SF City Supervisor wants to see drug-free supportive housing options in the city
San Francisco City Supervisor Matt Dorsey is pushing for drug-free permanent supportive housing options in the city of San Francisco, and he drafted a new piece of legislation to make it happen.
The city of SF has leaned into California's "Housing First" policy, which offered housing to folks regardless of their use of illicit or illegal drugs. Now, Dorsey wants to give the people who are receiving the housing support the choice to live in a drug-free, or drug-tolerant/recovery-focused environment.
Dorsey authored the new legislation along with Board President Rafael Mandelman, and it was co-sponsored by Supervisors Stephen Sherrill and Danny Sauter. He says many of the fatal overdoses in the city were tied to drug-tolerant housing options.
"California’s implementation of Housing First a decade ago defied urging from the Obama Administration’s HUD for recovery-inclusive supportive housing options — adopting instead for a 100 percent drug-tolerant model, even as the deadliest drug crisis in human history was beginning to take hold. Today, San Francisco’s exclusively drug-tolerant PSH model is blamed for disproportionate rates of fatal overdoses, chaotic and too often violent neighborhood conditions, and a wide range of drug-driven public safety challenges. It’s time to deliver the drug-free options PSH residents have long been asking for, and I’m grateful to my co-author, President Rafael Mandelman, for his leadership, and to my co-sponsors, Supervisors Stephen Sherrill and Danny Sauter, for their support of this needed legislation."
The legislation would shift city policy to expand to three supportive housing models:
- Drug-tolerant PSH, which would reflect California’s current Housing First practices that prohibit evictions for the on-site use of illicit drugs;
- Drug-free PSH, which would prohibit illicit drug use on-site as a condition of tenancy, but allow the use of legal substances such as alcohol and marijuana; and
- Recovery-oriented PSH, a sober model for those in recovery from Substance- and Alcohol-Use Disorders that aligns with standards and best practices from HUD, SAMHSA, and the National Alliance For Recovery Residences, or NARR.
Dorsey also wants to see a survey conducted across the estimated 9,000 residents currently living in site-based public supportive housing by 2026, to determine the demand for each type. Results of the survey would then be presented to the Board of Supervisors by January 1, 2027.