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Here’s the latest in our “Meet the Candidates” series for District 5, in which we ask each candidate to answer one question per week leading up to the election. Four candidates are challenging incumbent Supervisor Dean Preston to represent District 5, which spans from the east end of Golden Gate Park through Haight-Ashbury, Japantown and the Western Addition, the Lower Haight and Hayes Valley, and most of the Tenderloin.
Returning to regularly scheduled programming after we took a week off โ if you’d like to read about some questions I asked the District 5 supervisor candidates during a forum last week, please read Kelly Waldron’s coverage here.
Here’s this week’s question: What are your thoughts on harm reduction, and the way San Francisco applies harm reduction practices in addressing addiction and street conditions? Would you improve or change any aspects of our approach?
Dean Preston
- Job: Incumbent, tenant attorney
- Age: 54
- Residency: Homeowner, in District 5 since 1996
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, juris doctor degree from University of California Law, San Francisco
- Languages: English
Harm reduction is an evidence-based strategy to minimize infections, decrease overdose deaths, and meet people where they are to reduce the negative effects of drug use.
Despite efforts to pit harm reduction against treatment, San Franciscoโs Overdose Prevention Plan โ like our state and federal public health agencies โ recognizes these strategies are necessary to save lives and help people get better. Unfortunately, the mayor closed the Tenderloin Center, an overdose prevention site (OPS) that reversed 333 overdoses in 11 months.
We must follow the Overdose Prevention Plan, open additional OPS’s, and continue ramping up efforts to connect people to treatment.
Endorsed by: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Public Defender Mano Raju, United Educators of San Francisco, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco Tenants Union, National Union of Healthcare Workers … read more.
Scotty Jacobs
- Job: Marketing
- Age: 30
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since November 2022, homeowner
- Transportation: Public bicycle
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Washington University
- Languages: English
Harm reduction is a part of the continuum of care, but using harm reduction as a justification for allowing people โ many who are beyond their own ability to help themselves โ to die in slow motion on our streets is inhumane, uncompassionate, and a moral failure. The fentanyl crisis is unlike anything to ever hit our streets โ and requires a multi-pronged approach.
We need to:
- invest in evidence-based practices (including harm reduction strategies) that actually get people on the path to recovery
- partner with law enforcement to compel people into treatment
- pass Proposition 36
- create greater accountability for non-profits โ so that … read more.
Endorsed by: Mark Farrell, Marina Times, Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic Club, Connected SF, and UA Local 38.
Allen Jones
- Job: Activist
- Age: 67
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since November 2021
- Transportation: Wheelchair
- Education: Teaching Bible studies at juvenile hall
- Languages: English
As I see it, harm reduction is akin to adult daycare.
This perspective is underscored by the fact that San Francisco is currently violating its own rule of not placing individuals with a long history of drug abuse in a hotel located on a block known for drug dealing โ a situation that tragically led to my brother’s death. It’s clear that a new approach is urgently needed.
I propose a pilot program to repurpose vacant storefronts into โGet Clean Get Cleanโ lounges, providing a safe space where individuals can shower and access the resources they need to contemplate a drug-free life.
Autumn Looijen
- Job: School board recall co-founder
- Age: 46
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since December 2020, landowner
- Transportation: Public transit
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from California Institute of Technology
- Languages: English
Harm reduction isnโt working โ itโs destroying the Tenderloin. By giving drug users permanent housing, we created a stable customer base for the drug cartels who make our streets dangerous.
Tourists stay away. Users shoplift to pay for their drugs, killing local businesses. This is why we have an $800M deficit.
I will bring businesses back and restore our neighborhoods. It starts in the Tenderloin, with clean safe streets, and recovery.
I will build more treatment beds. Get drug dealers off our streets. Make sidewalks drug-free. Push users into treatment. And offer drug users treatment and interim shelter โ not permanent housing.
Endorsed by: San Francisco police union, Marina Times, Chinese American Democratic Club.
Bilal Mahmood
- Job: Founder of private and philanthropic organizations
- Age: 37
- Residency: Tenant in District 5 since May 2023
- Transportation: Walking
- Education: Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, master’s degree from University of Cambridge
- Languages: English, Urdu
Harm reduction is one method on a spectrum of approaches we must support in order to address addiction in our city, but itโs clear we need a holistic approach to help those battling addiction in our community. As a city, we need to take addiction seriously and support harm reduction- and abstinence-based treatment in parallel, so all options are available for those who are ready for it.
As supervisor, my focus will be on expanding new proposals such as Supervisor Dorseyโs sober housing and Cash Not Drugs programs to help our neighbors into recovery and onto a better path.
Endorsed by: Mayor London Breed, TogetherSF Action, San Francisco YIMBY, State Sen. Scott Wiener and DCCC Chair Honey Mahogany … read more.
The order of candidates is rotated each week. Answers are capped at 100 words, and may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at eleni@missionlocal.com.
Read all of the District 5 candidates' answers here, and the entire "Meet the Candidates" series here. Illustrations for the series by Neil Ballard.
You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.
Looijen’s responses make me want to poke my eyeballs out.
Let’s discuss the Tenderloin Linkage Center sometime. That place was a monument to Harm Reduction and DPH and DEM cannot to this day explain where the $25-$30M really went. I’ll tell you: mainly to non-profits which the mayor, mary ellen carroll and grant colfax refused to oversee. Again, for this they were not fired and shamed as they should have been; they continue to collect their inflated city salaries.
Harm reduction is a major fail.
It is regressive , cruel and wrong.
Lawlessness is lawlessness.
Ethically , medically and legally this is not
supported .
Grow up get real
And support zero drug tolerance.
Those that support harm reduction need help. They donโt care and are harming.
Oregon is making drastic changes because of there harm reduction failures .
Educate yourselves.
Everytime someone ingests a drug is wrong.