City Hall Digest: Spike In Overdose Deaths and the Mayor’s Attempts to Streamline Housing Construction

City Hall Digest is TogetherSF Action’s weekly dispatch from San Francisco’s City Hall, broken into bite-sized pieces—because understanding local government is your fundamental right.

Spike in Overdose Deaths Highlights Urgency of Tackling Drug Crisis

San Francisco got a sobering reminder of the human toll being exacted by the drug and overdose crisis last week. The county’s Medical Examiner released a report showing that there had been a 41 percent increase in drug overdose deaths between January and March, compared with the same time period last year. In the first three months of 2022, 142 people died of an overdose in San Francisco—this year, 200 people died in that same timeframe. 

This spike in deaths is unconscionable. 

Some say this is due to the closure of Tenderloin Linkage Center in December, but facts don't reflect this. The TLC reversed 333 overdoses in its 11-month span. However, EMS reversed 2,711 overdoses citywide in the same timeframe and 1,183 outside the Tenderloin where the center operated.

Overdoses are up in part because the US is being flooded with illicitly manufactured fentanyl—almost three times the amount of fentanyl has been seized at the border in the first three months of 2023 than was seized in the first three months of 2022. It would be great this was the result of the DEA becoming much better at detecting smuggled goods this year, but that’s likely not the case.

Easy access to opioids, lack of drug treatment services, and a hollowed-out safety net have left thousands of people with substance use disorder vulnerable to an overdose, and we can’t continue to let them die on the street. Sites like the Tenderloin Linkage Center can’t solve the drug crisis alone, but we are confident a combination of recovery-oriented treatment can. 

We’ve been working to pressure our elected officials to close open-air drug markets by the end of 2023—but we’ve clearly got our work cut out for us. Join us on May 10 to learn about the ways you can call on the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors to prioritize this and other effective programs in the upcoming city budget cycle.

Fifth Time’s the Charm: Mayor Outlines Efforts to Streamline Housing Construction

Last week, Mayor London Breed announced what will be the fifth attempt by her administration to expedite housing construction in San Francisco, in an effort to tackle the challenge of building 82,000 units of housing by 2031. There are five major components of this legislation, but we’ll take a look at the pieces that seem most impactful.

This proposal would abolish requirements that new multifamily developments must face a series of public hearings before a body of unelected commissioners who have the power to approve or deny new projects seemingly at will. These hearings add months of delays to projects as developers navigate a time-intensive process to appease this small group of commissioners. 

Additionally, the mayor’s legislation would cut between $100,000 and $150,000 in fees–per unit–for construction of low-to-middle-income housing. These fees, which again, are per unit, constitute a large source of funding for the city. While eliminating them means less tax revenue for the city, it would theoretically have a positive impact on housing creation for those who need it most—and more people living, working, and spending money in the city feels like more than enough to offset the lost revenue from fees.

The final item in this legislation that will likely have a solid impact on housing creation is the scrapping of the requirement to notify your neighbors of plans to alter your home—which often ends up with plans grinding to a halt. Residents shouldn’t have to fight their neighbors before they inevitably have to fight the city, too—removing this barrier is a sensible way to make housing easier to build. 

It is imperative that this legislation pass with little-to-no alteration if San Francisco is to meet the city’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA, or how much housing we have to create to keep up with population changes). As we have repeatedly seen over the last few years,  pro-housing legislation is often watered down, countered, or killed altogether.

A Different Kind of R&R—Recruitment and Retention Take Center Stage in Police Contract

Last week, the Board of Supervisors approved a new contract between the city and the San Francisco Police Department’s union that included several significant efforts to boost officer recruitment and retention as the department struggles to attract new officers. It’s no secret that San Francisco has to compete for prospective officers with quieter suburban cities that offer comparable pay. Judging by SFPD’s recent recruitment numbers, many are opting for the latter option. 

With a price of $166.5 million over three years, these new recruitment and retention efforts were approved with little fanfare or criticism when compared to the recent scrum over police overtime funding. This is likely due to the fact that the police union negotiates directly with San Francisco’s Department of Human Resources behind closed doors, with the Board of Supervisors only involved at the approval phase. 

That being said, let’s take a look at what the package includes.

First, the package seeks to address low recruitment numbers by increasing starting officer pay to the highest among large cities in the Bay Area–currently, the starting salary for an officer is $103,116. Under the new contract, a new officer would see their first-year salary rise to above $108,000. 

Next, there is a series of raises totaling 10.75 percent for officers over three years. The first raise, set for July 1, 2023, is a 2.5 percent increase. Another 2.25 percent increase occurs on January 6, 2024, followed by two raises of 3 percent each in January and July 2025. The 2025 raises can be delayed by six and 12 months, respectively, if the city is projected to be in a severe deficit over $300 million. 

Finally, a set of retention pay increases is aimed at a very specific set of officers. According to a recent analysis, the SFPD saw spikes in resignations of officers who had been on the force between four and nine years in 2022. To counter those losses, the contract includes 3 percent raises at five, seven, and eight years of service for a total of 9 percent in extra retention pay. 

This contract, paired with an ongoing ad campaign promoting the SFPD, is a step towards getting the department to its recommended levels of staffing.

TogetherSF Action is making advocating for an end to the drug epidemic in San Francisco a top priority this year. Our first step? Flooding inboxes at City Hall. We need thousands of concerned San Franciscans to send letters to their leaders demanding they end open-air drug markets in 2023. Are you in?