The top city officials in charge of the Tenderloin told an invite-only crowd gathered at St. Anthony’s Foundation on Thursday evening that they agreed on one goal: To clear the streets of drug users, drug dealers, and homeless people by expanding the amount of available shelter beds across San Francisco by 1,500.
“We have a great partnership,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said as he addressed the town hall organized by St. Anthony’s Foundation, a Franciscan organization that serves the Tenderloin’s homeless population. Standing beside the mayor were District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood and Lurie’s policy chief of health, homelessness and human services, former McKinsey partner Kunal Modi.
“We are going to be working very closely together, so you should be reaching out to Mahmood with your concerns as much as you are reaching out to us,” the mayor said during an hour-long interview and Q&A. “We are in lockstep, we’re listening, working with you all.”
Much of the audience of about 50 people, which included nonprofit heads, parents, and community leaders, received the San Francisco leaders with open arms.
Lurie promised on the campaign trail to add 1,500 beds, but has redefined and expanded the definition of a shelter bed to include a broad listing of treatment beds. The push to expand available beds, and redefine what a bed is, is part of Lurie’s campaign goal to end street homelessness.
“We need the right types of beds,” said Modi when asked what they will do to address the mental health needs of homeless people in the neighborhood. “When we talk about expanding our housing capacity, it’s not just the next bed that’s available, it’s the right bed to get people the care they need. That includes beds that will have a treatment and clinical model.”
Lurie has been filmed and photographed across San Francisco personally catering to those on the streets, including by handing out business cards at 16th and Mission streets. He held a similar meeting with neighbors of the BART plaza last week, also promising change and saying conditions remained “unacceptable.”
On Thursday, Lurie described leaving his vehicle three times over the course of the town hall to ask a homeless person or drug user on the street why they were there and how he could get them a bed.
“I am jumping out of my car when I see someone in the middle of the street, or at a median, struggling,” said Lurie. “I’m getting to know these people, saying, ‘This is not okay for you to be here, it’s not okay for the families who have to walk around you using drugs openly, this is unacceptable. How can we get you into treatment?’”
He then went on to describe chasing after another man, with his security detail in tow, when the man he approached did not at first respond to his efforts to help.
“I left City Hall, and was on my way to Chinatown, when again, I jumped out of my car when I saw a man lying on the street. I asked him, ‘Are you okay? You can’t be lying here on the street. How can we help?’ He ranted and ran away, and my security guard and I followed him, and called SFPD.” Lurie then clarified, “Not to arrest him, to get him the help he needs.”
Del Seymour, a former drug-user and dealer, now the founder of Code Tenderloin and the neighborhood’s self-proclaimed “mayor,” was the only audience member to express concerns with Lurie’s methods.
He questioned Lurie’s scaling back of harm-reduction programs in favor of an abstinence-first approach. “There are a lot of people who aren’t in this room today,” observed Seymour, “and those are harm reductionists. We have to treat people. Abstinence won’t do that for everyone.”
UCSF doctors on a Thursday panel agreed that depriving drug users of medications like methadone, which is used to treat opioid addiction, could be deadly. The World Health Organization recognizes methadone as an essential medicine to use against opioid dependence.
“We believe in science, and we’re going to follow the science,” said Modi. “Something’s not working, and we have to try new approaches if that’s what we’re going to do.”
The City’s harm reduction model is not working. It’s enabling the users. I found harm reduction practices ineffective in my case.
Message to neophyte nepo Mayor Lurie and locksteppin’ Bilal along with DOGE like “right type of bed” efficiency czar Modi:
a “town hall meeting” requiring an invitation or RSVP is not a town hall meeting. Town halls are public meetings open to all members of the public. This stunt was manufactured and controlled by Lurie Productions.
Lockstep Lurie…..has a nice ring
so what is the equivalent of methadone for fentanyl users? That’s what’s needed. Harm reduction means someone else, a non profit with directors and managers salaries skim the monies met for the end user.
Methadone is a Medication for Opiate Use Disorder (MOUD). Given that Fentanyl is a synthetic Opiod, Methadone is a treatment for it. Please do. Of fake this personally, but your question is an example of reactionary dialogue around a subject by those who have failed to do their own research. This is why we need people who have actual experience helping the community to be involved in the conversation and not NIMBY’s with no compassion. We all want to support people to no longer be on the street but some of us seek a compassionate, trauma informed and person centered approach. I hope we can achieve our goals, without causing further irreparable damage.
rich guy mayor and his mckinsey underling accosting people.
Singapore model
Mr. Mayor,
When I want advice on a tough problem ?
I always ask the smartest guy on Earth.
That’s Noam Chomsky and he says that there are 5 ways to approach the drug problem and he gave them in order of their effectiveness according to a Rand Corporation study paid for by the U.S. government.
1. Prevention
This is the most effective method by multiples.
It includes Harm Reduction which is unpopular with people who want to go in right away with cops.
2. Treatment
Methadone and therapy come to mind and they’re both on the chopping block for reduction in funds.
3. Criminal Justice
The is currently the most popular method although Prevention and Treatment are 11 times as effective according to Rand.
This includes arresting the addicts, most of whom are not criminals other than as drug customers.
You know what happens to them in Jail ?
They get lessons in how to rob and steal, often after they’ve been raped and beaten.
4. Interdiction
This is at the Borders and, especially with Fentanyl which can be made by 3 tweakers who passed high school chemistry which is driving the cartels crazy because hundreds of home bathroom labs are sprouting up all over Mexico and will in the U.S. too.
The Interdiction, Chomsky says that according to the Rand Study is 11 times less effective than Prevention and Treatment.
5. Source Country Control
Chomsky says that basically this boils down to, “killing peasants”.
Is SF wasting money on methods that are proven failures ?
Yep, have been for 100 years which is about when cocaine and opium dens and whore houses began to be regulated.
Instead of doubling down on these proven failures SF should look to Europe and Spain and Portugal and Germany too I think and they’re trying it and winning and losing in Oregon and I mean, of course, Decriminalization.
Give proven addicts a Legal Prescription as they do in those Locales and not a Legal Prosecution.
This cuts the Dealers and the Cops out of the equation.
And, to Mayor Lurie from me …
You should sponsor a Charter Amendment to make the Office of Police Chief of the City and County of San Francisco elected by the 500,000 registered voters.
Head hunt candidates from all over the World.
English not necessary if you can show us how you succeeded wherever the come from then we can translate til you learn our language.
I know you’re really smart, Daniel and it is just a matter of time before you realize that Chomsky and the Rand Corporation are correct and that the path you are on is only making things worse.
Don’t keep sending Addicts to Gladiator school where they will learn to be criminals.
Go Niners !!
h.
No. Make the users as miserable as is humanly possible and ADVERTISE it. Put up billboards everywhere that say, “Come To San Francisco To Do Illegal Drugs? We Will Harsh Your Mellow.” and mean it. Every infraction requires 48 hours in lockup with NO drugs. Jonesing sucks. Pass a law that outlaws ALL tents and stolen shopping carts with immediate destruction or confiscation being the punishment, on-the-spot. They will be happy to leave after a while.
To date , the number of persons taking drugs and the homeless population only increases .
Although often overlapping , not always .
For the drug scene , zero tolerance . Supply and demand issue. Law enforcement and services .
Drug sales , distribution sharing and usage is illegal . Loitering in public for drug activity illegal.
Lawlessness is lawlessness .
Temp shelter food and clothing and services .
But many refuse any and all help.
There must be a large daily presence to divide and help,
Both arrests and mandatory treatment are necessary .
Taking dugs indicates a person is impaired and cannot be left on the street . Cruel.
They must be removed for their well being .
They have no say .
Job training and placement . Might not be in SF .
If persons refuse shelter then they need to leave the city .
Enough of this debate .
We are tired of the babysitting and enabling.
Accountablity and self responsibility .
They are preventing the city from getting back on its feet .
The hard working taxpayers who struggle as well deserve to be heard and it is time to help them .
Enough .
Clean up the mess .
Any drug activity or encampment demands a rapid response and removal.
With 35k city employees and a billion spent each year , this mess should be well underway to be cleaned up yeasterday .
A scion and a goon jump out of a chauffeured black car and chase a destitute down the street.
Fucking gestapo shit.