San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is facing pushback from workers, as well as District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, as he moves to close a free city clinic devoted to helping youth, some of them suffering from homelessness and mental health problems.
On April 6, unions representing nurses learned that the Michael Baxter Larkin Street Youth Clinic in the Tenderloin was one of three clinics being shut down as part of the mayor’s plan to lay off as many as 500 city workers across 18 different departments as part of $400 million in proposed cuts. Sophia Padilla, a therapist at the facility, also known as the Larkin Clinic, said she was shocked to learn the news that day from her managers.
Operating under the city’s Community Health Programs for Youth, and part of the Larkin Street Youth Services, the Larkin Clinic treats people between the ages of 12 to 24 years old. Padilla, who was not part of the first round of job cuts, said the clinic is a refuge for transient and homeless youth, some of whom suffer from severe mental health diagnoses such as suicidal ideation. The clinic intervenes, deescalates, and stabilizes patients, connecting them with psychiatric and longer-term care.
Padilla said she sent Supervisor Mahmood emails and Instagram direct messages for two weeks, sharing impact statements and flyers about the clinic’s planned closure, with no response. On Tuesday, when asked about the closures by Gazetteer SF, Mahmood said the Larkin Clinic’s fate hasn’t been decided.
“I stand with the community and share concerns about the potential closure,” Mahmood said in an emailed statement. “I have elevated these concerns to the Mayor’s Office, and understand that the clinic’s future is yet to be decided. I will continue to advocate for uninterrupted access to essential health services.”
In a separate email, Mahmood said he expects to get “greater clarity” about the Larkin Clinic within the next two months.
The city’s proposed closure of the Larkin Clinic, and a possible timeline for when it may happen, has not been made public. Mayor Lurie’s office and the Department of Public Health didn’t respond to requests for comment by press time.
Padilla said she learned last week that the city also plans to close the Cole Street Youth Clinic and South East Mission Geriatrics, which was first reported by Mission Local. While Padilla is not one of the first 127 city workers to get laid off last week, she said she is being moved to a different position at the Children’s Health Center at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
On Wednesday afternoon, Padilla will join city workers and union members at San Francisco General to protest the cuts. Many of them plan to attend a Health Commission meeting at City Hall on Monday to speak out about the clinic closures.
Padilla said most of the people she treats at the Larkin Clinic are over 18. The program she’s being moved to at San Francisco General only works with people under 18, meaning most of the young adults she treats now can’t be admitted in the program there. She said she is encouraged by Mahmood’s response, and hopes that he will “advocate alongside us” to Lurie.
“The Tenderloin has the highest population of youth in the entire city,” Padilla said. “We’re one of the only youth-centered clinics that they can access in their neighborhood. And so I think it’s a huge loss, and it’s telling those youth that a space that is dedicated to them — that they don't deserve it, when I really think that they do.”
