Social worker stabbed 4 times at SRO hotel in the Tenderloin

A San Francisco social worker was hospitalized Wednesday after being stabbed while working in a permanent supportive housing facility in the Tenderloin neighborhood, according to police and a representative from the social worker’s union.

A person living at the Windsor Hotel burst into the social worker’s office at the residential hotel and stabbed her four times, said Cheryl Thornton of SEIU 1021, the union that represents city workers. Thornton was not present during the stabbing but said she heard descriptions of the incident from eyewitnesses.

San Francisco police officers responded to reports of a stabbing in progress at the Eddy Street hotel around 11 a.m., said San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Kathryn Winters.

Police located the suspect and the knife allegedly used in the stabbing shortly after it occurred, Winters said. Officers arrested San Francisco resident Oscar Chatman, 27, who was booked on suspicion of attempted murder, vandalism and burglary at the San Francisco County Jail, where he remained Thursday morning, according to jail records.

Paramedics rendered aid to the victim, who was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Winters said.

The victim was a staff member with the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing’s Permanent Supportive Housing unit, according to the department.

The social worker remained hospitalized Thursday, said Thornton.

Thornton, a longtime union advocate, said social workers and other city workers feel unsafe working in the Tenderloin.

“It’s out of control,” she said.

Her comments come after hundreds of federal employees at the nearby Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street were told to work remotely due to deteriorating conditions outside the office building.