Thanks to Our Community, More City Funding for Recovery and Public Safety
TogetherSF Action has been focused on pushing City Hall to end the city’s open-air drug markets this year, with events, an ad campaign, and social media dedicated to this cause. Our coalition of experts and advocates spent the months of May and June focusing this advocacy on budget line items we know will help solve the drug crisis. The budget provides funding for the city’s plans for the next two years, so it was crucial that funding for effective programs to end the drug crisis were included in this budget.
We’re happy to report that our advocacy worked: All of our priorities will be funded in this year’s budget. Thanks to our community’s advocacy, 3,200 community members sent over 57,000 emails to City Hall. Thank you to Mayor London Breed for hearing our community’s requests for action.
There were two major components to our coalition’s demands for the budget this year: public safety and expanding addiction recovery programs to offer true treatment on demand. We’re satisfied with the amount of public safety funding, and we also acknowledge that closing the gaps in true treatment on demand will require further investments. While we believe we need every penny spent for public safety, we’ll also continue to advocate for better and more abundant recovery programs.
Here are the TogetherSF Action community’s wins across Recovery Services and Public Safety.
Recovery Programs
Funding to help drug treatment service providers stay competitive in the job market
Funding for for women and their families to access recovery and support services including transitional housing
Funding for completely drug-free therapeutic teaching communities
Expanded step-down drug addiction treatment beds on Treasure Island
Sober housing for people with substance use problems
Expanded intake center hours for people seeking substance use treatment
Public Safety
Funding for the Drug Market Agency Command Center, to allow involved departments to coordinate their work on the drug crisis
Funding for specialized narcotics detection equipment
Funding for Urban Alchemy’s unarmed street ambassador program to continue
Continued funding for Street Response Teams that help deal with overdoses
More civilian positions in SFPD to increase officer flexibility
220 additional police officers over the next two years
Expanded police recruitment and retention efforts
We couldn’t have done this without our coalition and our community. Next up: we’re not going to take our eye off this ball. We’ll keep pushing the city to end the drug crisis.
In the meantime, sign up and bring a friend to Why SF Is Broken (And How to Fix It), our game show-style live event that outlines all the ways San Francisco’s governmental systems could be better. It’ll give you an idea of where we’re headed once we close the drug markets for good.