Del Seymour can speak with authority on the circumstances that turn a life on the rise to one spent on the streets. After a tour of Army duty in Cambodia, a stint as a firefighter and paramedic in Los Angeles, and work as an electrician to support his young family in Oakland, Seymour ended up in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, addicted to and dealing crack cocaine for 18 years.
Now sober for 13 years, Seymour has a different perspective. In 2015, he founded the nonprofit Code Tenderloin to help people gain professional and life skills, including computer programming. The organization runs classes 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.
The idea stemmed from his work on an advisory board that keeps tabs on SF’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH). When Twitter moved to Market Street amid fears of local gentrification, Seymour called on CEO Jack Dorsey to hire locals but was told they weren’t qualified.
As the board’s co-chair, he’s often chided officials to fill vacant housing faster and open access to shelters. He likes to remind them how capacity crowds watch Steph Curry at Chase Center while people are living on the streets.
It feels like a pivotal moment in SF’s homelessness crisis. Two months ago, SF surprised everyone and reported 3.5 percent fewer people on the streets and in vehicles, and the Board of Supervisors recently passed legislation (“A Place for All”) that requires a plan to offer various forms of interim shelter, including tents, tiny homes, and safe parking sites.
There’s more money than ever for homelessness programs and some momentum to ensure the money is spent properly. Creation of an oversight commission for HSH — the only major agency that reports directly to the mayor without comprehensive oversight — could join a long list of issues on the November ballot.
Meanwhile, the mayor’s Tenderloin emergency declaration has come and gone, with its one-stop “linkage center” to connect people to services largely a failure. A new district attorney is about to take over, and as Seymour notes, open-air drug dealing and overdoses remain in plain sight.
If we want to be the creative, progressive city that we bullshit and lie to each other about, we could replace every liquor store in the Tenderloin with a linkage center.
Seymour is easy to spot around the Tenderloin, leading walking tours and always impeccably dressed — a fedora, dress shirt and tie, and coat. He says that his attention to haberdashery details is meant to show that he cares about you too.
There’s an added dimension, personal and painful, to his walks. The love of his life is still living there, and he’s had to keep his distance. When he runs into her and she asks to come with him, “My answer, as always, is no,” he says. “Can’t do it. It’s about my new life and my life is more important to me than anything.”
The Frisc caught up with Seymour recently to discuss San Francisco’s homelessness crisis, the need for more oversight, and of course, the Tenderloin.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
The Frisc: The Tenderloin emergency has officially ended, and the linkage center will close at the end of the year. What are you seeing on Tenderloin streets right now?
Del Seymour: I’m seeing, unfortunately, the escalation of open-air drug use and the stolen goods market, which go hand in hand. And I see no enforcement of our drug dealers.
What’s the biggest change that could improve things for people in the Tenderloin?
We got a liquor store on every corner. Instead of selling the poison to the neighborhood, why can’t we have a linkage center on every corner? If we want to be the creative, progressive city that we bullshit and lie to each other about, we could be real about it. We could replace every liquor store in the Tenderloin with a linkage center. Don’t renew the liquor store license, make it the landlord for the linkage center and give people a better way to provide for their families.
When the Board of Supervisors recently discussed the HSH oversight commission plan, you called in to say you were not in favor. Why?
That’s not entirely accurate. I am in favor of a commission, but it’s got to [be independent]. And [with] the city’s charter, the mayor will still have the last say.
Some years ago I would’ve said, “Yes, we need one right now.” But I don’t see the urgency because our new director, Ms. [Shireen] McSpadden, has done such a good job. A commission should not be needed if you have an ethical organization.
What if McSpadden and others on her team leave, and you get someone whose approach you don’t like?
I agree that you can’t do regulations or resolutions depending on one person. But this department’s mission is of urgency, and we can’t sacrifice that urgency, or have a commission who comes in once a month to go over things and table it for next month, and so on.
Sup. Rafael Mandelman’s “A Place for All” legislation promises shelter to anyone who wants it. But it first requires HSH to develop a plan. Some supervisors who voted for it weren’t enthusiastic about it. What do you make of goals like this?
Right now, we are nowhere near being able to house everyone that wants a house. We can’t do it. Neighborhood opposition is number one. Number two, of course, is inventory.
Number three is how we market our homeless population. When we talk about the homeless, I see Barbara, who’s just lost her job and is now living with her cousin and her schoolmate. She’s doing everything she can to work at McDonald’s until she can find a better place. That’s who I feel will be attractive to a landlord out on 40th Avenue.
But the media, you all keep showing [a guy] with a needle in his arm. We can never get our landlords in the Sunset to open their extra rooms or in-law units to the so-called homeless population when you show [the guy].
Switching gears a bit: What is Code Tenderloin’s most important contribution to the neighborhood?
We are giving people options and opportunities when they want to change their life, and a lot of people have no tools. We give them all the tools — pay your rent, get your car out of impound, help you with scholarships for your kids. You tell us where you want to be. We will get you there.
The key seems that you have to want to change your life. How did you change your life?
My relationship with my God who is Jesus Christ, and the fact that people ask that question like you just did.
But recovery is going to come to you like a bolt of lightning. When you take 10 people in a recovery group, you get 10 different ways they recover. But recovery doesn’t just mean you’re not using drugs anymore. It means you completely changed your habits, lifestyles, relationships, all of that. You can say “I don’t use drugs anymore,” but you still lie. And you still jump over BART [fare gates] and don’t pay. You’re not recovered because you got to get your life together and be a responsible member of society. You can’t do that if you got all those lingering things like still hanging out with your partners on the corner.
There’s a woman named Sheila who lives in the Tenderloin and who [was] my girl. I loved her to death when I lived on the streets, and I love her to death right now. When I see her, maybe once a year or so, she’s still there and she’s just, “Can I come home with you?” My answer, as always, is no. Can’t do it. It’s about my new life and my life is more important to me than anything.
When I do see her once a year I don’t even stop walking. I say “Hey baby, how you doing? I hope you’re OK. Here’s a few dollars if you need it,” and I just keep moving.
I pray for her every day. I’m not being selfish or an asshole. I just have to ensure that I adhere to my program. ’Cause I like my new life. I look at situations like Philip Seymour Hoffman, clean for 20 years. And he went out and died. I always look at that, and I refuse to do that.