborhood around it has undergone drastic renovations and rent hikes as the new home of Twitter and other tech start ups. Trans advocates TGI Justice Project share the address and will likewise be displaced. “While there was an initial wave of shock, anger and grief, there was also a sense that this was the moment in which we were going to find something better,” Ashley said. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help both organizations with the transition.
The 501(c)3 has served over 4,000 current and former sex workers since it opened in 1999.
It was born in a time of great need, when incarcerated San Franciscan sex workers could have their blood drawn against their wishes for STD testing via arcane “Hold and Treat” laws. To fight back, activists from COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) and the Exotic Dancers Alliance banded together to form St. James, which continues to be the only health and safety clinic in the country where sex workers can come to find support from a staff comprising current and former peers. Last year a nearby anti-trafficking organization shut its doors, leading St. James to expand programming, participant base, and mental health/substance abuse programs. In July the clinic received a five-year grant from the Center for Disease Control to do high impact HIV/AIDS prevention that allowed it to hire five more staff members. Ashley said the clinic’s budget has doubled in the last two years, reflected in its expanded programming.
St James is receiving support in its move from the city’s Non Profit Displacement Mitigation Program, which pays the difference for up to six months if a non profit’s new rent is higher. The clinic has a lead on a few locations, but Ashley notes that groups like the Homeless Youth Alliance still don’t have a brick and mortar location, nearly two years after losing their home. “I wish we were incentivizing landlords to rent to non profits and keep them in San Francisco,” she said. “It’s tough to be a sex worker health care clinic or a needle exchange competing in this real estate market against start-ups.”
Yes, you can help out here. The clinic has estimated that it will need at least $50,000 to cover moving costs, and they’re turning to their community for support (an anonymous donor has pledged to match funds raised up to $25,000, over the next month.) You can donate by heading over to the clinic’s GoFundMe campaign.
Ashley said the center is hoping to avoid a break in services. “People come here to see their therapist every week. People get their clean syringes here. Trans people get their hormones here. We really don’t want to have to put a pause on any of that because it’s disruptive to people’s lives.”
Read St. James Infirmary’s full statement on its displacement here
