Leroy Looper: The Father of the TenderloinRandy Shawbyline‚ Feb. 26‚ 2007The Clean City Coalition honored Leroy Looper last week for his role in launching its success. Looper, whose 1977 autobiography was serialized in our pages, also helped start the national organization YouthBuild, and operated San Francisco’s first drug treatment program. When Leroy and Kathy Looper’s Reality House West purchased the Cadillac Hotel in 1977, it became the first nonprofit owned SRO in California. The Cadillac became the model for San Francisco’s widely praised reliance on supportive housing as the key strategy to reduce homelessness. Looper initiated the rezoning of the Tenderloin in 1981 that preserved its residential status, started the area’s first anti-crime group, helped secure a Tenderloin school, and did all of this while joining with Kathy in running a nationally acclaimed Board and Care facility for 27 mental patients out of their home on Guerrero Street. |