City considers measure to screen welfare recipients for addiction
The Democratic mayor of San Francisco is pushing a pair of controversial public safety proposals on the March 5 ballot, including one that would require single adults on welfare be screened and treated for illegal drug addiction or else lose cash assistance.
Mayor London Breed also supports a ballot measure that would grant police more crime-fighting powers, such as the use of drones and surveillance cameras. In November, she'll face cranky voters in a competitive reelection bid.
San Francisco is in a struggle to redefine itself after the pandemic left it in economic tatters and highlighted its longstanding problems with homelessness, drugs and property crime. Opponents say both ballot measures are wildly out of step with San Francisco's support for privacy and civil liberties and will only hurt the marginalized communities the city prides itself on helping.
But Breed, the first Black woman to lead San Francisco, said at a January campaign stop that residents from poorer, Black and immigrant neighborhoods are pleading for more police, and recovery advocates are demanding change as more than 800 people died of accidental overdose last year — a record fueled by the abundance of cheap and potent fentanyl.
“They said San Francisco makes it too easy for people to access and to use drugs on the streets of the city and we need to do something a lot more aggressive,” Breed said at Footprint, an athletic apparel and shoe store that has been repeatedly burglarized.
While Breed's name isn't on the presidential primary ballots going out now — San Francisco uses a method where residents rank mayoral candidates by preference a single time in November — the two measures she's pushing are. They serve as an opening salvo for her reelection campaign as she faces off against fellow moderates who say her approach to the city's problems has been weak.
Violent crimes are low in San Francisco, but the city has long struggled with quality-of-life crimes.
Breed said rates of retail theft and auto smashins have declined recently, thanks in large part to strategic operations by city police. Similarly, police have stepped up enforcement of drug laws, including by issuing citations to people using drugs in public as a way to disrupt the behavior and an opportunity to persuade the person cited to seek help.
But she said San Francisco needs to do more.
If approved by voters, Proposition F would offer another way to compel treatment, by allowing the city to screen single adults on local welfare for substance abuse. People found to be abusing illegal drugs would be required to enroll in treatment if they want to receive cash assistance from the city, which maxes out at just over $700 a month.
Opponents say coercion doesn't work and homelessness may increase if the measure passes. Drug addicts are not criminals, they say, and there are not enough treatment beds and counseling services as it is.
A crackdown on drugs is reminiscent of the failed war on drugs that disproportionately harmed Black families, said Chris Ballard, co-executive director of Coleman Advocates, which pushes for improvements for Black and Latino youth in San Francisco.
“There are more ethical ways to address the issue aside from punitive measures, and that's the proper way to take care of a community, to show true support,” he said.
Yet Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, which provides cash assistance and employment services to lowincome residents without dependent children, said the current situation is in conflict with the agency's mission: to improve lives.
“To give someone who's addicted to fentanyl $700 a month, I don't think it helps improve their lives,” he said. “In fact, I think it does the opposite.”
Compelling treatment has become more acceptable in Democratic California, despite angst over the potential loss of civil liberties, as visible signs of homelessness and mental illness, fentanyl addiction, and unsafe street behavior surge.
Last year, several counties rolled out an alternative mental health court created by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, former mayor of San Francisco, to fast-track people with untreated schizophrenia and related disorders into care, and in March voters will take up a statewide mental health proposition that some say will increase involuntary treatment.
Rhorer said the welfare program for single adults — which serves about 9,000 people per year — already asks applicants about substance abuse, with about 20% self-reporting an issue.