For more than 50 years, Curry Senior Center has helped older adults in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district maintain their wellness, dignity, and independence. The organization takes a holistic approach to that mission, providing services that range from healthcare, behavioral health, and housing support to meals, technology training, social services, and community programs.

Today, Curry supports more than 3,500 clients annually, many of whom are older adults with limited incomes, disabilities, housing instability, or mobility challenges. For Ruben Chavez, Deputy Director of Curry Senior Center, transportation is an important part of helping those clients stay connected to the care and resources they need.

“On-demand mobility and transportation is freedom,” Chavez says. “People are able to move around, go where they want to go, do what they want to do.” Since 2015, Curry has worked with Uber Health to coordinate eligible Uber rides through a centralized platform, helping staff manage transportation efficiently while maintaining visibility into program usage.

Removing the transportation barrier to essential care and services

San Francisco has an extensive public transportation system, but buses and trains do not work equally well for every older adult Curry serves.

Some clients have limited mobility that makes public transit difficult, especially when it requires walking several blocks to or from a train station or bus stop. Other clients have concerns about taking public transportation safely at night. Curry staff work closely with clients to understand what they need and help them determine how to best get where they are going.

"Sometimes, the best option is an Uber ride that can take them door-to-door," says Chavez. With the Uber Health dashboard, Curry staff can schedule eligible Uber rides for their clients. "If we have somebody who needs to see a doctor across town, or needs help getting to an appointment in the evening, we can help coordinate those rides for them," Chavez says.

Choosing flexible transportation instead of operating a fleet

Like many organizations serving older adults, Curry is regularly assessing all of its options for providing the most efficient and convenient transportation options for its client base.

At one point, grant funding created an opportunity to purchase a van. But when Chavez’s team examined what operating its own transportation would actually require, the drawbacks became clear. “We started thinking, ‘Wait a minute. We’re going to get a van. We’re going to have to pay for parking. Parking is very difficult around here. We have to pay for maintenance. We’re going to have to pay for a driver and for fuel and insurance. It really adds up quickly,” Chavez says.

The high costs were paired with limited capacity. One van could only serve a few participants at a time. Curry has multiple programs with clients going to different destinations throughout the city each day. They couldn’t see how to make the logistics and costs work out.

Instead of a dedicated van or fleet, Curry uses Uber Health as one component of its broader transportation approach, alongside options including public transit and paratransit. The model gives staff access to a large and flexible transportation network without requiring Curry to manage vehicles, drivers, maintenance, parking, and other fleet operations.

“With Uber, we only pay for what we use, and the convenience is even better than a shared van,” says Chavez.

Coordinating rides around each client's needs

Transportation at Curry always starts with a conversation. Patient navigators, case managers, and other frontline staff regularly speak with clients about upcoming appointments and other needs. Says Chavez "If someone says they have an appointment the following week but do not know how they will get there, a Curry staff member can help coordinate the transportation. We can even schedule an Uber ride in advance if we need to."

The Uber Health dashboard allows Curry to support people with varying levels of comfort using smartphones and digital tools. That is particularly important for Curry's clients. Some older adults are highly comfortable with technology, and others need more assistance. Coordinating transportation centrally means access to a ride does not have to depend on someone's ability to independently navigate an app on their smartphone.

Curry now coordinates approximately 500 rides with Uber each month, helping clients travel to medical care, social services, grocery resources, and other important destinations. For Chavez, a reliable system for scheduling rides at that volume gives Curry staff one less operational challenge to manage. "To know that our clients are going to be able to get to where they need to go comfortably, that reduces the anxiety a little bit," he says.

Reporting helps Curry manage program compliance

As transportation usage has grown, Curry has also worked to strengthen how it tracks rides across the organization.

Uber Health provides Curry with monthly reports showing transportation usage. Internally, Curry has refined how staff categorize trips by purpose and recently updated its Salesforce-based client system to record when a client uses an Uber ride.

That visibility is particularly important for an organization funded primarily through grants. Chavez estimates that approximately 87% of Curry's budget comes from grants, the majority from the City and County of San Francisco. Tracking transportation alongside other client services helps the organization understand how its resources are being used and maintain a more complete record of the support each client receives.

Convenient transportation can help keep an older adult's world open

The practical benefits of transportation are clear: someone gets to a doctor, reaches the Social Security office, or picks up groceries. But Chavez believes the value of mobility goes deeper.

Curry works with older adults who may spend much of their time alone, including people living in single-room occupancy hotels. As people age, mobility can decline and social circles can become smaller. Losing the ability to get around can make that world smaller still.

"When more things are taken away from you for whatever reason, it really takes a toll on you," Chavez says. "When you're able to get out and go to an appointment, or go have coffee with somebody because your peer is taking an Uber with you, that's positive."

That connection reflects Curry's holistic approach to health. Transportation can help clients reach healthcare and social services, but it can also help them stay connected to other people and participate in their community.

For Curry, that is what makes mobility so important. "People don't realize the importance of this," Chavez says. "It's more than just a ride. It's about your freedom. It's about you still feeling that you have some type of purpose."