About Us
Our Mission
Downtown Streets Team builds Teams that restore dignity, inspire hope, and provide a pathway to recover from homelessness.
Team Members are unhoused neighbors or folks at risk of experiencing homelessness.They receive access to case management, system navigation, and employment placement services from trained DST Case Managers and Employment Specialists.Teams engage in community beautification and clean-up projects that help challenge common negative perceptions of homelessness.
Our Locations
We operate in 20 communities across Northern and Central California. The cities listed below are home to DST Teams. Click on a location to learn more.
Our Team Members
Team Members are individuals experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. They hear about our services through peer-to-peer outreach from current members of the Team. Each is committed to finding their path out of homelessness! Click the button below to meet some of these amazing people.
Our Staff and Board
The staff at Downtown Streets Team is a group of passionate and eclectic world-changers who care deeply about making the world a better, cleaner place that is more equitable for all of the people in it.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
We believe that homelessness is not an identity, but an experience shaped by intersectional identities.
DEIB Mission Statement: To foster an inclusive and supportive workplace environment where all employees feel a heightened sense of acceptance and belonging. By implementing an education program, including trainings and workshops, engaging events and purposeful activities, we aim to create a culture where diversity is celebrated and every person's contributions are respected and valued.
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1. As a first step, we hired a DEIB Manager.
2. In an ongoing effort to ensure we foster a culturally inclusive work environment, we have restructured our interviewing and hiring processes to ensure there is a DEIB representative present along every step of the way.
3. We have incorporated DEIB into our professional development opportunities and live training sessions for all employees. Some recent examples include a training on unconscious biases and microaggressions.
4. We prioritize the creation of safe spaces in our organization so that all employees can thrive in their roles. These include the CARE Café and Steam Machine which are supportive, non-hierarchical, peer-led discussion forums that allow staff to share and process the challenges of working in an emotionally charged nonprofit environment.
5. We have created an Employee Resource Group (ERG) which is a voluntary employee-led group whose purpose is to foster a more inclusive workplace through openly sharing feedback, creating educational content for staff, and reviewing company practices to ensure they are conducive to our DEI effort. This group is comprised of employees that have diverse perspectives, experiences, and job levels.
6. It is a priority for us to ensure our best practices reflect our DEIB commitment. We are dedicated to providing individualized support for everyone we serve because we know that each individual's journey is different. We provide case management and employment support through a cultural humility lens, we see every interaction as an opportunity to learn more about the complex experience of homelessness so that we can be more effective allies.
7. We approach the issue of homelessness through a systemic and intersectional lens. Our Team Members are often multi-marginalized and that has a huge impact on their experience of homelessness; it is essential for us to understand how intersectional identities shape a Team Member’s path to self-sufficiency.
8. DST strives to make all staff members feel like this is a place they belong, where their voice is not only heard but valued, and where they can exist as their whole selves.
9. We observe cultural holidays like Juneteenth, Rosa Parks Day, Cesar Chavez Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Additionally, every employee is given a day off of their choosing in celebration of their heritage and culture.
10. We celebrate awareness and heritage months like Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and Pride Month by providing educational toolkits that contain history of the celebration, watch lists, reading lists, and ways to honor and celebrate.
Racial breakdown of DST employees
Diversity- the undeniable presence of all differences.
Equity- ensuring everyone has what they need to thrive.
Inclusion- ensuring every person feels respected, and supported, regardless of their background.
Belonging- ensuring employees feel accepted, valued, and included.
A History of Downtown Streets Team
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2005
While on sabbatical from the tech world, Eileen Richardson began volunteering at the Food Closet in Palo Alto and soon took on the role of manager. From her post at the pantry, Richardson came to know members of the local unhoused community and to appreciate the large effect that small gestures had on their outlook and self-esteem.
The stage was set for the idea of DST when the results of a survey conducted by the Palo Alto Business Association identified litter and panhandling to be top concerns among small businesses. A local coffee shop owner explained that while they had been in Venezuela, they would ask local unhoused people to help clean up the shop at the end of the day in return for dinner. Would a similar plan work in Palo Alto? A program that supported unhoused neighbors, removed trash from the downtown area, and improved the conditions for small businesses was a triple win. The rest is history.
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2009
DST wins “Top 50 Innovations in Local Government” from Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance for the Voluntary Work Experience Program; and receives a $100k investment from the Peery Foundation
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2011
San Jose Team launched
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2012
Sunnyvale Team launched
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2013
San Rafael Team launched as the first Team outside of Santa Clara County
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2015
DST celebrates 10 years with the launch of its first social enterprise, KARTMA– a coffee cart employing Team Members at a living wage and gives them a fresh start in their career; KARTMA is now a mobile game provider that can be found in Spark Park in San Francisco
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2016
San Francisco and Hayward Teams launched
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2017
Sacramento, Novato, and Santa Cruz Teams launched
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2018
DST’s Volunteer Work Experience Program is named one of only five “Evidence-Based Best Practices in Ending Homelessness” in the State of California, according to the Homelessness Task Force Report released by the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties
DST’s founder named one of 30 Visionaries by The New York Times
Oakland, Berkeley, and West Sacramento Teams launched; Marin Mobile Care, our second social enterprise launched. Marin Mobile Care provides showers and an opportunity for outreach to unsheltered individuals in Marin County
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2019
Redwood City, Modesto, and Salinas Teams launched
Streets Team Enterprises incorporated into DST as social enterprise workforce development division with Gregory Nottage as its Executive Director
DST’s founder honored with the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award
DST’s founder named finalist for the SF Chronicle’s Visionary of the Year
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2020
Petaluma Team launched
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2021
DST’s founder receives “Advocate for the Homeless Award” from the California Travel Association
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2022
Streets Team Enterprises launched a Back2Work Program in partnership with Caltrans and the Butte County of Education that employs freeway cleanup crews in San Jose and in cities throughout the North Bay, including Santa Rosa, Napa, and Fairfield.