The Dish on the Grand Opening of Castro Health Center, "Strut" (Part One)

      The fun and flirty Castro neighborhood has a new arrival. Named "Strut," the 3-floor-edifice at 470 Castro Street is the fresh home of salubrious health for San Francisco's community of gay, bisexual and transgender men. Strut shares the same building that houses Blush, the Wine Bar, where just two doors down is the corner Walgreens, which is perfect for those patients who need to use the pharmacy (one of the few things that Strut does not contain on-campus). Neptune Landing was able to chat with Matthew Denckla, a long-time public health activist and board member of both Strut and its benefactor, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, about the building's inception and how it's a game-changer for SF's queer community.

 Strut Exterior

      First, the basics: Strut is a larger, enhanced version of the old Magnet, Castro's drop-in-clinic for gay, bi and trans men's sexual health. Like Magnet, Strut is an invented name. The idea for Strut began in earnest nearly a decade ago when administrators noticed that demand for services at Magnet kept rising every year. This popular drop-in-clinic was until very recently located in a smaller building around the block on 18th Street. "Magnet has been bursting at the seams for ten years, so the idea for a bigger building for Magnet was really clear around 2005," said Denckla. Originally a program of UCSF, Magnet was then acquired by the SF AIDS Foundation in 2007 "with the promise that the Foundation would find a larger space for it. That was supposed to happen in a few years and a few years turned into nine so Magnet has needed more room for a decade and everybody knew that and that's an open secret so getting commercial real estate organized and figuring out what we needed to do, that took a long time."

 Strut Board Member, Matthew Denckla

      While not purchasing the Castro location outright, they did sign "an incredibly rock hard lease [of 30 years] with an option to renew." Not only will services for gay, bi and trans men's health be expanded in this 15-million-dollar-building, it will also physically consolidate a number of different community and support groups. The lay-out, with its large windows, open staircases and roomy reception areas make it perfect for fundraisers and gatherings. The first floor, gobbled up in large parts by Blush, is otherwise mostly Strut office space. "The second floor is what was known as Magnet and [will] be called the 'Sexual Health Services Floor' (it's really dangerous to get yourself through that without lisping)," joked Denckla, "and the third floor will be a little thing of everything else: mental health services, community groups we're creating and other community groups we'll be working with in addition to a reception area that is flexible space."


      At least three programs have found a new home on Strut's 3rd floor. "Bridgemen" is a popular program encouraging men of all ages to be out-and-about and socially engaged and which often provides volunteering opportunities. The "Elizabeth Taylor 50-Plus Network" is a group for older gay, bi and trans men that has a wellness/social slant. Lastly is DREAAM ("Dare to Respect and Encourage African-American Men"), probably the most critical social group that Strut is choosing to house.

      The definition of the latter group has liberalized somewhat and for good reason as young, black men seroconvert (contract HIV) at much higher rates than other groups. This alarming trend is likely due to many reasons including racial bias in healthcare, insufficient healthcare infrastructure in poor neighborhoods and a secrecy around identifying as gay. "The focus [of DREAAM] remains on African-American men," said Denckla, "but their various friends and less-specifically identified colleagues in a younger age group started showing up so if there's a transgender African-American person we should welcome them as well and if there's a gay latino guy who prefers to hang out with African-American guys," he would be welcome too. "So when you look at their social supports you end up with a few ladies, and a few people who aren't African-American" etc.

 One of Strut's Reception Areas

   
      While these group members are thrilled with their new home, greater reception to Strut's presence in the Castro has likewise been positive. There has been some blowback that such "a shiny, new building" caters to a solely, male crowd in a city where identity politics can trump health care needs. "Because of the overwhelming need for services in our community," Denckla said, "a bunch of women got upset that Magnet didn't serve women but here's the fun facts: women can get served in a wide variety of other settings: Lyon Martin is a clinic that specifically serves women and lesbians. Magnet was the first and only place that was designed specifically for gay and bi men in the city of San Francisco. People would say: there's gotta be a gay men's clinic and I would say: Name it. And there would be a long silence, and I would say I'm proud to live in a city where there's a clinic for lesbians, a clinic for transgender folks at the famous Tom Waddell clinic named after the guy who started the Gay Games. So you could go down the list and see there's a clinic for non-English speaking Chinese people and for every single demographic you could possibly think of but magically not for gay men, so I don't feel bad about saying it's time to have clinic for us especially when women weren't being turned away from everywhere else."

      Still a big move can shake up the status-quo especially in the early days. While every city is unique, San Francisco may want to read a page out of Boston's playbook when Fenway Community Health Center moved from its condensed Back Bay location in 2009 to what would become "the largest LGBT health care, education and research center in the world" at its present multi-story location on Boylston Street. (Neptune Landing heard from a few Fenway employees who bemoaned the loss of intimacy with the enhanced office space and not being able to see and laugh with one's co-workers as frequently). Gripings aside, it is still better in terms of service to have everything be in one place. Anyone can agree that it's better to have a one-stop-shopping-scenario instead of driving around town all week. This is what Bain Consulting had found when they agreed to run a pro-bono survey for the Foundation.

      Bain found that "it's still too difficult for people to get services and access what they need as gay and bi men dealing with a multitude of problems so that's why we called it a health and wellness center. It sounds great that you would meet with me for problem A and I would say here's a business card and see this person about problem B but the reality is as soon as you leave the building the chances of you doing that start to tank and they get even worse if you have other problems like you are poor or homeless or hungry or not a legal American citizen."

      With this in mind, Strut will have mental health counselors and drug addiction specialists available if there are other issues piggybacking seroconversion, the fear of seroconversion or other risky patterns. With 50 people working in the building, there will be ample amounts of help but clients are advised to be patient as employees and administrators work out the kinks of room scheduling and other building logistics.

      With any big venture comes new job opportunities. So how many net jobs will be created with Strut's opening?

      "Hard to say," said Denckla, "a couple of dozen is probably the easy answer but some of what's going on in Strut is rearranging how the foundation delivers services in a new building. So we previously had a bunch of programs spread around a couple of buildings around the Castro and the concept was get it together and put it in one space. There are a few dozen positions that will be created in order to roll out programs and up the ability but of the 50 people, most of those aren't new positions, they are re-orged positions."

      People say life is not a dress rehearsal but operating a new health center comes with a learning curve. Like San Francisco, a city known for its earnestness and approachability, Strut may need its room to make mistakes in increasing its ability to deliver health care and wellness in a warm yet efficient fashion.

      "It may be that not all the programs work out at the same building and one of the programs has to move downtown," surmised Denckla. "It may be that we put too many people in one place; it's a tough call, given the number of people and all the excitement and I say this as a team player, not to be disrespectful to anyone, no one knows exactly how this is going to work, it's going to be more of an improv comedy than a Shakespeare play. It's gonna be like 'Who needed a costume? Oh wow, we don't have a costume for that ... okay!' Whereas Romeo and Juliet is pretty spelled out.

Strut is available for walk-in appointments especially for those men who do not have health insurance. For more information, visit http://strutsf.org/ or go to 470 Castro Street. Stay tuned for further details of Strut's operations in Part 2.