San Francisco Mushroom Church Will Close, Alleging It Was Targeted by City

Updated 4:45 p.m. Wednesday

Pastor Dave Hodges of the Church of Ambrosia spills out a pound of psychedelic Sun Temple mushrooms from a bag at Zide Door, the church’s San Francisco location.

“The person who makes them actually stamps a little heart into each one, so you know they’re really putting love into making them,” Hodges said Wednesday at a press conference where he announced the San Francisco location would be closing — and blamed city officials for targeting the church.

Since April 2023, the Church of Ambrosia, which claims to be the world’s largest church of its kind, has been offering psilocybin mushrooms, DMT and cannabis to over 120,000 members of its Zide Door location. (An Oakland branch of the church, founded by Hodges, has been open since 2019.) Members of the church give a suggested donation in exchange for the drugs, called “sacrament” there, which Hodges sees as a way to connect to “the divine.”

But Zide Door is set to close by the end of the month, as Hodges alleges that the San Francisco Planning Department has unfairly targeted the institution with a never-ending list of expensive repairs on the space it rents in the city’s SoMa neighborhood.

Hodges said the problems with the building began only after the Church of Ambrosia moved in.

“ The building has been inspected by the Planning Department many times, and it wasn’t until we opened up that all these problems started to be big issues,” Hodges said.

Hodges said the city initially found a problem with a sliding-door-to-nowhere on the building’s second floor that presented a fall risk to employees — something the church repaired at a cost of over $100,000.

“ So we fixed that, and then they found one problem after another,” Hodges said.

The straw that is breaking this psychedelic camel’s back is city-mandated repairs for Zide Door’s front entrance windows, which Hodges said are chronically broken by people in the neighborhood.

“ Even if we do that, we’re afraid that the city might still say, nope, there’s something else wrong, because that’s what they’ve done every time,” Hodges said.

Planning Department Chief of Staff Dan Sider said Hodges is after the wrong people.

“Building code compliance is handled by the Department of Building Inspection, which is independent of the Planning Department,” Sider said.

“We’ve made significant strides to reduce processes and fees for small businesses of all kinds in San Francisco, and the Church of Ambrosia is no exception,” Sider added. “We’ve worked closely with the church for the last six months to legalize their occupancy and no structural work is required. Our staff is currently reviewing architectural plans that they submitted last week, so today’s closure announcement was surprising. We remain happy to facilitate their permitting process.”

Patrick Hannan, communications director for the Department of Building Inspection said the property has three open code violations.

“There are outstanding plumbing and electrical safety and installation code violations at this property. The building code represents the minimum legal safety standards for a structure,” Hannan said. “When a building isn’t meeting the minimum code standards, the Department of Building Inspection requires the property owner to fix it so it’s safe for people to occupy. That’s what we are doing here. There is no outstanding building code violation requiring structural work, just electrical and plumbing.”

As the church’s San Francisco location opened on Wednesday, members expressed sadness at its impending closure.

“ I use psilocybin for various purposes, number one being recreation, but also focus and giving myself like a little more clarity or lucidity in my days when I need a little push,” said 33-year-old Jake Winkelman of Oakland. “I really appreciate having a safe place where I can have a lot of control in what I’m getting.”

Kyle Richard, 38, drove in from Chico and said the church has helped him treat his depression and anxiety.

“ I used to be on a lot of anti-anxiety and depression medications, and through microdosing, I’ve been able to get rid of the pharmaceuticals, which I am not a fan of,” Richard said.

Hodges said the biggest impact of Zide Door’s closing will be on the people who live in the neighborhood, which is one of the city’s hotspots in its drug and housing crisis.

The church’s presence, with 24/7 security, has been positive for the immediate surroundings, Hodges said, noting that church staff have reversed overdoses using Narcan, passed out water to those in need and provided surveillance footage to police investigating crimes.

“Anytime that we see something where we can intervene and get somebody the help they need, we’ve been able to do it. So I think that the biggest impact is really to the people around us not having an organization that’s trying to help anymore,” Hodges said.

He said the Church of Ambrosia may open another site in the city at some point in the future, but for now, “the signs of the universe are saying, ‘Get out of SF as soon as possible.’”