San Francisco considers a measure to screen welfare recipients for addiction

SAN FRANCISCO– San Francisco’s Democratic mayor advanced a number of controversial public safety proposals during the March 5 vote, including one that would require single adults on welfare to be screened and treated for illegal drug addiction or face losing monetary assistance.

Mayor London Breed also supports a ballot measure that would give police more crime-fighting powers, such as the use of drones and surveillance cameras. She will face cranky voters in a competitive re-election bid in November.

San Francisco is in a struggle to redefine itself after the pandemic left the country in economic tatters and highlighted longstanding problems of homelessness, drugs and property crime. Opponents say both ballot measures are completely out of step with San Francisco’s support for privacy and civil liberties and will only hurt the marginalized communities the city works so hard to help.

But Breed, the first Black woman to lead San Francisco, said at a campaign stop in January that residents from poorer, Black and immigrant neighborhoods are calling for more police, and recovery advocates are demanding change as more than 800 people died last year from accidental overdose. – a record fueled by the abundance of cheap and potent fentanyl.

“They said San Francisco makes it too easy for people to access and use drugs on city streets, and we need to do something much more aggressive,” said Breed at Footprint, a sportswear and footwear store which has been visited repeatedly. broke into.

Although Breed’s name is not on the presidential primary ballot now underway — San Francisco uses a method in which residents rank mayoral candidates in preference to each other once in November — the two measures she is pushing are. They serve as the opening salvo for her re-election campaign, as she takes on fellow moderates who say her approach to the city’s problems has been weak.

Violent crime is low in San Francisco, but the city has long struggled with quality of life crimes.

Breed said shoplifting and car burglaries have dropped recently, thanks in large part to strategic operations by city police. Similarly, police have stepped up enforcement of drug laws, including issuing tickets to people who use drugs in public as a way to disrupt behavior and as an opportunity to convince the said person to seek help .

But she said San Francisco needs to do more.

If Proposition F is approved by voters, it would provide another way to enforce treatment by allowing the city to screen single adults at local facilities for substance abuse. People found to be abusing illegal drugs would have to enroll in treatment if they want to receive cash assistance from the city, which amounts to a maximum of just over $700 per month.

Opponents say coercion doesn’t work and that homelessness could increase if the measure passes. Drug addicts are not criminals, they say, and there are not enough treatment beds and counseling services.

The drug crackdown is reminiscent of the failed war on drugs that has disproportionately harmed black families, said Chris Ballard, co-director of Coleman Advocates, which is pushing for improvements for black and Latino youth in San Francisco.

“There are more ethical ways to address the problem, short of punitive measures, and that is the right way to care for a community, to show real support,” he said.

Still, Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, which provides cash assistance and job placement services to low-income residents without dependent children, said the current situation runs counter to the organization’s mission of improving lives.

“To give someone who is addicted to fentanyl $700 a month, I don’t think it’s going to help improve their lives,” he said. “I actually think it does the opposite.”

Coercive treatment has become more acceptable in Democratic California, despite fears about the potential loss of civil liberties, as visible signs of homelessness and mental illness, fentanyl addiction and unsafe street behavior increase.

Last year, several counties introduced an alternative mental health court, created by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, former mayor of San Francisco, to quickly funnel people with untreated schizophrenia and related disorders into care, and in March voters across the country will state to set up mental health care. health proposal that some say will increase the number of involuntary treatments.

Rhorer said the single adult welfare program — which serves about 9,000 people a year — already asks applicants about substance abuse, with about 20% self-reporting a problem. A data check with the Department of Health found that nearly a third of recipients have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, he said.

The ballot measure would replace that question with a more stringent screening test that would be verified by an addiction specialist. If substance abuse is diagnosed, Rhorer said, the specialist and applicant would agree on treatment options, including inpatient care, a 12-step program, individual counseling and replacement medication.

There is no requirement that the person be sober, only that they make good faith efforts to attend their program, hoping that “at some point a light bulb will go off,” Rhorer said.

The measure calls for the city to pay the rent of those in the program for 30 days or more to avoid eviction. About 30% of people who fatally overdosed in 2023 were homeless, and even more lived in subsidized urban housing.

In addition to authorizing drones, cameras and other modern technologies, Proposition E would reduce paperwork, giving police more time to patrol. It would also allow police to pursue more suspects per vehicle, and not just in cases of a violent crime or an imminent threat to public safety – policy shop owner Michael Hsu learned the hard way.

Since he took over the company in 2020, his Footprint store has been burglarized several times, most recently on January 1. Police arrived as the suspects left but were unable to pursue them as no lives were in danger. Hsu, who lost about $20,000 in merchandise and damage, called that disheartening.

“You’re sending the wrong message to these criminals,” he said.