REDF

Darryl

There are 12,000 people living in San Francisco without a home. Darryl Sims isn’t one of them any more.

As a fourteen-year-old in 1979, Darryl remembers riding in his father’s car. He watched out the window as they passed a man walking down the street pushing a shopping cart loaded with everything he owned. Homeless. More »

Jamall

When you look into Jamall Johnson’s eyes you can see that he’s someone who has a plan for his future.

Jamall dropped out of school when he was 17. By most measures, he wasn’t on a path that would lead to success. A year after leaving school, he didn’t have career prospects because he wasn’t even looking for a job. He spent his days hanging out on the streets near his San Francisco Visitacion Valley home. More »

Ramses

Ramses Peña is mixing ink at a color-spattered table on one side of the vast space that houses Ashbury Images, a screen-printing business owned and operated by New Door Ventures – a nonprofit that helps at-risk youth prepare for work and life. Ramses is a big, soft-spoken guy. Stacks of red shirts stand like snow drifts amongst the machinery and cardboard boxes. More »

Nick*

My family left Bosnia when I was 11 years old. We moved around a lot before I got to San Francisco. It was hard to adjust and high school wasn’t easy. I wasn’t a bad kid. I just sort of fell into some trouble. It was my parole officer who told me about New Door Ventures (then known as Golden Gate Community, Inc.). I didn’t have anywhere else to go so I applied and started working at Pedal Revolution. More »

Tom*

After finishing college, I moved to San Francisco to have some fun, meet guys and get high. I found what I was looking for, but after awhile, things weren’t going so well. I had a fight with my best friend — she didn’t want to know me anymore. People said I was hard to get along with. Then I lost my low-paying restaurant jobs. I started working for temp agencies, but they would end my assignments after only a few days and wouldn’t call me anymore. More »