Many San Francisco residents are concerned about addressing the opioid crisis and homelessness ahead of the mayoral election in November.
Officials have been aggressively trying to resolve both. the Supreme Court’s ruling on Grant’s PassSan Francisco has been dismantling of encampments in the Tenderloin and other neighborhoods.
SFPD has also been tackling drug trafficking With the help of state and federal law enforcement, 3,900 arrests have been made and more than 500 kilos of drugs have been taken off the streets since the crackdown began last May.
While some progress has been made, the city’s new leader will still have much to address on both fronts.
“I actually woke up. I saw a couple of people standing above me,” explained Damon, who spent the night behind a Best Buy on Harrison Street in San Francisco. “I saw they were coming out of a health van.”
Damon slept under the sound machines that were supposed to deter people from camping on this sidewalk, but the city’s encampment clearing team will force him to move again.
“I can’t be anywhere for three days,” he said of all the moving.
This time he has been directed to an open space in one of the city’s navigation centers. With the support of recent court rulingsthe city has been pushing harder to get people off the streets, it’s something that’s been discussed for years in emergencies.
It was in December 2021 that Mayor London Breed launched a series of initiatives focused primarily on the connection between homelessness and drugs in the Tenderloin. Thirty-two months later, there is evidence that increased law enforcement is disrupting drug markets, at least during the day.
Numbers of overdoses, which reached a record high of 810 last yearare falling this year, down 15% so far from 2023. Health officials say they’re not sure why. The task of getting people off the streets and into shelters continues.
“I hope something comes out of it for me, I’m 53 years old. I can still work,” Damon said.
These are issues that have, of course, troubled San Francisco mayors for generations. What has changed? Perhaps the public’s sense that it’s time for visible, measurable improvement, and that the city’s collective well-being is increasingly tied to making real progress on these issues.
