San Francisco Supervisors Approve Mayor Breed’s Tenderloin District State Of Emergency – CBS San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – After hours of debate, the San Francisco Board of Directors overwhelmingly voted early Friday to approve the state of emergency proposed by Mayor London Breed for the city’s criminal and drug-infested Tenderloin District.
The most controversial aspect of the plan was a dramatic increase in the number of police officers patrolling the neighborhood, but when the final vote was taken, eight out of ten overseers in attendance were in favor of the plan.
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“The tenderloin needs change, and that requires us to do things differently,” Breed said in a statement. “We showed during COVID that we can get things done and make real, tangible progress by using an emergency statement to overcome bureaucracy and the barriers that stand in the way of decisive action.”
As part of her tenderloin intervention, the mayor also wants to open a new service center for drug addiction and housing brokerage. She wants to hire more emergency services and open a safe injection site. In order for all of this to happen quickly, a state of emergency had to be declared and the board had to be voted yes.
“This is a status quo that must be questioned and disrupted with everything we have,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney. “And if this is not a public health emergency, then that phrase has no meaning at all.”
While Breed’s tone caught everyone’s attention last week, it was also the opening bell for a conversation that was supposed to move across the building to the board of directors.
“I’m really frustrated with how this plan was announced in the media and the public,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “It affected the way we all see it.”
Ronen, for example, raised concerns about doubling up a failed drug war while saying she would like to vote for the declaration of emergency. And that was something of a topic for the meeting – opponents of the mayor’s plan or their rhetoric, hoping everyone will come together and make something work.
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“Threatening people to arrest is not a means of bringing addicts into treatment,” said Dean Preston, the San Francisco manager, who wants the mayor to raise money to expand mental health services, police alternatives, and hotel rooms Homeless people.
“We can do this, but only if we learn from past mistakes instead of repeating them,” he said on social media.
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 the bull – that destroyed our city”. She said it wasn’t fair that residents couldn’t use their parks or leave their homes.
“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.”
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.
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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.
