Love what you read? Love that it was free?
Mission Local will never have a paywall. All our articles are free for everyone, always. Help us keep it that way — donate to our end-of-year fundraiser to make Mission Local free for your neighbors.
On a sunny Tuesday morning, at the intersection of Larkin and Cedar streets in the Tenderloin, Travis Foster greeted passers-by. “Hey, fellas. How y’all doing today? Good, good. All right, take it easy.”
Dressed in reflective purple vests and equipped with grabber tools, Foster and his colleague Tyrone Kilson plucked litter off the sidewalk, tossing it into a wheeled trash can.
“First we go around and we clean up, because you see, there’s a lot of stuff going around, feces, trash, all of that,” Kilson said, pointing to the road.
Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.
Both are community ambassadors for GLIDE, a church that runs an array of social service programs in the neighborhood.
Cleaning the streets serves a larger purpose — the pair also keep an eye out for people who look like they’re in need, so that they can direct them towards GLIDE’s resources, which include free meals, as well as help with housing and employment, Kilson said.
Travis Foster, GLIDE community ambassador, on Cedar Street. Photo by Béatrice Vallières.
“Nobody gives them a hard time,” said Foster, about the people that he reaches out to. “We’re trying to be helpful and give our resources— as well as, you know, seeing how they’re doing in that part of the day.”
Foster and Kilson are new to the ambassador program, having both joined in recent weeks. The realities they confront in their work each day — homelessness, poverty, and addiction — can be difficult for the men to witness.
“I mean, seeing some of the stuff sometimes can be like, you know what I mean? Get in your head, but you just gotta stay determined,” Kilson said.
As the clock neared 10:30 a.m., a man approached the pair and introduced himself. “I live on this alley,” the man said, pointing to the graffiti-lined street behind him. “We appreciate it,” he added, alluding to the men’s work.
These interactions are not uncommon, according to Foster.
Tyrone Kilson, GLIDE community ambassador, on Cedar Street. Photo by Béatrice Vallières.
Foster and Kilson described their pasts as “troubled,” but in this kind of work, it can be a helpful connection.
“Somebody who’s never been where they are can’t come up and try to get them to go somewhere they ain’t been, you know what I mean?” said Kilson. “It has to be somebody who’s been down where they’ve been, been down bad, been on drugs, been homeless, been all in the same situations.”
Join the 3,250 readers who keep Mission Local free for all!
Because of you, Mission Local reached and surpassed our $300,000 year-end fundraising goal. All we can say is thank you.
Thank you for choosing to invest in a local newsroom rooted in San Francisco’s communities — one that listens first and reports deeply.
If you haven’t yet had a chance to give, it’s not too late to be part of this community. Your contribution today helps sustain the reporting our city relies on all year long.
We’re grateful you’re here — and we’d be honored to have you join our donors.