Friday, August 2, 2024
Locked Out: Supportive Housing Denies Tenants Access to Community Areas July 15, 2024
July 15, 2024
Locked Out: Supportive Housing Denies Tenants Access to Community Areas
by Contributing Author
In 2008, the Salvation Army opened a community center at 242 Turk St. in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. It’s a Ray & Joan Kroc Community Center, whose stated mission is to provide supportive health services and housing for formerly homeless adults, foster youth and veterans living with behavioral health conditions, and nurture a safe space for the community’s youth. Next to the center is Railton Place, an apartment complex owned by the Salvation Army and managed by the John Stewart Company, which houses nearly 200 residents.
Railton Place and the Kroc Community Center in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood
Little did the residents or the Tenderloin community know that the Salvation Army would essentially occupy and take over every community space in the Kroc Center’s residential and recreation sides, including those areas designated specifically for residents’ use.
The Salvation Army has been using its community space to store jeans and furniture for its stores.
This takeover happened at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the center closed down community rooms in multiple floors of the building. But those rooms remain closed to members—even after the state and City lifted their health emergency orders last year.
Since the rooms have been locked off during daytime, evening and night hours, it has been altogether impossible for residents to spend time together in these rooms. Residents say that it has interfered with their enjoyment of the living spaces and their ability to have a place to meet with invited family and friends or engage in other activities like eating lunch, reading a book, or otherwise increase the quality of their lives.
Even the front desk area lends the appearance of a place in lockdown: A metal perforated gate encircles the desk. A bench that was once there has been long since removed.
Front desk at Railton Place
Residents feel that by locking them out of their beloved community rooms and interfering with their use for resident meetings, management has violated terms of the lease.
Residents also say that their overall wellbeing has drastically declined because of constant trauma and abuses from staff. They say they’re being harmed emotionally and physically by Salvation Army workers. They maintain that it’s difficult to hang out with friends, family and neighbors without security hovering over them.
If so, the Salvation Army is dedicating more resources befitting a carceral setting than permanent supportive housing—like a prison treatment center minus the housing services.
Locked doors to the gym at the Kroc Center
Kroc Center gymnasium floor
But even those who are incarcerated have access to recreational facilities. At the Kroc Center, access doorways in the main lobby to the gym and recreation restrooms are locked. Residents are unable to use their key fobs to enter the two front doors and are restricted from passing through connecting doors to the gyms, the rec center and the swimming pool. If residents do manage to get through, they are immediately swarmed by front desk staff, who remove them from the area immediately.
Maintenance at the building has also been a vexing issue. The pool at the Kroc Center was the only one available to neighborhood residents until the Salvation Army closed it due to a crack that was never fixed properly. The Department of Building Inspection noted building code violations in the last year such as broken light fixtures and exposed electrical wiring. As for the community rooms, Salvation Army directors dispute that they are community spaces; they claim those are meant for staff programs and private organization-related activities.
Independent access to the building’s courtyard has also been a source of frustration for residents. The adjoining doors used to be unlocked and open up to four hours per day to adult residents when the courtyard was not used for youth programs. Now, they must sign release forms before being allowed to walk out in the yard to socialize or attend any organizational program—all under the watchful eyes of Salvation Army staff.
The ongoing residential community lockout has also been extended to the basement parking area. Once used as a shared space between the Salvation Army and the residents, the former disabled parking space is now used as a dumping ground for discarded household items and repurposed furniture.
Discarded items are stored on disabled parking spaces at Salvation Army-owned housing on 242 Turk St.
The lobby has also become a junk pile. Next to a set of mailboxes, packages delivered to Railton residents lie damaged and opened because management has ceased storing them in a safe and secure area. “Please be aware effective immediately all packages will be left by the mailboxes,” a sign above the mailboxes reads. “Tenants are responsible for picking up their own packages.”
Mailbox room at the Railton Place lobby. Packages for residents are often opened or damaged because management won’t secure them.
On the third floor, residents and guests were once free to use the community room with its coffee station and relax. Now, it has been commandeered for management offices, replete with cubicles. To enter that space now, residents must ring a doorbell and navigate a series of locked doors—all just to set up an appointment with a case manager.
But most shocking among all the spaces now closed to residents is the removal of the social service office in the lobby. That was where social workers met with residents. It is now a coat closet and break room for front desk staff.
Resident Tenant Union Formation
In response to all the trauma and problems with community lockouts from the Salvation Army and John Stewart Co., Railton Place residents formed a tenant council last November to help improve the quality of life for all residents and to prevent tenant displacement from permanent housing. However, the Salvation Army declined to allow the union to access a meeting room in the residential building community space and instead encouraged the tenant union to find one at another building. The Railton Place tenant union meets monthly online and has been trying to get help from outside organizations like San Francisco Housing Rights Committee, San Francisco Tenants Union, Herbst Foundation, and Neighborhood Tenants Council to help urge Salvation Army to reopen the community residential rooms on each floor and restore residential access to the community areas in the building.
Tenants are left wondering if these same horrible community closures, evictions and unending trauma are widespread in Kroc Community Centers across the nation. How many other residential housing areas are experiencing community lockouts similar to the Tenderloin by the Salvation Army and affiliated management companies? What will it take to replace the Salvation Army with a more responsible and competent organization—such as the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department—to operate the Kroc Community Center in a way that provides meaningful community services to help keep homeless adults and youth off the streets, retain permanent housing for residents, and maintain community recreation services for members living onsite and within the greater Tenderloin community?
At the author’s request, Street Sheet is running this story without a byline.
City learning hubs starting small with focus on the most needy 9-13-2020
City learning hubs starting small with focus on the most needy
By Ida Mojadad Sep 13, 2020
Six months after city schools shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, some San Francisco kids — and their parents — are set to get a break from distance learning.
Around 700 children on Monday will filter into more than 50 city learning “hubs” at recreation centers, libraries and other facilities staffed by community organizations. The hubs are intended for students in low-income households, public housing or single-room occupancy units, or who are homeless, foster youth or English-language learners.
They will function as extended daycare, supporting children with remote learning while keeping them fed and engaged while parents work or otherwise need childcare. Children must remain in a stable cohort of no more than 14, staffed by no more than two adults, per state regulations that changed during the planning process headed by the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families.
“The logistics alone are mind-boggling,” said Maria Su, executive director of DCYF. “We’re constantly having to pivot and change, and that’s OK. At the end of the day, we still feel very confident that we’re going to have good, safe options for children that will meet parents’ needs.”
City learning hubs starting small with focus on the most needy
Christina Dal Pozzo, a social work intern at the Salvation Army Kroc Center, prepares to welcome elementary school students to the center’s community learning hub. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)
The emergency project was launched nearly two months ago, and ultimately aims to safely care for 6,000 children across more than 100 sites by repurposing $55 million in grants usually intended for afterschool enrichment for a new purpose. DCYF and dozens of community partners will provide a day of teaching support, enrichment, meals and social interaction while schools are closed.
The San Francisco Salvation Army Kroc Center in the Tenderloin, one of the selected sites, had a test run with its summer camp. Education manager Monica Rios said that for the community hubs, kids would come for breakfast, spend the morning doing their live instruction or individual assignments aided by staff, break for lunch, and then go onto enrichment activities.
Those include crafts, virtual soccer practice and yoga through the Salvation Army’s own partners.
Staffers are also prepared for a range of emotions from kids who may not have interacted with other folks in months or who have had a tough time remaining isolated at home.
City learning hubs starting small with focus on the most needy
Masks will be required at the Salvation Army Kroc Center community learning hub. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)
Everyone will wear masks while washing their hands and sanitizing between each activity and room. Temperatures of children and staff will be checked on arrival and children may be sent home if staff observe symptoms. Should any staff, child or their parent test positive for coronavirus, the program may close for a time until it is safe.
“We understand that for them, it’ll take a little to adapt,” said Rios about safety protocols. “There’s going to be a range of emotions.”
The children arriving on Monday are in transitional kindergarten to sixth grade, largely monolingual, live within three blocks of the center, and have parents who are either essential workers or out of work from the pandemic, said Rios.
City learning hubs starting small with focus on the most needy
Signs at the Salvation Army Kroc Center remind students to wash their hands. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)
Still, the number of children registered so far is far below the 2,000 DCYF had intended to serve in the first phase beginning in September. That’s due to efforts to prioritize high-needs families who are hard to reach and disconnected from the internet, according to Su.
“We really want to flip the script,” Su said. “These are families that have historically been at the back of the line and we’re moving them to the front of the line. I do think it speaks to the fact that these are very high-needs families and do have a lot of things going on in their lives.”
As of Aug. 28, 30 percent of youth that applied came from Bayview Hunters Point, 25 percent from Visitacion Valley/Portola, and 12 percent from the Tenderloin. Districts 6 and 10, which represent these neighborhoods, include the lion’s share of sites thus far.
City learning hubs starting small with focus on the most needy
Desks stand spaced apart for social distancing at the community learning hub at the Salvation Army Kroc Center. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)
Slots are expected to fill up quickly once the program broadens the application pool. DCYF is processing paper applications, though it’s unclear how many, and more children will be added as they are processed.
The slow-moving outreach frustrated some officials and parents who sought to bring in more families. Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents District 6, said he agrees with prioritizing high-needs families but the remaining slots should be filled soon.
“I think the next few weeks, we’ll have a clear picture of how and who we can expand these hubs for,” Haney said. “We should adapt and move really quickly because there’s a lot of parents who are really struggling right now.”
City learning hubs starting small with focus on the most needy
Rebecca Carrillo Steinruck with the Tenderloin After School Program opens a box filled with PPE for school children. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)
The hubs are launching shortly as some schools are readying for a return to in-person teaching, which could begin as soon as Sept. 21 for those approved for a waiver. At least 53 private and charter schools have sought a waiver, while SFUSD is negotiating an agreement with labor unions needed before in-person teaching is allowed.
But the hubs are expected to continue through the end of the academic year, since schools may not return to full capacity until a vaccine is implemented.
“The intent of the hubs is to operate until the end of the school year,” Su said. “When SFUSD starts their hybrid, in-person program, we’ll have to have those conversations with SFUSD about how does that interact with the hubs because, once again, we are targeting the same populations.”
imojadad@sfexaminer.com
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center
Recreational facilities:
full court gymnasium,
indoor swimming pool,
Dance studio,
Fitness center/weight room
and climbing wall
Educational facilities:
graphic arts studio,
library/computer lab
and tutoring & mentoring classrooms
Senior Services:
Meals & activity program
Social Service office
Salvation Army Chapel
full court gymnasium,
indoor swimming pool,
Dance studio,
Fitness center/weight room
and climbing wall
Educational facilities:
graphic arts studio,
library/computer lab
and tutoring & mentoring classrooms
Senior Services:
Meals & activity program
Social Service office
Salvation Army Chapel
Railton Place
27 transitional housing units for youth aging out of the foster care system
43 transitional & 40 permanent housing units for single adults in substance abuse recovery
On and off- sit supportive services including case management, independent living skills, individual & group counseling and employment assistance
43 transitional & 40 permanent housing units for single adults in substance abuse recovery
On and off- sit supportive services including case management, independent living skills, individual & group counseling and employment assistance
Project Description
This is the single largest ever undertaken by the Salvation Army in San Francisco since our 1883 arrival in the city. We are building a 135,773 square foot facility consisting of comprehensive community center, as well as transitional and permanent housing at are current location:
230-242 Turk Street
110 units of transitional and permanent housing will serve single adults in substance abuse recovery and young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. The community center will be a hub of healthy and productive activity energizing both the individuals and the community as a whole. Together, The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center and Railton Place will be a beacon of hope for the Tenderloin community.
230-242 Turk Street
110 units of transitional and permanent housing will serve single adults in substance abuse recovery and young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. The community center will be a hub of healthy and productive activity energizing both the individuals and the community as a whole. Together, The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center and Railton Place will be a beacon of hope for the Tenderloin community.
A Labor of Love
The Salvation Army has had a community center in the Tenderloin since 1886. Through its different incarnations. The Salvation Army has always been a symbol of hope for the hurting, helping thousands of people of all ages living in this San Francisco neighborhood.
But perhaps one of its biggest incarnations is what is being celebrated today - the dedication of The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center and Raliton Place. The 135,380 square foot community center and affordable housing facility is the culmination of more that one hundred years of serving the unique community that is the Tenderloin and San Francisco. It is also the beginning of a new era for The Salvation Army.
The first Salvation Army location in the Tenderloin was a community center at 57 Turk Street. Following that , the The Army operated an Evangeline Residence for Women from 1950's to the 1980's at 44 McAllister Street. The Salvation Army then relocated to 240 Turk Street and there it remained. The program first existed as the Bridgeway Project, an outreach designed the help individuals fight and shelter to ease suffering for many of the city's homeless. In recent years building offered social services, a meeting space, church services and after school and summer day camp for as many as 100 children.
The building was constructed in 1906 just after the great earthquake and fire that ravaged San Francisco. Early conservationists were part of constructing the new building and included ground up bricks from adjacent buildings that fell following the disaster. The fireplace featured burned bricks from other buildings, a constant reminder of the city's history. Marble staircases, glass tile floors and intricately shaped metalwork adorned the lobby and common areas offering a glimpse into early century opulence. During prohibition a speakeasy was operated, with ecess provided by a long, secret alleyway and back staircase into the basement. Common lore told us that many of the bullet holes that pierced the metal door were vintage and very well may have from a police raid - the kind seen in old movies. At other times in history, the basement was operated as a bakery with a built in brick oven still accessible right up to demolition day.
The Salvation Army acquired the building during the 1970s. The purpose and use changed as the needs of the community changed, but one thing still remained the same - it was a place of hope in an otherwise hopeless area. Traditionally the Tenderloin is considered the worst neighborhood in San Francisco. It boasts the largest drug use, sex crime and murder rates in San Francisco. On the surface it seems like a very sad place, but if you look deeper you can see hope and a future.
Lack of fire suppression on the upper floors forced the housing to close sometime after 2000. Inadequate wiring and non-handicap compliant rooms made this building a challenge to operate and the cost of upgrading a fading gem was out of reach to The Salvation Army. We needed a miracle. That miracle became a possibility in 2004 when the estate of Joan Kroc, wife of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, announced that Salvation Army community centers allover the United States had been a vision for her too.
Years of planning and many professional dreamers later, that wish is coming true. And not a moment too soon.
The Tenderloin, 56 blocks roughly framed by Marker, Post, Van Ness and Powell streets, is clash of cultures. There are immigrant families working very hard to make a life for themselves. They live here because rents are more affordable than elsewhere in the city. There are down-and-outers who come to the neighborhood just to deal and do drugs. There are prostitutes, homeless people and a population of other people with vacant stares. And jobless people who are just down on their luck. There are also social workers,cops, bar owners and proprietors of small shops.
Approximately 3,500 children live in the neighborhood.
Unlike what children encounter in more predictable and protected neighborhoods, kids living in the Tenderloin have to live with crime, prostitution and sex shops on almost every corner. Liquor stores dot the landscape. Unsettling odors waft from the sidewalk, junkies stragger by and brisk daily trade is carried on. And despite some well-staffed and cared for recreation areas, there is till alack of safe places to play outdoors. No backyards here.
Unlike children in the c=suburbs, kids in the Tenderloin face moments when the city seems to close in around them. There is alack of safe, grassy parks here for a reason. The inviting greenery might hide a used drug needle or broken glass from a beer bottle.
Opening a state of the art community center and housing project in the middle of the worst neighborhood serve two purposes - it give opportunities to those residents who would not otherwise have them, and it may just give the neighborhood itself a boost.
Quite simple, The Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center will provide these children with a new start - a chance at a better life and options that they didn't have before. But it doesn't stop there.
A recreational community center and an affordable housing program will provide a little bit of everything for everyone. A young professional will have a place to work out in the new gym, knowing that her membership dues will go towards a good cause. A family will be able to spend a Saturday afternoon at the center. Mom and da in the gym, and grandparents taking a senior citizen swimming class, the children, hanging out with their friends in the game room, after one having taken a dance class in the dance studio, while the other worked on homework in the Computer Lab (setup and computers provided by the UPS Foundation). Someone needing just one more chance will find housing at Railton Place. All will find a place to worship on Sunday morning.
The Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center Place will provide facilities programs and services that encourage positive life changing experiences.
But perhaps one of its biggest incarnations is what is being celebrated today - the dedication of The Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center and Raliton Place. The 135,380 square foot community center and affordable housing facility is the culmination of more that one hundred years of serving the unique community that is the Tenderloin and San Francisco. It is also the beginning of a new era for The Salvation Army.
The first Salvation Army location in the Tenderloin was a community center at 57 Turk Street. Following that , the The Army operated an Evangeline Residence for Women from 1950's to the 1980's at 44 McAllister Street. The Salvation Army then relocated to 240 Turk Street and there it remained. The program first existed as the Bridgeway Project, an outreach designed the help individuals fight and shelter to ease suffering for many of the city's homeless. In recent years building offered social services, a meeting space, church services and after school and summer day camp for as many as 100 children.
The building was constructed in 1906 just after the great earthquake and fire that ravaged San Francisco. Early conservationists were part of constructing the new building and included ground up bricks from adjacent buildings that fell following the disaster. The fireplace featured burned bricks from other buildings, a constant reminder of the city's history. Marble staircases, glass tile floors and intricately shaped metalwork adorned the lobby and common areas offering a glimpse into early century opulence. During prohibition a speakeasy was operated, with ecess provided by a long, secret alleyway and back staircase into the basement. Common lore told us that many of the bullet holes that pierced the metal door were vintage and very well may have from a police raid - the kind seen in old movies. At other times in history, the basement was operated as a bakery with a built in brick oven still accessible right up to demolition day.
The Salvation Army acquired the building during the 1970s. The purpose and use changed as the needs of the community changed, but one thing still remained the same - it was a place of hope in an otherwise hopeless area. Traditionally the Tenderloin is considered the worst neighborhood in San Francisco. It boasts the largest drug use, sex crime and murder rates in San Francisco. On the surface it seems like a very sad place, but if you look deeper you can see hope and a future.
Lack of fire suppression on the upper floors forced the housing to close sometime after 2000. Inadequate wiring and non-handicap compliant rooms made this building a challenge to operate and the cost of upgrading a fading gem was out of reach to The Salvation Army. We needed a miracle. That miracle became a possibility in 2004 when the estate of Joan Kroc, wife of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc, announced that Salvation Army community centers allover the United States had been a vision for her too.
Years of planning and many professional dreamers later, that wish is coming true. And not a moment too soon.
The Tenderloin, 56 blocks roughly framed by Marker, Post, Van Ness and Powell streets, is clash of cultures. There are immigrant families working very hard to make a life for themselves. They live here because rents are more affordable than elsewhere in the city. There are down-and-outers who come to the neighborhood just to deal and do drugs. There are prostitutes, homeless people and a population of other people with vacant stares. And jobless people who are just down on their luck. There are also social workers,cops, bar owners and proprietors of small shops.
Approximately 3,500 children live in the neighborhood.
Unlike what children encounter in more predictable and protected neighborhoods, kids living in the Tenderloin have to live with crime, prostitution and sex shops on almost every corner. Liquor stores dot the landscape. Unsettling odors waft from the sidewalk, junkies stragger by and brisk daily trade is carried on. And despite some well-staffed and cared for recreation areas, there is till alack of safe places to play outdoors. No backyards here.
Unlike children in the c=suburbs, kids in the Tenderloin face moments when the city seems to close in around them. There is alack of safe, grassy parks here for a reason. The inviting greenery might hide a used drug needle or broken glass from a beer bottle.
Opening a state of the art community center and housing project in the middle of the worst neighborhood serve two purposes - it give opportunities to those residents who would not otherwise have them, and it may just give the neighborhood itself a boost.
Quite simple, The Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center will provide these children with a new start - a chance at a better life and options that they didn't have before. But it doesn't stop there.
A recreational community center and an affordable housing program will provide a little bit of everything for everyone. A young professional will have a place to work out in the new gym, knowing that her membership dues will go towards a good cause. A family will be able to spend a Saturday afternoon at the center. Mom and da in the gym, and grandparents taking a senior citizen swimming class, the children, hanging out with their friends in the game room, after one having taken a dance class in the dance studio, while the other worked on homework in the Computer Lab (setup and computers provided by the UPS Foundation). Someone needing just one more chance will find housing at Railton Place. All will find a place to worship on Sunday morning.
The Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center Place will provide facilities programs and services that encourage positive life changing experiences.
Dedication June 27th 2008
Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center and Railton Place
The History behind the name
On January 20, 2004, The Salvation Army announced receipt of $1.5 billion from the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of McDonalds restaurant founder Ray Kroc. Half of the funds will used for the construction of 25-30 community centers across the United States. The other half will be placed in endowment for the operation of the centers. The Salvation Army in San Francisco received a significant allocation to build the new Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center.
In 2004, a spokesman for the estate said that Mrs. Kroc confidently believed that The Salvation Army was uniquely positioned to oversee her gift and her vision to build multiple community centers throughout the country. "Mrs. Kroc was aware of the extraordinary reach of the Army throughout the United States, and their experience in creating programs to reach the people in local communities who need it most," said Dick Starmann. "Furthermore, she trusted this organization to be financially efficient in managing a gift of this size."
As she stated when making the donation for the San Diego center, Mrs. Kroc was inspired by her personal concern for all to live in peace and for youth and adults to have resources that would enable them to reach their full potential. She described the San Diego facility as "a miniature peace center" during the dedication. Mrs Kroc remarked at the time, "Here, children will learn of each other - that's more important than this being a center for recreation."
RAILTON PLACE
The history behind the name
George Scott Railton was one of the unique personalities who helped form the character of The Salvation Army. The son of a Methodist minister, he lost both parents as a result of fever when he was 15 and found himself penniless, homeless, jobless and orphaned. Moved by news of the work of The Salvation Army, Railton journeyed to London in October 1872 to begin his long association with founder General William Booth and the for many years lived as a guest in the Booth household.
In 1880 Railton persuaded General Booth to send him to America and on March 10th he arrived to Castle Garden, New York with seven 'Hallelujah Lassies' to help him start the work of The Salvation Army. New York was fertile territory for the Army, and the work spread rapidly. The Salvation Army came to San Francisco just a few short years later in 1883.
A talent for languages enabled Commissioner Railton to be effective for the Army in many parts of the world. So, he returned to England on the orders of General Booth in early 1880s and was later dispatched to Germany, Spain and Africa to begin the Army's work across the world.
Though he was in poor health, Commissioner Railton continued to travel extensively throughout the remainder of his life, visiting China, Japan and Russia. It was on one of his many journeys that his life came to a sudden end. Commissioner George Scott Railton was "promoted to glory" on July 19th 1913.
The History behind the name
On January 20, 2004, The Salvation Army announced receipt of $1.5 billion from the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of McDonalds restaurant founder Ray Kroc. Half of the funds will used for the construction of 25-30 community centers across the United States. The other half will be placed in endowment for the operation of the centers. The Salvation Army in San Francisco received a significant allocation to build the new Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center.
In 2004, a spokesman for the estate said that Mrs. Kroc confidently believed that The Salvation Army was uniquely positioned to oversee her gift and her vision to build multiple community centers throughout the country. "Mrs. Kroc was aware of the extraordinary reach of the Army throughout the United States, and their experience in creating programs to reach the people in local communities who need it most," said Dick Starmann. "Furthermore, she trusted this organization to be financially efficient in managing a gift of this size."
As she stated when making the donation for the San Diego center, Mrs. Kroc was inspired by her personal concern for all to live in peace and for youth and adults to have resources that would enable them to reach their full potential. She described the San Diego facility as "a miniature peace center" during the dedication. Mrs Kroc remarked at the time, "Here, children will learn of each other - that's more important than this being a center for recreation."
RAILTON PLACE
The history behind the name
George Scott Railton was one of the unique personalities who helped form the character of The Salvation Army. The son of a Methodist minister, he lost both parents as a result of fever when he was 15 and found himself penniless, homeless, jobless and orphaned. Moved by news of the work of The Salvation Army, Railton journeyed to London in October 1872 to begin his long association with founder General William Booth and the for many years lived as a guest in the Booth household.
In 1880 Railton persuaded General Booth to send him to America and on March 10th he arrived to Castle Garden, New York with seven 'Hallelujah Lassies' to help him start the work of The Salvation Army. New York was fertile territory for the Army, and the work spread rapidly. The Salvation Army came to San Francisco just a few short years later in 1883.
A talent for languages enabled Commissioner Railton to be effective for the Army in many parts of the world. So, he returned to England on the orders of General Booth in early 1880s and was later dispatched to Germany, Spain and Africa to begin the Army's work across the world.
Though he was in poor health, Commissioner Railton continued to travel extensively throughout the remainder of his life, visiting China, Japan and Russia. It was on one of his many journeys that his life came to a sudden end. Commissioner George Scott Railton was "promoted to glory" on July 19th 1913.
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