Ex-homeless advocates hit San Francisco’s progressive approach to crisis as ineffective — The Washington Times

Formerly homeless and addicted San Franciscans have long accused liberal nonprofit groups’ “housing first” policies of worsening the city’s homelessness problem and say a positive change is on the way.

Daniel Lurie, a political outsider with a bold plan to address the city’s homelessness crisis, was sworn in Wednesday as San Francisco mayor. The moderate Democrat has vowed to emphasize effectiveness and accountability over compassion.

“This is a critical moment for San Francisco,” said Thomas Wolfe, director of West Coast Initiatives at the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions. “With the right leadership, the city can finally start addressing homelessness and addiction in a way that changes lives rather than just maintaining the status quo.”

At his inauguration ceremony in San Francisco City Hall, Mr. Lurie proclaimed an immediate increase in efforts to “bring drug dealers to justice and clean up our streets.”

“Widespread drug dealing, public drug use and constantly seeing people in crisis has robbed us of our sense of decency and security,” he told the crowd. “Safety isn’t just a statistic; it’s a feeling you hold when you’re walking down the street. That insecurity is harming families and businesses in the Tenderloin, South of Market, the Mission and beyond.”

Cedric Akbar, director of Positive Directions Equals Change, said the city’s long-applied “harm reduction” approach has enabled addiction rather than eliminating the plague on the streets.

“The city’s efforts for compassion over effectiveness kept me on the street,” Mr. Akbar said. He said rehabilitation services, not housing, changed his life.

Critics of San Francisco’s “housing first” model argue that providing permanent housing alone cannot address addiction and mental health issues, the main drivers of homelessness. Their experiences suggest the city’s nonprofit infrastructure is fundamentally broken.

Mr. Wolfe lived on the streets for six months after post-surgery opioid use spiraled out of control and his wife kicked him out of their home in 2018.

“What homeless people need is this: We need a continuum of care, and this is where nonprofits need to focus,” he said.

In fiscal 2024, San Francisco allocated $1.52 billion to 745 nonprofits across 37 city departments, up from $809 million in 2019.

Homelessness in the city has grown by 7% since 2022, with more than 8,300 people now living on the streets. Family homelessness has surged even more dramatically, with a 94% increase since 2022.

The Washington Times reached out to the San Francisco Department of Public Health for comment but received no response.

Government data shows that only 12% of clients completed San Francisco’s publicly funded residential services programs in 2022 under the “housing first” model, compared with a statewide average of 28%.

From January 2020 through June 2024, 3,205 people died from overdoses in San Francisco. Data from the chief medical examiner’s office shows that 20% were in supportive housing.

“The city’s outdated government infrastructure has become dependent on these nonprofits, while the nonprofits, in turn, rely on the funding,” Mr. Wolfe said. “What they’re doing is saying, ‘We’re going to pick you up off the street and put you into an apartment or into a hotel room,’ but they’re not addressing the root causes.”

“They’re not putting people in mental health crises in jail. So unless there’s a mental health bed open, you’re not getting help,” said Gina McDonald, co-founder of Mothers Against Drug Addiction and Deaths (MADAAD). “Instead, they’re putting them in apartments. That doesn’t make sense. You should go to treatment before you get that house.”

Ms. McDonald said law enforcement intervention saved her life when she was on the streets. “I was so in this psychosis on the street that I was a definite danger to myself,” she said.

“Progressives provide people with the means to stay where they are,” Mr. Akbar said. “They hand out tents and clean syringes but block laws that could actually protect people.”

Homelessness has transformed San Francisco’s downtown into a ghost town with a 35% office vacancy rate, the highest in the nation. Mr. Lurie, who ran an anti-poverty nonprofit for years, has pointed to the need for cleaner, safer streets to restore the city’s appeal.

“The Lurie administration is saying that it wants to pivot from ideologically driven approaches to evidence-based solutions,” said one source close to the new mayor’s office.

Mr. Lurie plans to declare a fentanyl state of emergency and commit to revitalizing the police force. Advocates say those actions depart from the city’s nonprofit-led homelessness strategies.

The mayor also has sought to address nonprofit mismanagement and cronyism by appointing management consultant Kunal Modi, specializing in government efficiency, to overhaul San Francisco’s health and homelessness services.

Several reports show Mr. Modi has identified significant fragmentation within the system that makes it tough to track the efficacy of nonprofit outreach.

“You can’t manage an approach with that much fragmentation,” Mr. Modi told The San Francisco Standard. He plans to prioritize transitional housing tied to addiction treatment, reports say.

Whether Mr. Lurie can deliver on his promises to San Franciscans remains to be seen. To Mr. Wolfe and Ms. McDonald, his election means a lot in a city yearning for transformation.

“San Francisco has been a leader in these progressive policies for decades,” Mr. Akbar said. “But it’s time to evaluate whether those policies are achieving their intended outcomes. The city’s residents deserve better.”

The Washington Times contacted Mayor London Breed’s outgoing administration and Mr. Lurie’s incoming administration for comment.