40 FOR 40: Respite Center - 2008

Among the triumphant events heralded in the year 2008 were the historic election of Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the US; the summer Olympics in China and the release of WALL-E, Pixar’s animated film about a lovable trash compactor.  Meanwhile, as the sub-prime mortgage crisis spread, Americans witnessed trillion-dollar bailouts of too-big-to-fail institutions.

At AND, we commenced design and renovation of a major health facility serving San Francisco’s homeless under the City’s Dept. of Public Health Office of Housing & Urban Health.

Opening its doors in mid-2009, the Medical Respite & Sobering Center has provided care for hundreds of people, primarily homeless patients released from San Francisco General Hospital.  Often upon leaving the hospital, such patients are urgently in need of shelter in order to fully recuperate. 

AND provided design through construction administration services for this $4.4 million project. At the respite center, clients can access a range of crucial health services from 24-hour medical care, clean beds, hot meals, hot showers, medication monitoring and transportation to follow-up appointments. They are allowed to stay anywhere from two to 8 weeks. 

Located on Mission St. between 7^th and 8^th Sts., the Center is next to St. Anthony Foundation’s clothing distribution center.  It is housed in a three-story building, with the ground floor for men; the third floor for women; plus dining and community rooms.  On the second floor are the headquarters for Community Awareness & Treatment Services, Inc. (CATS), the nonprofit which partnered with DPH to build the respite center that provides transportation and a host of other support services for the City’s adult homeless population.  AND is proud of its contribution to San Francisco’s respite care system helping society’s most vulnerable.