Delancey Street Foundation
Dr. Mimi Halper Silbert, President
600 Embarcadero
San Francisco, Calif. 94107
(415) 957-9800

This well-known and widely praised program literally seems almost too good to be true. Visualize this: A full square block of stylish new stucco and tile buildings on San Francisco's busy Embarcadero, featuring nearly 200 pricey-looking townhouses, well-kept parks, a Town Hall, small businesses and a fancy restaurant with a maitre-d' standing proudly at the door -- staffed entirely by ex-convicts, former drug abusers and formerly homeless people, some 450 of these folks pulling themselves up by the bootstraps through an organization that they run themselves, led by an unpaid staff of exactly one: Co-founder and President/CEO Mimi Silbert.

Delancey Street's basic premise is very simple, explained Gerald Miller, a soft-spoken ex-con in a conservative dark suit, who's pulled himself up by his own bootstraps and now helps others do the same: "All you need to do to get in here is write and ask. We'll accept people from all over the U.S., but transportation is not paid."

The organization's 1,000 participants are three-fourths male and about equally divided among Anglo, black and Hispanic. About 60 percent come from the criminal-justice system as parolees, and about one-third have been homeless.

New arrivals make a two-year commitment (although the doors aren't locked, and participants may choose to leave at any time); most actually stay three or four years before moving on. Newcomers start at the bottom, living in dorm-like rooms with eight or nine roommates and taking on daily maintenance chores such as sweeping, mopping and caring for the facility's tidy parks.

Operating on an "each one teach one" basis, participants quickly move up the ladder, taking on more responsible jobs and quickly moving into positions where they oversee newer arrivals. First goal is the high-school equivalency certificate, quickly followed by hands-on experience in Delancey Street's training businesses, which include a high-tech print shop, a moving and trucking operation, paratransit services, an advertising-specialty operation involving the sale of college and institutional souvenirs, catering, and the restaurant. By the time participants are ready to leave, they've typically received the equivalent of a high-school diploma and thorough training in at least three job skills, and had plenty of opportunity to supervise and work out their management talents.

Again, this is all done within Delancey Street's internal structure, managed by the residents themselves, with only three basic rules: No violence, no threats of violence, and no drugs or alcohol. Remarkably, Silbert says the organization's 23-year history is unmarred by violence.

Even without a staff, Miller said, it costs an average of $10,000 per resident per year to run Delancey Street, an annual outlay amounting to $4.5 million; that, and the $30 million capital investment in the organization's 350,000-square-foot complex, completed in 1989, were all raised privately through private grants, community contributions, an annual Christmas-tree drive and in-kind services, with a great deal of the work done by the residents themselves. (Almost 300 people were trained in the building trades further demonstrating the effectiveness of training business for non-profits.)

Delancey Street has come a long way since Silbert and her partner, the late John Maher (himself an ex-felon and former drug addict) started an informal support operation for a handful of drug addicts in their San Francisco apartment. They've established satellite programs in Los Angeles, New Mexico, North Carolina and upstate New York. And most important, they've touched the lives of 10,000 people -- people like Gerald Miller, who didn't have much hope but now have jobs and productive lives to look forward to.

All the feature stories on @GRASS-ROOTS.ORG's pages are reported and written by Robin Garr, a prize-winning journalist who has visited more than 500 innovative grassroots programs in all 50 states since 1990.

Browse his book, Reinvesting In America, at Amazon.com.

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