Laptop thefts hit Tenderloin nonprofit that helps homeless
The staff of Code Tenderloin arrived at its Taylor Street office early last week to the disheartening news of the theft of 18 MacBooks, which were used to teach programming and job skills to the nonprofit’s formerly incarcerated and homeless clientele.
“They ransacked the whole place,” Code Tenderloin founder Del Seymour said. “It’s a shared workplace, and they somehow got through the front door, got to our particular office, and they broke the locks out.”
Burglaries are common in San Francisco, which in 2017 boasted the dubious honor of highest property crime rate per capita of any large city in the country, according to the FBI. But advocates said the theft was especially shocking because the equipment is used for a good cause.
Code Tenderloin offers homeless people,
lowincome students and the formerly incarcerated access to workforce development programs.
This summer, Code Tenderloin is training 60 high school students through Mayor London Breed’s Opportunities for All initiative. Job training is yearround for adults, and it includes interview preparation and web development, according to its website.
Items stolen included laptops, iPads and approximately $900 in Visa and Target gift cards, Seymour said.
San Francisco police said no suspect has been identified in the burglary, discovered Tuesday.
Code Tenderloin stores some of its laptop inventory in other places, so classes will continue, but replacing the iPads and MacBooks will be a hefty cost that Seymour estimated could be upward of $40,000 when factoring in software updates and refurbishing any used computers the organization obtains.
“For a nonprofit to be hit, it’s a significant issue to have to deal with that,” said Lisa Burger, the executive director of Independent Arts and Media, which sponsors Code Tenderloin.
Most of the organization’s equipment was donated by local tech companies, she said. Previously, Twitter provided $25,000 to the organization for an expansion into San Francisco’s Western Addition.
Seymour said he knew the risk of opening a nonprofit in the Tenderloin. As the unofficial “mayor” of the 16squareblock district of the city and an exoffender given a second chance to help others, he said businesses have to be diligent about guarding their property.
The Tenderloin’s danger reinforces the staff’s need to stay in the neighborhood, even with the technological setback.
“When you bring people in with serious problems, there’s a chance (for crime), but that’s not gonna make us stop dealing with that population. Homelessness, recidivism, that’s the risk,” Seymour said. “But that’s the industry we are in — we’re dealing with people with problems and barriers.”
The staff also reported 30 laptops missing at the beginning of June after doing a routine inventory check.