MESSAGE FROM CATHERINE
Dear John,
The Tenderloin is in crisis. In 2018, there were 259 documented overdose deaths in San Francisco. In 2020, that number nearly tripled to 717 deaths. We’ve already observed at least 592 overdose deaths this year.
Last year, we allocated over $1 billion to address homelessness, and over $25 million to address mental health crises and drug overdoses. We continuously expanded social services and shelter, and yet the problem continues to get worse.
These numbers should appall us all. They are stark indicators that something is deeply flawed in how we are currently addressing the overdose crisis.
Earlier this year, 400 Tenderloin residents and families came to City Hall to beg the City to intervene and stop the violence they experience on a daily basis.
What does it say about our city that we find it acceptable for children to walk over dead bodies and be assaulted day after day while they are on their way to school or to work? What is it going to take for us to say enough is enough?
I know there are those who will disagree with me but, the disease of addiction is not a license to use on the streets until you kill yourself or seriously harm someone else.
That is why I voted yes to declare a State of Emergency in the Tenderloin for the ongoing drug overdose death crisis.
This declaration would give the Mayor 90 days to:
- Allow the City to expeditiously leverage existing resources to best address the crisis in the Tenderloin and SOMA,
- Quickly create centers where those suffering from addiction can receive mental health and other human services,
- Disrupt the illegal open air drug market, and
- Expedite cleaning and infrastructure requests.
The choice before us was whether or not we want to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis before us and provide the resources necessary to address it.
The situation in the Tenderloin is untenable and it deserves the same urgent and sustained emergency response we gave to the COVID-19 pandemic. For too long, residents of this area and throughout the City have begged for change. I hear you, and with full confidence in our Department of Emergency Management, I look forward to addressing the emergency in the Tenderloin head on.
- Supervisor Catherine Stefani
Office of Supervisor Catherine Stefani
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 260, San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 554-7752 Fax: (415) 554-7843
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Catherine Stefani - United States
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