San Francisco Announces Plan to Overhaul Homelessness Strategy

A new plan from San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie seeks to reduce homelessness in the city, providing what the mayor says is a comprehensive strategy for reducing the impacts of the drug epidemic and helping unhoused people get into emergency and long-term housing.

“At a Monday press conference, Lurie said the overarching objective is to more effectively get people off the street and connected to recovery services while preventing more people from becoming unhoused,” notes an article for ABC7 News by Lena Howland, Luz Pena, and Monica Madden.

The plan’s first phase, which will be rolled out over the next 100 days, includes the restructuring of street outreach teams and a strategic focus on the neighborhoods with the highest need. While the mayor says the plan will reassess the distribution of “drug paraphernalia,” it does not intend to limit needle exchange programs, which the mayor says are upheld by “longstanding evidence-based public health interventions.”

The plan pledges to add 1,500 new shelter beds in the next six months and increase case management services. “And after one year, the mayor's office has the goal of maximizing state, federal and local funding sources, improving technological systems for data tracking of efficacy, and examining the organizational structure of the city's programs that deal with these issues.”