The making of a resource center for homeless people in San Francisco's Mission District: a community collaboration.

The Mission District of San Francisco is a diverse neighborhood with substantial populations of inunigraiit families from Mexico and Central America; artists, activists, and other people living alternative lifestyles; young dot-com professionals; and a high concentration of homeless people (Little & Murray, 2005). The community has a similarly diverse population of poor and socially v\ilnerable individuals, including homeless people, people with a mental illness, drug users, undocumented immigrants, and sex workers. Historically, there has been a severe shortage of publicly fianded social, mental health, and medical services in the Mission District. In 1999 a group of community nonprofit service providers, advocacy groups, and concerned neighbors called for a dropin center to serve the Mission District's poor and vulnerable population. With such diverse populations coexisting in one neighborhood, the best approach to starting a resource center was a coalition of agencies representing the needs and concerns of various constituencies. Such a coalition was formed in 1999, consisting of representatives from community-based organizations, including Mission Mental Health, Mission Council for Outpatient Substance Abuse, Mission Neighborhood Health Center. Mission Housing Development Corporation, Mission Agenda, the Mayor's Office on Homelessness, the Department of Human Services, and the Department of Public Health.