Julie Gardner, who was born and raised in South Lake Tahoe, has recently taken over as CEO of California’s most prominent employment social enterprise non-profits. The organization she now helms, Downtown Streets Team, works across more than 20 Northern and Central Californian communities to support currently homeless people chart a path towards housing and employment. Her new role with Downtown Streets Team is the culmination of years of hard work and resilience, and she attributes her success in part to her Tahoe roots. 

Gardner took over in January from interim CEO Jim Rettew and has gone to work getting to know the organization’s staff and clients.

“I made it my goal to visit all 20 communities in my first 60 days in this position,” Gardner says. “And what I saw is that we really have an amazing group of people at this organization and at this point, I really think Downtown Streets Team is ready for its next phase.” 

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Before Gardner came to Downtown Streets Team, she was a university lecturer, program director and earned her Masters of Public Health from SF State. Her impressive trajectory was not without challenges, however. 

“That five minute conversation with a stranger changed my entire life,” Gardner says.

As a first generation college student and having faced challenges in high school, Garnder’s path through school was not entirely linear. 

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After witnessing the death of a friend as a teen, Gardner enrolled in South Tahoe High School’s Independent Learning Academy (ILA), participating in a combination of independent study and Lake Tahoe Community College classes. The program allowed her the flexibility to stay on track academically while prioritizing snowboarding and her mental health.

“When I think about what got me through that time, it was snowboarding and mentorship at [South Tahoe High School]. I really credit snowboarding with saving my life, and I would not have made it through that time without Amy Jackson,” Gardner says. Amy Jackson was — and in fact still is — a counselor for the ILA program. 

Gardner was able to earn an AA from Lake Tahoe Community College just after graduating high school. She then enrolled in San Francisco State, where she planned to study teaching. 

“I didn’t know what I was doing, I was a first generation college student, and was coming from my small Tahoe community to a much larger one. I was actually really considering dropping out, and I went to my counselor to figure out how to do that.” Gardner says this counselor, who she had never met before, talked her into sticking around for another semester to try SF State’s ‘Health Education’ major. 

“That five minute conversation with a stranger changed my entire life,” Gardner says. 

She ended up following that degree to a Master’s in Public Health from SF State, then to a variety of positions as a nonprofit leader in the Public Health field, and then returned to her alma mater as a Faculty Lecturer. 

Despite the challenges she faced to get where she is now — including, as she says, limited access to the kinds of mental and public health care she’s now working to provide — Gardner says she credits aspects of her success to her home and community in Tahoe. 

“I attribute many of my leadership qualities and life perspectives to my upbringing in Tahoe,” Gardner says. “I would love to show the youth growing up in town that Tahoe kids are capable of anything, including becoming a CEO.”

Gardner has ambitious goals for Downtown Streets Team. The organization’s work focuses on creating a supportive community for Californians without homes and, through their volunteer and paid-work programs, helps homeless Californians get back into the workforce. Their mission is to “fight homelessness through the dignity of work and the power of community.”

As Gardner describes it, “we follow the ABC model: we want to help folks get a job, then a better job, and then a career.” She says that creating supportive networks for clients is key to this.

“While people are working with our teams, they’re being supported by a case manager and an employment specialist, and the way we approach case management is with dignity. We are there for people, on their terms, when they need us. We want to remove barriers.”

To build this network, Downtown Streets Team (DST) holds regular meetings that serve as both a community building space and a “pep rally” of sorts for DST’s clients. The meetings are about creating a place where folks who are going through the “dehumanizing” experience of homelessness can find respect and support. The meetings are a first step for people looking to get involved: from there, they can join the volunteer teams that do environmental clean up in their cities and eventually get hired as temporary employees of Downtown Streets Team. 

“The goal is to help them move towards other jobs,” says Gardner. She says alumni of the program have gone on to work for CalTrans and other organizations. “I mean when you think about it, the transition from homelessness to a state pension — it’s amazing, that’s real transformation.”

An alumni of the program, Deanna (whose last name is not given for her privacy), credits DST with helping her get back on her feet after struggling for some time, including helping her get back important documents (like her ID) and even her car. Deanna now works at a shelter that services homeless Californians. 

“I love my job,” says Deanna, “and I wouldn’t have it without Downtown Streets. They helped me with my resumé, with everything.” Deanna says DST is her “go-to” for folks trying to turn their lives around. 

Employees of Downtown Streets Team, like Meggan Clifford and and Sidney Siu, echo Deanna’s emphasis on the power that their work can have for those they serve. The work does come with challenges, as Siu notes:

“It’s a rollercoaster of emotions. Working in homeless services as a case manager — it’s not easy but it’s work that you chose to do for a purpose that’s greater than yourself. It’s a dedication to serving marginalized communities.”

Gardner also face challenges as she steps into her new role. Downtown Streets has faced negative coverage in recent years, including from outlets like the San Jose Times and the Palo Alto Daily, which published allegations against former organizational leadership, including previous CEO Eileen Richardson. Gardner, however, sees a bright future for the organization.

“For me, right now, I want us to focus on the amazing work that is being done in our community on a daily basis. On an internal basis, we constantly share stories about team members who have gotten housed, gotten their children back, won an award. Those are the stories I want to uplift and share with the community.” 

Gardner continues, “There were, with our company, absolutely years of instability. But right now, we’re in a good place. We have an amazing staff and amazing people in our programs, and as someone who’s coming in, as the new CEO, I am eager, energized, and ready to support this next phase of DST.” For Gardner, that includes deepening relationships and building partnerships, as well as expanding geographically.

“While we’ve had turbulence in the past, I see our foundation being solid and we’re ready! We’re ready to take this work to the next level.”

You can read more about Downtown Streets Team, including more specific information about programming, at their website.