Thousands of people facing these situations have gone to live and work at Delancey Street. These men and women, who range in age from 12 to 68, build their own buildings, run their own businesses, nurture their own friendships, and cook their own meals. Most residents enter Delancey Street functionally illiterate with no saleable work experience, and leave two to four years later with a high school equivalency and three marketable skills.
Training extends beyond the academic and vocational.
Delancey Street builds the interpersonal social survival skills and attitudes, values, sense of responsibility and self-reliance necessary to live successfully without resorting to drugs or crime. Each resident acts as both mentor and mentored in the development of life skills. The thousands of men and women who have graduated from Delancey Street now work as lawyers, truck drivers, salespeople, health professionals, mechanics, contractors, and even the president of the San Francisco Housing Commission and a deputy sheriff. Stephanie Muller has been a Delancey Street resident for eight years. I grew up in Berkeley, and when I was around 13, I started using drugs.