Q: Tell us about you and the organization you work for.

My name is Gregory Nottage. I’m the executive director of Streets Team Enterprises, which is the ESE division of Downtown Streets Team in the San Francisco Bay area.

I oversee and create programing for our primary population, unhoused individuals; 92% of our workforce right now is currently on the streets but showing up every day. The other piece of that focuses on reentry, as well. There’s a lot of correlation between the two.

I look for gaps in areas that can create employment opportunities.

Q: What brought you to this work?

I have been with Downtown Streets for three and a half years. Prior to that, I was at Community Housing Partnership for four years. And before that, I was in substance abuse treatment in Berkeley for two and a half years. And prior to that, I was incarcerated for 19 years and eight months, convicted of a first-degree murder I didn’t commit.

In November 2013, the guy that committed the murder came forth and I got released. And so, I ended up in Berkeley with $200 to my name, no place to live. Got connected with options, moved to a different transitional housing. They gave me a part time job making ten bucks an hour. I thought it was killing it because I was making $10 an hour. And Doctor Cody, the founder, saw something in me I didn’t see in myself. And she really encouraged me to go back to school, so that by that September, I was enrolled full time at San Francisco State, got my bachelor’s in criminal justice, my master’s in counseling psychology, and the rest is history.

Q: How does your lived expertise inform your approach to leadership?

Because of my experience, I think I have a different, more empathetic view around the struggle, and [I can see] there are multiple pieces. I can support my staff to have a different understanding around what challenges [our participants] may be facing. 

The other thing is, I’m a different executive director. I go out with my crews, I’ll put on a vest, I’ll pick up litter on the side of the freeway, I’ll power wash with them. Whatever job they do, I’ll do it with them. That really informs for me what their barriers are at work.

We’re that first stepping stone, because it’s a lot easier to get a job once you have a job. We are a very low barrier employer, and the leap from being an unhoused individual to going to work at McDonald’s, for example, is a pretty big leap. McDonald’s really doesn’t care what’s going on in your life. They just want you to show up, serve the food, go home. And employees may have struggles. They may not make it into work today because they have their belongings and their encampment got raided.

And so, for us, the view we take on that is we want to get curious. We want to understand what the challenges are. We’re not going to document you for not showing up to work today or for having a bad day. We understand, and we want to work with you on that. We don’t want to be that employer that is now another barrier for you.

My goal is to rewrite what the identity is of an employer and give people second, third, fourth, fifth chances.

Q: What’s something you wish people knew about the people you work with?

They’re amazing, resilient, strong human beings. They’re survivors. Generally in society, we see somebody and form an opinion right away. We have a narrative, an identity that we attach to the system, to really anybody, without being curious, without getting to know the individual.

And so, for me, I’d encourage the public to get curious. Just say hi. Don’t be afraid. Just because somebody is in that current situation, you don’t know what led them there. You don’t know what their skills, their talents, their abilities are. All you see is their current state.

Once you get curious and start asking questions and get to know people, the stories are amazing. They’re heartbreaking sometimes, but they’re amazing human beings.

More on Streets Team Enterprises.

Streets Team Enterprises is a CA RISE partner and nonprofit organization that helps individuals attain permanent employment by providing training and a transitional paying job.