{"id":259431,"date":"2026-04-09T14:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259431\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T14:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:34:25","slug":"s-f-to-close-3-health-clinics-amid-budget-cuts-including-longtime-youth-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/259431\/","title":{"rendered":"S.F. to close 3 health clinics amid budget cuts, including longtime youth centers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

We\u2019re growing!<\/p>\n

Mission Local is expanding, adding dedicated neighborhood reporters across the city. We\u2019re also launching neighborhood landing pages with the latest news and resources. You can read more about it below.<\/p>\n

San Francisco will see the closure of three public health clinics in coming months, including two youth clinics in the Tenderloin and Haight-Ashbury amid an ongoing budget crunch, Mission Local has learned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Department of Public Health did not confirm the names of the clinics that are closing. But workers this week were told they were being reassigned from both the Cole Street Youth Clinic within Huckleberry Youth Programs, and the Michael Baxter Larkin Street Youth Clinic within the Tenderloin\u2019s Larkin Street Youth Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city has only a handful of clinics<\/a> for people ages 12 to 25. The clinics offer mostly drop-in care for a vulnerable demographic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mission<\/p>\n

Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether the third clinic expected to close is also catered to youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, a Department of Public Health spokesperson confirmed that the department plans to \u201cconsolidate\u201d three \u201clow-volume\u201d clinics amid a citywide deficit and federal and state cuts to Medi-Cal and Medicaid, but did not provide a timeline for doing so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lisa Cadillo, a medical evaluation assistant at Larkin Street\u2019s clinic, said that the clinic had seen a lower volume in recent years. Still, she said, the announcement on Monday that her workplace of 10 years was closing came as a \u201ctotal shock.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over the past couple years, Cadillo said the clinic was chronically understaffed and saw a revolving door of providers who were overwhelmed and at times, reluctant to work at that location.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely takes a different type of person to work in the Tenderloin, at the Larkin Street clinic,\u201d Cadillo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On a good day, she said about 10 kids would come in, but the care they received was more involved than at a typical health clinic. She worried about where her clients \u2014 some of whom are unhoused, transient, or undocumented \u2014\u00a0would go instead. By August or sooner, Cadillo was told she will be transferred to San Francisco General Hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to its 2024 impact report<\/a>, Larkin Street Youth Services served over 2,000 people in its various programs that year. Huckleberry Youth Programs reported in its last annual report that it served 518 youths at its two health clinics, and provided 608 with counseling services.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Huckleberry is one of San Francisco\u2019s longest-standing youth service providers \u2014\u00a0it opened the country\u2019s first shelter specifically for runaway and homeless youth in 1967. The organization\u2019s groundbreaking HIV prevention program eventually became its health clinic in 1992. It soon became the city\u2019s largest community-based adolescent health clinic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, things are different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another worker who works at one of the city\u2019s youth clinics, who is familiar with the matter but wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said that hours had been reduced at the Cole Street Clinic to two days a week \u2014\u00a0which meant fewer people were coming in, leading to further cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the clinic is closed, they\u2019re not going to come back,\u201d the worker said, emphasizing the need for drop-in service. \u201cThen they tell their friends that it\u2019s closed.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The low volume, in turn, became the reason for the closures announced this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s office has called for budget cuts across city departments, with the current two-year deficit around $643 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month, Lurie called on the Department of Public Health to cut an additional $40 million<\/a> from its budget, with half coming from community-based organizations and the other half from staff reductions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis may result in service reductions,\u201d read a memo at the time. This week, the city issued layoff notices for 127 positions across multiple departments, including the public health department, and more are expected.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The department told Mission Local that it has also \u201cidentified\u201d $226 million in savings that won\u2019t impact staff or programming, and that the city\u2019s general fund will help offset the federal cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The department spokesperson said that services provided by the clinics will continue despite the closures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a resource realignment \u2014 not a reduction in services,\u201d the statement said. \u201cEvery patient currently seen at these locations will be offered a seamless transition to another outpatient clinic, with no gap in care.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cadillo estimated that about half of her youth clients are from the Tenderloin, the neighborhood known for the highest density of children in the city. In the Tenderloin, youth services are practically synonymous with Larkin Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though at our clinic we didn\u2019t see that many people, it\u2019s not just an easy, \u2018Okay, let me check your ears and your stomach and have a great day,\u2019\u201d Cadillo said. When she sees her clients, she tries to lift them up, because \u201clife has torn them down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other worker said the small clinics \u201cbuild relationships\u201d to make the youths feel safe there, as compared to a \u201cvery big and intimidating adult clinic.\u201d All that work, they said, is \u201cso that when they\u2019re in crisis, they come to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keana Giles, the director of health services for Huckleberry who is not employed by the public health department, said she also learned abruptly this week about the imminent closure of the clinic, and had received little information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Giles said the health department never consulted Huckleberry about any strategies to keep the clinics open. She said \u201cthe impact to the community, staff and young folks who access our services, will be instant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

3,300 readers keep Mission Local free. Will you join them?\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are no paywalls at Mission Local. We believe San Francisco deserves critical, high-impact reporting that belongs to all its residents, not just those who can afford it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But free to read doesn\u2019t mean free to produce. We\u2019re a small, independent newsroom rooted in San Francisco\u2019s communities that only exists because people like you invest in the reporting that our city relies on all year round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keep Mission Local free for all by becoming a donor today.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re growing! Mission Local is expanding, adding dedicated neighborhood reporters across the city. We\u2019re also launching neighborhood landing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4735,1280,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-259431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-department-of-public-health","tag-health-care","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}