(The Center Square) – San Francisco started its ban on county-funded cash assistance for individuals with substance abuse disorders who refuse to engage in treatment. Measure F, approved by voters in March 2024, applies to the $714 per month payments to housed low-income adults, and $109 per month to homeless individuals who have been in San Francisco for more than 30 days.
Under outgoing Mayor London Breed, San Francisco has significantly cracked down on homelessness, using a new Supreme Court ruling to begin enforcing anti-camping ordinances. As a result, the number of homeless tents has declined by 60% since peaking in 2023.
Critics said that while homeless are leaving their tents, they’re still staying in the city.
With 75% of unsheltered homeless surveyed in a California Policy Lab analysis saying they have a drug or alcohol addiction, and 78% saying they have a severe mental illness, San Francisco’s program of requiring individuals with substance abuse orders to get treatment could be a major step forward in helping get people off the streets.
“San Francisco is a city of compassion, but also a city that demands accountability,” Breed said in a statement. “We fund a wide range of treatment and recovery services that are helping people every day, but it can be difficult to get everyone to accept the help they so badly need.”
Breed’s office noted homeless individuals who get the lower $109 per month payment also receive “guaranteed shelter and meals.”
The new Treatment Pathway Initiative program will require individuals who are even suspected of a substance abuse disorder to continue receiving cash payments.
San Francisco is partnering with Westside Community Services to roll out the new, intensive program, which will include a substance abuse treatment assessment and “high touch, ongoing treatment engagement support for clients, including transportation assistance, warm referrals and removing barriers to treatment.”
“The new Treatment Pathway Initiative supports people with substance use disorder in crisis by meeting them where they are in their recovery journey and providing tangible support and essential resources to improve their lives,” said Westside Community Services Forensic Director Cedric Akbar in a statement.
According to San Francisco City Controller Ben Rosenfeld, the program could save the city up to $2 million per year in discontinued benefits to individuals with substance abuse disorders, but treatment costs could exceed savings “if existing treatment capacity is not sufficient to meet the increased needs under this ordinance.”
San Francisco’s $1.6 million two-year contract with Westside Community Services is for completing at least 320 substance abuse treatment assessments, 285 individualized treatment plans, and care coordination and reporting for 390 clients in the first year, and doubling each category in the second year.
San Francisco reports that about 20%, or 1,100 of the 5,500 individuals receiving county-funded cash assistance are homeless. Should 75% of those individuals have a substance abuse disorder, care coordinated by Westside Community Services could end up providing treatment to 96% of homeless individuals with substance abuse disorders who are enrolled in the cash welfare program.
