Breed taking drug-welfare plan to voters
Mayor London Breed is going straight to voters with her proposal to mandate drug screenings and treatment for San Francisco welfare recipients after failing to gain enough traction to advance the idea through the Board of Supervisors.
Breed said Tuesday that she will send a measure to the March ballot that would require adults struggling with addiction to enroll in treatment to get cash assistance from the city. It’s the same controversial proposal she first floated late last month for possible consideration by supervisors — most of whom quickly criticized the plan.
Six supervisors said they were not likely to support Breed’s proposal, making it clear that any legislation she introduced to enact it would likely fail. Supervisor Aaron Peskin, the board president, questioned whether the city had enough beds to support the treatment mandate outlined by Breed — or the resources to screen thousands of welfare recipients.
Facing insufficient support at the board, Breed is instead asking the electorate to decide. The measure needs a simple majority to become law.Five years into her mayorship, Breed is facing immense political pressure to show results on improving the city’s drug crisis as open-air fentanyl markets thrive in public spaces and people die from overdoses with alarming frequency. Breed has increasingly turned to law enforcement in response, even directing police to arrest drug users in some cases, an approach that so far shown little success at getting large numbers of people into treatment.
“This ballot measure will allow San Franciscans to add another tool to our efforts to address the drug use that is creating serious public safety hazards and fueling an overdose crisis on our streets,” Breed said in a statement. “We want to help people, but we also need people to be trying to enter into the various treatment and services options we offer in this city.”San Francisco will still fund “a wide range of services” to help drug users, Breed said, but she stressed that “we also need to add accountability as part of the equation.”
While she pursues a law enforcement-led crackdown on drug markets, Breed is also trying to bolster the Police Department more broadly, pushing to get more officers on the streets and make inroads on a police staffing shortage. The welfare measure is set to appear on the March ballot alongside another proposal Breed announced Tuesday that seeks to give police more power to chase fleeing suspects by car and reduce the amount of time officers spend on administrative work, among other things.
While Breed was unable to move her proposed treatment mandate forward at the Board of Supervisors, three of her allies on the board — Catherine Stefani, Rafael Mandelman and Matt Dorsey — released supportive statements about the ballot measure.
“In recent years, San Francisco has earned a reputation as a destination for people who use the most toxic drugs to come, and eventually die,” Mandelman said. “I support this effort to make San Francisco the city where people are able to get sober and build a better life.”
About 5,200 San Francisco residents get cash grants from the County Adult Assistance Program. Payments can be as much as $697 per month for housed residents and $105 for unhoused residents. San Francisco officials said that, from 2018 to 2020, about 20% of participants in the assistance program said they have a disabling substance use issue, and the rate is likely higher among people in the program who are homeless.
Among the 700 accidental overdose deaths San Francisco recorded from September 1, 2022 through the end of August, about 13% had recently participated in the assistance program, and 9% were in it in the month they died, city officials said.