"On a sunny Tuesday morning, at the intersection of Larkin and Cedar streets in the Tenderloin, Travis Foster greeted passers-by. "Hey, fellas. How y'all doing today? Good, good. All right, take it easy." Dressed in reflective purple vests and equipped with grabber tools, Foster and his colleague Tyrone Kilson plucked litter off the sidewalk, tossing it into a wheeled trash can."
""Nobody gives them a hard time," said Foster, about the people that he reaches out to. "We're trying to be helpful and give our resources- as well as, you know, seeing how they're doing in that part of the day." Foster and Kilson are new to the ambassador program, having both joined in recent weeks. The realities they confront in their work each day - homelessness, poverty, and addiction - can be difficult for the men to witness."
""I mean, seeing some of the stuff sometimes can be like, you know what I mean? Get in your head, but you just gotta stay determined," Kilson said. As the clock neared 10:30 a.m., a man approached the pair and introduced himself. "I live on this alley," the man said, pointing to the graffiti-lined street behind him. "We appreciate it," he added, alluding to the men's work. These interactions are not uncommon, according to Foster."
Travis Foster and Tyrone Kilson work as community ambassadors for GLIDE in the Tenderloin, cleaning sidewalks and picking up litter while wearing reflective purple vests and using grabber tools. They patrol intersections like Larkin and Cedar, remove feces and trash, and wheel debris to trash cans. Their street cleaning doubles as outreach: they watch for people who appear in need and direct them to GLIDE resources including free meals, housing assistance, and employment help. Both men joined the ambassador program recently and draw on troubled pasts to connect with neighbors. The work exposes them to homelessness, poverty, and addiction, requiring determination.
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