by Volunteers at Martin de Porres House of Hospitality
On a recent afternoon in the Tenderloin, Mayor Daniel Lurie approached a man on the street and asked where he was from. “Santa Rosa,” the man replied. “What brought you to San Francisco?” Lurie asked. The man explained that he had lost his housing—and concurrently his job and means of survival—and had come to San Francisco to access services that could sustain him. He said that Lurie curtly ended the conversation, nearly spitting him in the face, and said, “You better believe we’re shutting all that down.”
And we do see signs of shutting down services. As of April 1, 2025, due to pressure from police and our neighboring real estate property owners, operational staff at Martin de Porres House of Hospitality have stopped providing to-go cups as a part of our services and meeting the needs of our unhoused and marginally housed charges.
It never had occurred to volunteers at Martin De Porres that our establishment would attract the ire of the mayor. For over 50 years, Martin’s has continuously served San Franciscans as a free restaurant. With origins in the Catholic Worker movement, Martin’s is philosophically and practically devoted to nonviolence, personalism, compassion, care and stewardship.
Despite our site’s status as a legal sanctuary, we have had the mayor, the police, and the police captain come to investigate the premises and attempt to informally breach our gates. Emboldened cops, social workers, and government officials under the new administration are working at a breakneck pace to arrest and cite our unhoused neighbors, to dispossess, displace, and discourage San Francisco’s poor and the non-governmental groups of people working to support them.
Lurie’s election comes at a time when swift, violent measures to “clean the streets” have been legitimized and made more enforceable by the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Grants Pass. Wealthy San Franciscans march towards conservatism, with sensational doom-loop narratives that blame homeless San Franciscans for the economic ruin of our city. As devastating as it is unsurprising, Lurie pushes the propaganda that homelessness is the failure of the individual rather than a system. There are no plans to improve welfare, simply to target and eliminate the weakest, most marginalized members of society.
For hundreds of San Franciscans who eat breakfast and lunch with us each day, Martin’s is a safe and wholesome place. We serve beloved pancakes and oatmeal for breakfast, healthy homemade soups for lunch, and provide bathroom and shower facilities throughout the day. Maybe most importantly, however, since food can be accessed at soup kitchens throughout San Francisco, Martin’s offers a sense of ease and peace that can be hard to come by for people in these times. It is life-sustaining and vital to have a place to relax in the sun, to exist without fear of the cops or public works crews taking all your belongings, without the threat that you might be institutionalized in a jail, a hospital or a rehab facility for saying or doing the wrong thing. We steward a space where we hope people can come as they are and feel truly at home: to be at ease, relax, make art, hang out and celebrate. Food is a human right. Freedom, abundance, creation and community are human needs.
As it stands, Martin’s is fighting an uphill battle with the unending cosmeticizing of the streets. They depict us as a blemish on the neighborhood. We know our space and services are vitally important to the community. Many different people come through to support Martin’s, all who put their time in, put some spirit in the space by maintaining a hope and stead that is necessary for this effort to go on.
We enforce a no-drug policy and nonsmoking policy, as we understand that we cannot operate as both a safe-use site and a kitchen. Our policy is noncarceral and nonviolent. We maintain respect and compassion for our guests who have a need we cannot fulfill or protect.
This is a huge change in our status quo. The divisive powers that be continue to criminalize homelessness, criminalize food, and take away distributors of vital services given to people who need it for free.
About Martin’s: We provide breakfast, lunch, showers and a safe communal space to all, with no barrier of identity or literacy. We are an independent (non-government funded) community space and we are sustained by the continuous support of our guests, volunteers and greater community.
