Theris “TC” Coats had the support of his large family as he struggled with mental illness and addiction, living on the streets of the Tenderloin and in the Sixth and Mission streets area of SoMa in San Francisco.
The district supervisor’s office was in regular contact with the family, trying to help connect them with services or programs that might help. Coats’ father, a small-business owner, would bring him food or clothes. People were looking out for him or, at times, literally looking for him in the streets.
Earlier this week, the Salvation Army addiction treatment center had confirmed an opening for the 33-year-old man, according to Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s office.
But Coats was arrested on Tuesday, and checked into the California Pacific Medical Center Hospital on Van Ness Avenue. He was then booked into the county jail on Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, he was dead in his cell.
“There were a lot of people trying to help him, and a lot of organizations we were contacting,” said Coats Sr., who comes from a large San Francisco family and now lives in Vallejo.
Coats Sr. said he received a call on Thursday from the medical examiner’s office. His son had been found unresponsive in the jail’s medical ward, after vomiting. The circumstances of Coats’ death are still unknown; Coats Sr. said he is confused.
“Nobody can tell me what happened to my son,” his father said. “He was in a medical ward at the jail. And the nurse’s station was right across from where he was in the bed. So, how did they not see him?”
Just last month, Coats Sr. said he had been trying to track down his son and put him under conservatorship; he had been in the throes of addiction long before this week. But before that ever happened, Coats, who was charged with petty theft in January, was released by a judge under a “safe discharge plan” to a treatment center.
He never made it there.
“In his heart of hearts, I think he was wanting to change,” his father said, mentioning that his son had a young daughter, whom he loved, and was striving to see her again. “But his mind, so far as the addiction and stuff, it wouldn’t let him.”
SFPD, doctors, supervisor all intervened
Coats, raised in Sacramento, was a joyful and happy child, known for making jokes and, as a teenager, writing rap verses in his notebooks; he wanted to be a rapper when he grew up. Though he experienced mental illness from a young age, he got a scholarship in 2010 to go to college in Texas.
He returned to the Bay Area after a year. His father said he was drawn to the city where the Coats family was originally from. Eventually, Coats began dabbling in drugs.
After the birth of their child in 2019, the family helped Coats and his girlfriend get housing and a car in Antioch. But the couple, both dealing with addiction, had their home raided by Child Protective Services and their daughter taken away. They ended up back on the streets.
By September 2023, Coats and his girlfriend were housed at the Cova Hotel in the Tenderloin, which became a city-run shelter during the pandemic.
Coats’ father, who visited him there, said drug use at the site was rampant. He was eventually kicked out; his father guessed he was there about a year. In November, infected sores on his leg meant Coats had to have his right leg amputated. When that, too, got infected, his father had a crisis team go out and talk to his son.
“They interviewed him, and he wouldn’t go to doctor,” he said. Coats Sr. began contacting Supervisor Dorsey’s office, who he said was helpful in connecting him with resources. He also asked the police department to intervene, as Coats had an outstanding warrant. In the meantime, the family tried to check in on Coats, bringing him food or other supplies.
“Our office tried to provide Theris [Sr.] with as many resources as possible,” said Dorsey’s aide, Mahanaz Ebadi. “But unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough. As heartbreaking as that is.”
Earlier this year, Coats Sr. got a call that his son was picked up by police. Instead of jail, he was taken into St. Francis Hospital and placed on a psychiatric hold.
“The captain called me and said: ‘Okay, we got your son, we’re gonna take him to the doctor first.’ They were handling it with such care,” Coats Sr. said. “It really felt good. I really believe that they were trying to help him.”
This was his son’s chance, he thought. His son’s 72-hour hold was extended to 14 days in the hospital, during which he detoxed and began recovering from two surgeries. Coats Sr. said he was working with the psychiatrist on conservatorship, which would allow them to compel him into longer-term treatment.
That was last month.
‘He needed someone to take him there’
Coats was visited in his hospital bed by a judge and attorneys, and released days before his 33rd birthday in late February, his father said, on a “safe discharge plan,” which sent him alone in a taxi to the Medical Respite & Sobering Center at Seventh and Mission Streets, just a block from where Coats had long been living and struggling with drugs.
“The next thing I know … they worked out some kind of a deal to get him off of the hold, and put him back out on the street,” Coats Sr. said. “I’m very very saddened by that, because they didn’t give me a chance to even finish trying to get some help for him.”
St. Francis Hospital did not confirm the dates of Coats’ stay there.
“Guess what he does? … He never shows up at this place,” Coats Sr. said. “I said, ‘Of course he didn’t show up, because he needed someone to take him there.’ That’s where the broken piece is.”
Coats Sr. said this lapse last month may have cost his son a last opportunity to get help from the street, where “anything can happen … you can die at any moment.”
Soon after his release from the hospital, Coats’ girlfriend and mother of his child died suddenly this month, just a couple weeks before Coats. Mission Local was unable to immediately verify her death.
“If I could have gotten that conservatorship, and got him to a facility where a court actually mandates him to be there or go back to jail, either way, it’s a win-win,” Coats Sr. said. “You get these pockets of time where you can be clean, and maybe that sober thought could take hold. I don’t know.”
Another broken piece of the timeline may have been the circumstances around Coats’ sudden death when he was kept alone behind bars. The San Francisco medical examiner’s office has not yet confirmed the manner of death, but three different agencies are investigating it.
“He always had this attraction to San Francisco,” Coats Sr. said. “He was a very smart young man. He just got caught up.”
That’s a very comprehensive story! Thanks
My condolences 🙏 to his family. Thank you for sharing your story.
I knew him during the 2010s and he always a great guy. He’ll be sorely missed. My condolences to the family.
I’m deeply saddened for Theris and Karen and the Coats family. I can attest to their diligent efforts to gather resources to help and support their son, their love and concern for him and their continual prayers for his recovery and well-being. My deepest condolences.
Well written and yet such a tragedy. Thank you for capturing all the elements such as his family support and what was done to try and help him. I’m especially sad his daughter’s mom is also deceased. God bless his dad for his unwavering love and effort. I hope tc never doubted he was thought of, planned for and loved by his dad.
I’m going through the exact same process with my brother, he’s been homeless for 4 years but homeless in San Francisco for 2 years, at first he was addicted to weed and cocain but California don’t have a lot of Cobain so he became addicted to meth and was waiting for housing for 2 years, every time he’d follow up with the application they’d tell him he needs to reapply and wait 2 months, over and over it’s now going on 2 years waiting and he now if fully addicted to fentynal, I’ve been trying for years to get him home and he agrees now but only because he knows waiting for housing he’ll die, the system over there is not meant to help it’s to cover themselves so they can say ” see were helping” but their not, he’s coming home with so much trauma and severe addiction and I don’t know how to help him, but I’m going to try.
Thank you for telling this, too frequent, yet often untold story.
So many people tried to help this man, on a revolving door of services. I live near the Respite Center and we see sick people like TJ on the street all the time. The only hope is mandatory, in-patient, long term treatment…and even that is not guaranteed to work. I know because my brother follwed TJ’s path and a family never gets over it. RIP, troubled soul.
Stories like these often go untold, especially when centered around addiction. I hope this narrative aids others in better understanding the system and how to navigate it. My wish is that no other family endures such an experience. TC is gone but never forgotten.
Great reporting
a man died in jail under a nurse’s supervision and all we can do is say how sad that is. what a croc!
i’m angry.
angry at a system that emphasizes incarceration over treatment.
angry at the our high-school sorority da.
angry at a supervisor who, like so many recovering addicts, is so sure about how to treat addiction they are willing to allow other addicts to die to make their case.
angry that we’ve know about severe staffing problems at the jail yet continue to add to the population,
and angry at my fellow man for failing to have love and empathy for his brothers and sisters in need while professing a faith rooted in forgiveness and understanding.
As a local with similar story I hope his death can mean for something. I lost my cousin last month also same back ground as the deceased . Survival.
Truly tragic.
Dang R.I.P. Sincere… ur craziness will be missed brother
So sorry to hear about TC. I remember him and his sisters. He came from a great family. How sad to lose him. He will be missed. Condolences to his parents and family members.
As someone who knows this system well, there were a number of places that this went wrong.
Jail is not the place to help people. They should have kept him alive though and that’s on them. Who knows if we’ll find out what happened.
St. Francis has a bad reputation for poor discharges and discriminating against the homeless, poor and substance using. Many facilities have gotten “dumped” clients from them
Respite is a medical facility, not substance treatment. It provides food, shelter, medical care and case management for long periods. It is often an enormous help to those who stay until they are healthier. Clients can walk in and out at any time. The area is drug heavy. Sobering is a separate facility for alcohol users.
Cova was a chaotic, non congregate shelter without services and in the heart of a serious drug area with a lot of street activity. Very depressing for clients and often abusive. Respite would have been 100x better. Non congregate shelters are a great idea, but they are poorly run and the staff aren’t trained to deal with the clientele.
Salvation Army is a faith based behavior modification facility. They do their own thing and aren’t part of the larger City model. They are not a good fit for so many clients, but there are no good detox facilities in San Francisco and they will take cash for a bed.
TC needed someone he could trust through the whole process. Bouncing from facility to facility, dealing with different providers all the time isn’t an effective treatment plan.
If he had someone experienced in mental health, substance use, harm reduction, cultural humility, and the behind-the-scenes reality of all of these places, that would have been a good start.
Someone he could call wherever he was that would listen to him. Someone who would also talk to his family and explain what was happening along the way. Someone who his girlfriend knew as well. Someone that wouldn’t judge.
A decently run detox away from the streets would help a lot. Detoxification is a critical stage and San Francisco has not invested in a good one accessible to people with MediCal.
Family and partner visits can be very helpful. But a lot of places will keep someone like his girlfriend at bay.
It takes one skilled provider (with a team of dedicated people for backup and consultation) that will follow someone through the whole process without judgment.
Until the system is less fragmented and twisted by politics we will see this many times over. A lot of those people won’t have family that will tell their story.
I wish the Coats family peace in this difficult time. It shouldn’t have been this way, but it is. I’m sorry.
I’m so livid!!!
This man should not be dead and his blood is on so many hands! This is a man whose family loved and advocated hard for him and still he slips through the cracks!!!!! He was sober and family working on conservatorship and case management at the hospital decided a taxi to the supportive rehabilitation center (which many folks relapse right outside the doors of this facility) why wasn’t he transported to a Skilled nursing facility until conservatorship could be decided?!? That was no safe discharge plan!
Additionally, this man died on taxpayer funded negligence. How does one die in front of a nurses station? Was he strapped to his gurney and aspirated on vomit? This death was absolutely avoidable. Why is it so easy for everyone to drop the ball when dealing with someone who is struggling with substance dependance? The vial judgement bestowed on this population is deadly. I am so sorry that this community failed this family. I’m so sorry that this child will never get a chance to meet her sober loving parents as they are both dead!!! This is infuriating and this is a person that we get to learn of because their family advocates so much for many folks don’t have this how many if these stories go untold f the negligence in the system. These are folks who are reaching out in one way or another and trying to find their way out of the darkness that is addiction and the way that the agencies operate here in San Francisco they miss opportunity for intervention and negligence when people are begging for help. This must stop. Justice for TC and Family!
Thank you for reporting on this–Eleni Balakrishnan and Moission Local.
Very sad to lose a fine and beautiful person– Theris Coats.
Is Theris’ daughter that he loved so much with her grandparents??
To his parents–have faith, bear up, and help others.
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless your Family amen amen.
When you have that many people ‘helping’ you they’re not helping you. They are enabling you to continue being a fool. Spend your time, money and love on someone else and let the fool learn the only way he or she can, the hard way.
San Francisco courts fuck up again. What a huge surprise.