By Bianca Bryant
\n<\/b>Medill Reports<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 In the middle of the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, Kent McCormick isn’t looking to just hand out another brochure or meal, he\u2019s looking deeper to form relationships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n McCormick, the director of restoration initiatives at Youth With A Mission\u00a0 has spent 14 of his 30 years living and working in the neighborhood. From his residence above the community center, he watches over a district he describes as \u201cfundamentally unpretentious\u201d and \u201cthe most special place in San Francisco,\u201d despite its reputation for grit.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the organization\u2019s site, \u201cYWAM San Francisco is a non-profit organization that seeks to engage the city of San Francisco with a loving God by reaching out to each sphere of society in unique, relevant and creative ways.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe host a community center to give people a place of peace in the middle of the chaos,\u201d McCormick said. \u201cWe\u2019re really focused on relationships over services.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n McCormick said the Tenderloin is home to approximately 36,000 low-income residents and up to 8,000 people experiencing homelessness. While the neighborhood is dense with government-subsidized Single Resident Occupancy\u00a0 buildings and social services, McCormick said the primary struggle isn’t a lack of resources but \u201crelational poverty.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The nature of the neighborhood\u2019s challenges has turned more lethal in recent years. McCormick noted a drastic shift in the local drug supply, moving from a mix of meth, heroin and cocaine to a market dominated almost exclusively by fentanyl.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been serving here 14 years, but I\u2019ve never seen drug overdoses like I have over the last five years,\u201d McCormick said.<\/span><\/p>\n The numbers tell a staggering story: In his first five years in the Tenderloin, McCormick saw only three overdoses and never had to administer Narcan. In the past four years, he said he has used the opioid-reversal medication to save nearly 80 people. Just this past Wednesday, he revived a man on the sidewalk in front of the building.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese are not my clients, they\u2019re my neighbors and my friends,\u201d McCormick said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard enough to watch a stranger overdose and die. It\u2019s even harder to watch your friend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The impact of YWAM\u2019s people-centered approach is visible in residents like Elizah \u201cEli\u201d Lane. Lane, who once lived in a tent outside the YWAM building, is now housed in the nearby Windsor Hotel.<\/span><\/p>\n For Lane, the center\u2019s appeal is the authenticity of the staff, all of whom are trained in trauma-informed care and verbal de-escalation.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou can tell right when they talk, they come from the heart,\u201d Lane said. \u201cYou get somebody that\u2019s coming from the heart, you\u2019re more apt to listen to him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Lane called the new influx of drugs senseless, with fentanyl being more lethal than its predecessors. Lane said many young people are arriving from places like Oregon, seeking cheaper costs of the drug.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Through his relationship with the center, Lane said his temper has decreased and he has re-evaluated his relationship with God since losing his son.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy son took his life. And I blamed Him,\u201d Lane said. \u201cIt took me a long time to get over it. It is hard to believe, it\u2019s something you can\u2019t touch, can\u2019t see, you can\u2019t hear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lane commends the YWAM staff\u2019s commitment to the neighborhood and residents who come in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou know, to stay here and put up with this takes a lot of heart,\u201d he said. \u201cMakes you have to believe in God. They got me to start believing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As San Francisco continues to adjust to a post-COVID-19 landscape of empty tech offices and shifting mayoral priorities to revitalize downtown, McCormick said YWAM is doubling down on its relational model. Lane highlighted plans to open a recovery home in the coming months with no time limit on residency.<\/span><\/p>\n For McCormick, the goal remains to bridge the gap between the beautiful characters of the Tenderloin and the rest of the city.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou haven\u2019t really experienced San Francisco if you haven\u2019t been to the Tenderloin,\u201d McCormick said. \u201cPractice curiosity over assumption. When you sit with people and you hear their stories, you realize like, \u2018Oh, this person\u2019s actually not that different from me.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Bianca Bryant is a sports media specialization graduate student at Medill.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Bianca Bryant Medill Reports SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 In the middle of the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, Kent McCormick isn’t looking to just hand out another brochure or meal, he\u2019s looking deeper to form relationships.\u00a0 McCormick, the director of restoration initiatives at Youth With A Mission\u00a0 has spent 14 of his 30 years living […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":765,"featured_media":106442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5545,5543,31,5546,5544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medill-explores-2026","category-msj26","category-sports","category-super-bowl-lx","category-winter-2026"],"yoast_head":"\n