S.F. Supervisors Demand Citywide Drug-Market Plan, Say Crackdowns Are Moving Dealing Between Neighborhoods

Four San Francisco supervisors used a committee hearing on Thursday, Oct. 8, to ask a pointed question about the city's drug-market crackdowns: are they fixing the problem, or just relocating it?

What the hearing was about

The hearing, sponsored by Supervisors Rafael Mandelman, Jackie Fielder, Matt Dorsey and Bilal Mahmood, went before the Board's Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee. According to the city's legislative file, it was meant to assess drug-market conditions citywide, how departments coordinate, and whether improvements in some areas reflect lasting change or displacement to other neighborhoods. The file asked the Mayor's Office, police, the District Attorney, the Department of Public Health, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and BART to report.

In a notice to constituents ahead of the hearing, Mandelman wrote that residents and merchants in the Mission, Castro, Dolores Heights, Duboce Triangle and Noe Valley had reported worsening public drug use, dealing and encampments, even as conditions improved Downtown, in the Tenderloin and in SoMa.

No one from the mayor's office

Mission Local reported that despite requests, no representative of Mayor Daniel Lurie's office attended. "This is not exactly the meeting I was hoping for," Mandelman said, according to the outlet. Police, public health, workforce development and BART officials did appear.

SFPD Deputy Chief Scott Biggs acknowledged that enforcement in the Tenderloin and SoMa pushes users and dealers into neighborhoods such as the Mission, and said staffing shortages make it hard to keep up. "We're not as fast as the activity shifting into other areas," he said, as quoted by Mission Local. He also said dealers have become more active at night, when fewer officers are on duty.

Fielder, who represents the Mission, questioned the city's approach. "I'm not sure what the city's strategy is for responding to drug use other than letting places like the Mission be a containment zone," she said.

Treatment and the RESET Center

Health officials pointed to a rise in the number of people in treatment, and Biggs said officers have been taking people to the RESET sobering center as an alternative to arrest. Mission Local noted recent reports that the center is often empty, and Mandelman called its eligibility rules a barrier.

What's next

Mandelman, whose term ends in December, recommended continuing the hearing to the full Board and said he hopes the city responds before he leaves.