SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The San Francisco board of directors met Thursday to review an emergency order proposed by the mayor to tackle the opioid epidemic in the city’s troubled Tenderloin neighborhood, with some members clearly dismayed by the criminalization statement could be used by people who are homeless, drug addicts, or both.
The Public Health Emergency Declaration allows the Emergency Management Department to reassign city staff and bypass contract and licensing regulations to create a new temporary center where people have access to expanded drug treatment and counseling.
But homeless and drug users lawyers are calling for a no because Mayor London Breed has also pledged to flood the district with police officers to stop crime. Public health officials promote treatment for drug addicts, not punishment, but Breed has said that people who use drugs in public can end up in jail unless they accept services.
Regulators said they welcomed the idea of treating a drug epidemic fueled by cheap synthetic fentanyl for the crisis it is. In the past year, more people died from overdose in San Francisco than from COVID-19.
“I believe we should all mobilize all the resources we have in this city to deal with this crisis,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “But based on the way this has been described in the media, I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.”
The tenderloin includes museums, the main public library and government offices, including the town hall. But it is also teeming with people who are homeless or in marginal homes, with a high concentration of drug dealers and drug users.
Breed said last week it was time to “be less tolerant of all of the bull – this has destroyed our city”.
“If someone openly uses drugs on the street, we give them the opportunity to take advantage of the services and treatments we offer. But if they refuse, we won’t allow them to continue consuming on the streets, ”she said on social media this week. “The families in the neighborhood deserve better.”
Breed has pledged to open a monitored drug consumption center as well as a drug denial center, and said the emergency management department will lead the response as much as it coordinates efforts to combat the pandemic. The department will, in part, streamline emergency medical calls, halt drug trafficking and use, and ensure the streets remain clean.
The number of overdose-related deaths in San Francisco has increased more than 200% since 2018, and over 700 people died from drug overdoses in the city last year, more than the number who died from COVID -19 died, according to the proclamation.
Nearly 600 people died of drug overdoses this year through November, with nearly half of the deaths occurring in the Tenderloin and neighboring South of Market District, the proclamation said. These areas make up 7% of the population of San Francisco.
Politically liberal cities in the US are grappling with crime following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, when their elected leaders pledged ways to reduce friction between police and vulnerable color communities, especially African-Americans like Floyd.
San Francisco Prosecutor Chesa Boudin joined the city’s public defender earlier this week in denouncing the mayor’s plan, saying that detaining people struggling with addiction, mental health problems and homelessness would not work .
They want her to use the money to build additional treatment beds, shelter, professional training, and other social services.
“What we are currently seeing at the tenderloin did not happen overnight and is the result of years of massive divestments and evictions,” said Jeannette Zanipatin, California director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
If approved, the emergency order would take 90 days, unless Breed requests an extension.
