Mayor of the Tenderloin - by Alison Owings

Book Synopsis

The unforgettable account of Del Seymour, who overcame 18 years of homelessness and addiction to become one of the most respected advocates in San Francisco

In Mayor of the Tenderloin, journalist Alison Owings slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism surrounding San Francisco's Tenderloin to reveal a harrowing and life-affirming account of Del Seymour--whose addiction led him into eighteen years of homelessness, pimping, and drug dealing. Once sober, he started Tenderloin Walking Tours and later Code Tenderloin, the remarkable organization teaching homeless, recovering addicts, sex workers, dealers, ex-felons, and other marginalized people how to get and keep a job.

Owings traces Del's story and those in his orbit: from his daughters, sobriety buddy, and ex-girlfriend, to a police captain and a psychiatric social worker, housing activists and corporate philanthropists, and Del's Code Tenderloin students. In the Tenderloin, in a city known for its beauty and currently infamous for its divide between haves and have-nots, Owings highlights how Del gives back to people struggling with the same daunting setbacks--including a criminal record--he once faced.

Honest and compelling, Mayor of the Tenderloin follows homelessness in one of America's toughest neighborhoods as it was lived--in the words of someone who lived it and is now fighting to solve it.

Review Quotes

"In this impressive book, author Alison Owings brings colorful anecdotes of Del's life and of his continued advocacy for the downtrodden in San Francisco. This is a memorable biography that proves to be both entertaining and life-affirming."
--Booklist

"Thoroughly enjoyable, and at some points, a romp to read."
--Bay City News

"[A] richly satisfying tapestry. . . . the scintillating volume of knowledge put forth is well worth the reading journey."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"Provides a window as never before to this issue . . . Owings and her remarkable prose point to the passion and humanity of Del Seymour, and we see things anew. From addiction to eviction, from mental anguish to racial inequity, we are shown the contours of a social problem we thought we knew. No one becomes homeless because they run out of money. They become homeless because they run out of relationships."
--Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries and author of Tattoos on the Heart

"Alison Owings is a master of oral history. She is a great storyteller, and in Mayor of the Tenderloin, she has a great story to tell."
--Dan Rather, author of What Unites Us

"A charming, sometimes heartbreaking, tender, and inspiring story, important and beautifully written."
--Anne Lamott, author of Almost Everything

"Owings has unsentimentally written a story of both struggle and hope in the absence of real structural humanity, one that winds from the Vietnam War through the crack epidemic to the gleaming facades of the Bay Area's boom, with Seymour squarely inventing his own path through it all. You won't forget it."
--Lauren Sandler, author of This Is All I Got

"A work produced out of radical listening, compassionate questioning, deft writing, and a genuine desire to give agency, space, and recognition to one of the Tenderloin's fiercest survivors, advocates, and protectors."
--Nigel De Juan Hatton, PhD, associate professor of literature and philosophy at the University of California, Merced

"Owings brilliantly highlights the strategic imperative of not only inclusion but also the acquisition of agency by the homeless in resolving the issues and thereby diminishing the myriad costs so critically burdening both them and society."
--Harry Edwards, PhD, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley

"When I met Del years ago, I had no idea of his incredible life journey but was struck by his compassion, humor, and grace. Today, San Francisco is in awe of the Mayor of the Tenderloin. His story--which could have been any of ours--gives hope that deep community divides can be bridged, and addiction and homelessness can be overcome."
--San Francisco city attorney David Chiu

About the Author

Alison Owings is the author of three previous oral history-based books: Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich (a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice), Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans, and Hey, Waitress!: The USA from the Other Side of the Tray. A former television news writer at CBS News, she lives in San Francisco with her husband.