San Francisco officials are moving to close two youth-focused health clinics to address a significant budget shortfall, with the closures reportedly planned for this summer. The Michael Baxter Larkin Street Youth Clinic in the Tenderloin and the Cole Street Youth Clinic in the Haight are among three city health programs slated for closure, according to staff notified of the decision.
Services at Risk
The two youth clinics serve transitional-aged youth ages 12-25, a significant number of whom are LGBTQ. The Baxter clinic offers HIV, sexual health, and mental health services, as well as substance use counseling and primary care. The Cole Street Clinic provides birth control, sexually transmitted disease and HIV testing and treatment, PEP and PrEP for post- and pre-HIV exposure, respectively, and other services. Seven other youth clinics exist across the city where residents would need to travel to access care.
Larkin Street CEO Sherilyn Adams characterized the proposed closures as “a profound loss for young people in the Tenderloin and Haight-Ashbury.” She noted that other primary health clinics in the Tenderloin focus on adult care and often require health insurance, which many young people seeking care do not have. Adams stated that remaining youth clinics are not centrally located, requiring use of transportation and presenting “real access barriers for young people already in crisis.”
Budget Constraints and Opposition
Mayor Daniel Lurie asked the Department of Public Health to cut approximately $40 million over the next two years, following a $17 million cut the previous year. The Health Commission signed off on the $17 million in cuts earlier this year. City leaders are attempting to close the city’s $877 million budget deficit.
The Service Employees International Union Local No. 1021 is organizing opposition to all three closures. The union is rallying support at the San Francisco Health Commission meeting scheduled for Monday, April 20, at 4 p.m. in room 408 of City Hall, and at a rally on Wednesday, April 15, at noon outside San Francisco Zuckerberg General Hospital and Trauma Center. A behavioral health clinician at the Baxter clinic noted that closing the facility “would erase that history” of the clinic’s namesake, Michael Baxter, a gay man who directed primary youth programs at the health department until his death in 2015.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.ebar.com/story/165208/Health/Health