Believing In Our Humanity

We Need You.

This year marked a significant milestone for Hospitality House – 50 years of history! As we celebrate a half-century of struggle, triumph, and more struggle that began for us in 1967, it’s important to also acknowledge the significant progress we’ve made along the way. Hospitality House has utilized an innovative, peer-based model that combines direct service, community building, and leadership development. We proudly note that our current Executive Director is formerly homeless, and a former resident of Hospitality House’s shelter program.

Over the years, Hospitality House has grown to six programs, four locations, three neighborhoods – while still drawing its strength from the rich mosaic of cultures, languages, and ethnic diversity that defines the Tenderloin, Mid-Market, and Sixth Street neighborhoods. We’ve remained a community of trauma survivors; of poets, artists, and dreamers; of those with direct experience of oppression, of those seeking basic shelter and refuge, of those rediscovering the capacity to be change agents – all coming together to give true meaning to our theory of change.  

We Need You To Invest In Us.

As you read this, Hospitality House is actively engaging City leaders in constructive dialogue about its peer-based model, and how the City’s overall strategy to combat homelessness and addiction can best utilize elements of the peer-based model – equals helping equals. Furthermore, we acknowledge that government support alone is not the best way forward for us, which is why we need individuals like you, now more than ever.  Hospitality House’s survival as a peer-led, community-driven institution requires more people – like you - sharing a hopeful vision for the future, coupled with sustained commitment that supports new ideas, newer networks of engaged people, and approaches that have lasting impact on lives, on futures, on communities.

Thank You For Believing In Us.

We value every community member as an asset, and we believe firmly that no matter their circumstance, that people can.  Working together, we can show people how. And every day, we help people do.  By believing in us, you help us transform pain into possibilities, celebrate the power of people fighting for the soul of the City, and turn trauma into triumph – together. 

As we begin the next chapter in our organizational journey, Hospitality House is more committed than ever to strengthening our community’s capacity for charting its own future, and we relish our role as an incubator of civic participation and resident leadership. As we begin our next half-century of improving lives, lifting up voices, and building community power, we need you to join us. 

[Video produced by Marcus Cheeks and Vitamin Productions. Special thanks to Jon Myles, Sylvester "Slick" Guard, and Darnell Boyd for sharing their stories.]