A New Home for Ritter Center

Source: Homelessness in Marin, 2022 Point-in-Time Count

After 44 years of providing high-quality, culturally sensitive, and easily accessible medical care and social services at 16 Ritter Street, Ritter Center is renovating and moving to 800 A Street in San Rafael. The new Center will be an environment that reflects Ritter’s commitment to and respect for its clients and enable it to continue evolving with the needs of Marin County’s vulnerable children, families, seniors, and individuals experiencing homelessness and economic insecurity.

This is the most ambitious and transformative project in Ritter Center’s history, with a total project cost of $14.5M. Ritter’s Capital Campaign Cabinet is raising funds through its Building Hope, Healing Lives Capital Campaign. Ritter Center has bought and now owns the building at 800 A Street and to date, $6.3M has been secured for the renovations. We hope to exceed this goal and cover the entire renovation and building purchase.

This new facility will solve many of our current problems that come with maintaining an older, leased building and not having enough space for staff to do their work and patients and clients to access services comfortably.

Standing at nearly 14,000 sq. ft., the new Center will have:

• twice as many medical exam rooms;
• modern healthcare equipment;
• confidential behavioral health rooms;
• a lab for on-site testing;
• a treatment room for minor procedures;
• a meditation and lactation room;
• off-street parking & EV charging infrastructure;
• large, interior waiting rooms;
• a medical team room;
• and a food pantry that’s double the size of the current pantry.

Ritter Center will be able to:

• serve more clients;
• add services in the future (like pediatrics, women’s health, or supportive employment);
• unite their staff under one roof;
• and queue pantry and clinic visitors inside

Ritter Center’s new home will also be centrally located with neighboring partners, including St. Vinnie’s, the Center for Domestic Peace, and Vivalon’s Healthy Aging Campus, which is adjacent to the food pantry, all providing complementary programs and within walking distance for residents on a fixed income.

Special thanks to the members of our Capital Campaign Cabinet who are helping to lead the path to our new home.

Kate Smith & David Neagle, Co-Chairs  |  Ann Batman  |  Debra Delaney  |  Carole Farrer, JD  |  Romny French  |  Elsa Leung  |  Robert A. McCaskill  |  Stephanie Plexico  |  Mark Shotwell  |  John Thornton | Danielle Walker