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Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed unveiled a plan Tuesday to require anyone receiving welfare to comply with mandatory drug testing and treatment programs, amid growing pressure to get a handle on the homeless and city’s fentanyl crises — the same day a new primary challenger in next year’s elections entered the race.
Announcing the proposal alongside Supervisor Matt Dorsey, a recovering addict and former police spokesman, Breed said the new initiative would require individuals with substance use disorders who want to access county-funded cash assistance to enroll in treatment and services.
“San Francisco is a city of compassion, but also a city that demands responsibility,” Breed said in a statement. “We fund a wide range of services and we want to help people get the care they need, but under current state law, local government lacks the tools to force people into treatment. This initiative aims to create more responsibility and get people to accept care. treatment and services they need.”
“I wholeheartedly support Mayor Breed’s initiative, which will better promote treatment and recovery for a population that is at vastly disproportionate risk for drug addiction and overdose deaths,” Dorsey added. “We are facing unprecedented loss of life in San Francisco, and we know that coercive interventions can work.
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San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a new wellness initiative. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
But the mayor faces an uphill battle to get the legislation approved by more progressive Democratic counterparts on the City Council because the proposal deviates from the ultra-liberal city’s once-prevalent stance against forcing involuntary treatment of the mentally ill. Meanwhile, as open-air drug markets, homelessness and rising crime bring public safety concerns to the forefront ahead of an election year, City Hall’s announcement came on the same day that Daniel Lurie, a longtime nonprofit and heir to the Levi Strauss & Fortune has formally announced a Democratic challenge for Breed in 2024.
“What we see on the streets of San Francisco is not progressive,” Lurie said in a campaign announcement video. ‘We have too many people who have been in power for far too long and are doing things the same way they have always been done. We need the courage to try to do things differently. I’m running for mayor to provide a different kind of policy leadership. A new era of leadership from outside.”
Homeless tents in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District on August 28, 2023. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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“We have enormous resources; we have everything at our disposal and yet our streets are unsafe. We need to end the era of open-air drug trafficking, we need housing at all income levels, especially for the middle-class families who are the backbone of San Francisco,” he added.
Under Breed’s new proposal, as a condition of eligibility for County Adult Assistance Programs (CAAP), individuals with a suspected substance use disorder would be required to participate in substance abuse screenings or treatment programs funded by the San Francisco Human Services Agency (SFHSA ).
On August 28, 2023, a woman who has been homeless for four years is seen in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, California, United States. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The mayor’s office said these treatment programs would include a range of interventions from residential treatment, medical detox, medically assisted treatment, outpatient options and abstinence-based treatments, among others, based on the client’s needs. Individuals who refuse or do not successfully undergo treatment would be ineligible to receive CAAP cash assistance and their application would be denied or they would no longer receive cash assistance.
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From 2018 to 2020, approximately 20% of CAAP recipients self-disclosed in an initial interview with SFHSA staff as having substance abuse problems. The incidence of substance abuse among CAAP recipients experiencing homelessness is likely higher than among the CAAP population as a whole, the mayor’s office said.
Danielle Wallace is a reporter for Fox News Digital covering politics, crime, policing and more. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @danimwallace.
