Quote:Walden House, Haight Ashbury Free Clinics merge
Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer

Two historic San Francisco nonprofit health and substance abuse organizations with roots in the '60s - Haight Ashbury Free Clinics and Walden House - have agreed to merge and combine their resources.

Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, which has been operating since 1967 and has relied on San Francisco for as much as 70 percent of its budget, saw its funding from the city drop by half since 2008 and started looking for a partner about 18 months ago.

Walden House, which started in San Francisco in 1969, is a residential and outpatient substance abuse and mental health program that also contracts with the state prison system to provide services to inmates and parolees.

The merger, which was formalized this week with a binding letter of intent, is expected to be completed during the first quarter of this year with Walden House's chief executive officer, Vitka Eisen, heading the combined organization.

"It just seemed like a perfect collaborative partnership," said Jeff Schindler, chief development officer for Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, which operates a clinic in the Haight and in the Mission District, and serves about 15,000 low-income and homeless people a year. Haight Ashbury's current CEO, John Eckstrom, is leaving the organization.

The merger of Walden House, which has an annual budget of about $58 million, and Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, which operates on about $8 million a year, creates a much stronger organization, Schindler said. "We've been around for 44 years and we're going to be around for another 44 years when other nonprofits are struggling in this economy."

New Leaf, a San Francisco center that provided mental health, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS services predominantly to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents for 35 years, closed in October after being hit with increased rent and health care costs.

Eisen, incoming CEO for the merged agency, said joining forces will allow Walden House to venture into primary care services for the first time. She said she expects Haight Ashbury Free Clinics to retain its iconic name in some form.

"We see the same population often - people with multiple challenges and complex health concerns," she said, explaining that the people who come to Walden House for substance abuse and mental health services often have other health problems that need to be addressed and Haight Ashbury patients may be referred to Walden House.

Eisen, 51, has come full circle. When she was a patient of Haight Ashbury Free Clinics in the 1980s, health care workers referred her to Walden House. As a resident, she kicked her drug problem and went on to get a doctorate from Harvard University. She was promoted last year to chief executive officer from chief operating officer.

Walden House, which has programs around the state and serves more than 2,500 individuals and families a day, has also suffered from the state budget crisis, Eisen said. She said its prison programs were cut dramatically over the past year, but remains financially stable.

The organization also hit tough times in 2003 with the suicide of its chief executive officer under threat of a state investigation over alleged financial misdoings and other problems. But Eisen remained confident about the group's continued resilience.

"We're still building the combined model, but we envision a greater ability to provide services to those in need in San Francisco," she said.

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