Melissa Matheney was proudly born in San Francisco and has spent her career working in SROs, transitional housing, shelters, and drop-in centers in Oakland and San Francisco. She began working in harm reduction over 10 years ago as a volunteer in response to the growing poverty, homelessness, and lack of affordable housing as a result of gentrification. Melissa is extremely passionate about ensuring program participant voices are at the forefront of program design and implementation.

Melissa began working with NHRC as a consultant on the SRO Project, which was a tenant-led overdose initiative in San Francisco, CA. Currently, Melissa works for NHRC managing a training and technical assistance contract with the city of San Francisco's Department of Homelessness & Housing that helps to implement a harm reduction framework within supportive housing and shelters, reduce overdose deaths, all while offering support to staff carrying out the work