{"id":467869,"date":"2026-09-18T11:46:55","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467869\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:46:55","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T11:46:55","slug":"urban-alchemy-street-ambassadors-come-to-the-outer-richmond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467869\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban Alchemy street ambassadors come to the Outer Richmond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two street ambassadors on Wednesday morning approached a woman lying wrapped in a blanket on a grassy mound near the Great Highway.<\/p>\n

Urban Alchemy worker Roger Hill had given Anna five minutes to gather her things and leave.<\/p>\n

After a brief but contentious exchange, she picked up her head to reveal a face covered in scabs, and began walking her bike toward Ocean Beach, yards away. Then she turned and walked the other way, toward the Safeway across the street.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Urban Alchemy, the nonprofit founded in 2018 to tackle street conditions in San Francisco\u2019s core, has since gone national and is now growing within the city: It started patrolling in the Richmond District, around the Safeway and a plaza near the beach, in mid-August.<\/p>\n

So far, the newly arrived ambassadors largely appear to be moving unhoused people along. That and sweeping the street \u2014 much of their job is \u201chelping to maintain a safe and clean environment,\u201d said Jackie Thornhill, a spokesperson for the city\u2019s Department of Emergency Management, which coordinates street ambassador teams across the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have positive engagements with people, they clean up litter, they reverse overdoses, they help connect people to the teams that can connect them to services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And, when they deem it necessary, they call in the police.<\/p>\n

A set of contracts signed last year between City Hall and five ambassador programs \u2014 including Urban Alchemy, which was awarded over $24 million<\/a> \u2014 has expanded the nonprofit\u2019s reach beyond its original scope in the Tenderloin and areas near Market Street. One of those contracts put $1.8 million toward a new category of Urban Alchemy \u201ccommercial corridor\u201d teams, which are currently assigned to the Outer Richmond, Hayes Valley and the Castro.<\/p>\n

$24M+<\/p>\n

awarded to Urban Alchemy in this year\u2019s city ambassador contracts<\/p>\n

$1.8M<\/p>\n

set aside in one Urban Alchemy contract for new \u201ccommercial corridor\u201d teams<\/p>\n

Three Urban Alchemy ambassadors have been assigned since Aug. 19 to walk around the Outer Richmond Safeway. Commercial corridor assignments, Thornhill said, are generally \u201cbased on demonstrated need\u201d and arise out of discussions between the Department of Emergency Management, the mayor\u2019s office and district supervisors\u2019 offices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neighbors near the Safeway, a block from the beach between La Playa Street and 48th Avenue, have long complained of homelessness nearby. The site is slated for redevelopment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AUrban Alchemy ambassador Roger Hill sweeps the sidewalk by the Outer Richmond Safeway on Sept. 16, 2026. Photo by Nicholas David.<\/p>\n

Thornhill confirmed that the department of emergency management had coordinated with Supervisor Connie Chan\u2019s office. Chan\u2019s office did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

One Muni bus driver, whose route ends across the street and who often takes his break by the beach, pointed to the plaza, where he said unhoused people used to hang out. \u201cThere used to be about 10 people here,\u201d he said. \u201cNow there\u2019s none.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there were people elsewhere, and they knew about Urban Alchemy. On a recent Friday, Steven Stimbrosky and two other unhoused men sat across the street from the plaza, in the ice plants wedged between the Great Highway and the beachfront sidewalk. The men\u2019s belongings \u2014 bikes, jackets, suitcases, umbrellas \u2014 were stashed in carts. One man rolled a joint; Stimbrosky played guitar. The third man looked out at the ocean.<\/p>\n

Visibly sunburned and wearing open-toed sandals, Stimbrosky said that Urban Alchemy ambassadors had asked him to move spots \u201cevery day for the past two weeks.\u201d He said he spent most of his time between the plaza and the Safeway parking lot.<\/p>\n

His interactions with the ambassadors are usually amicable, he added.<\/p>\n

Then, as another man described a recent argument he\u2019d had with an Urban Alchemy ambassador, two U.S. Park Police officers and a park ranger approached.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust so you guys know, you guys can\u2019t be camping here,\u201d one of the officers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not camping, we\u2019re enjoying the landscape,\u201d yelled the man with the joint, apparently agitated. \u201cJust like all those white motherfuckers walking their dogs.\u201d He kept yelling.<\/p>\n

The officers asked the other men and this reporter to step away as they addressed him. A good-cop-bad-cop routine ensued. Eventually, the officers left without incident.<\/p>\n

Earlier that morning, the officers had detained a man who had allegedly wielded a weapon and made threats against Stimbrosky and others.<\/p>\n

Alongside police officers, an Urban Alchemy ambassador had responded, and the confrontation ended with the man being placed in a psychiatric hold.<\/p>\n

Stimbrosky said the ambassadors had been a helpful presence during the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were acting as mediators in that situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"BicyclesBikes and belongings under a tarp beside the Richmond District stretch of the Great Highway on Sept 16, 2026. Photo by Nicholas David.<\/p>\n

A recent Stanford University study<\/a> suggests that Urban Alchemy ambassadors have brought a meaningful reduction in crime to city streets. As part of its guiding philosophy, Urban Alchemy employs people who have been formerly incarcerated or have experienced addiction and homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be homeless myself,\u201d said Rolando Candia, one of the three Outer Richmond Urban Alchemy ambassadors. Candia said he got out of federal prison two months ago, after 13 years behind bars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was addicted, so I can relate and I empathize with them. It\u2019s hard, seeing people on the streets, sleeping with a blanket over them on the street. It\u2019s hard. I know it\u2019s hard for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Candia started working as an ambassador in August, and still wears an ankle monitor as he works to clean up trash and \u201crelocate the unhoused individuals.\u201d He rides public transit from Hayward five days a week to start work with the rest of the team from 7 a.m. until the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Asked where he expects the unhoused to go, Candia said: \u201cJust not in the area where I\u2019m basically responsible to keep clean and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two street ambassadors on Wednesday morning approached a woman lying wrapped in a blanket on a grassy mound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[4752,8670,1493,5466,236,976,79431,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-467869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-city-hall","tag-connie-chan","tag-homelessness","tag-nonprofits","tag-police","tag-richmond","tag-safe-streets","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\/467869","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=467869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}