San Francisco Considers Cracking Down on Drug-Addicted Welfare Recipients

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The Democratic mayor of San Francisco is pushing a pair of controversial public safety proposals on the March 5 ballot, including one that would require single adults on welfare be screened and treated for illegal drug addiction or else lose cash assistance.

Mayor London Breed also supports a ballot measure that would grant police more crime-fighting powers, such as the use of drones and surveillance cameras. In November, she’ll face cranky voters in a competitive re-election bid.

San Francisco is in a struggle to redefine itself after the pandemic left it in economic tatters and highlighted its longstanding problems with homelessness, drugs and property crime. Opponents say both ballot measures are wildly out of step with San Francisco’s support for privacy and civil liberties and will only hurt the marginalized communities the city prides itself on helping.

But Breed, the first Black woman to lead San Francisco, said at a January campaign stop that residents from poorer, black and immigrant neighborhoods are pleading for more police, and recovery advocates are demanding change as more than 800 people died of accidental overdose last year — a record fueled by the abundance of cheap and potent fentanyl.

“They said San Francisco makes it too easy for people to access and to use drugs on the streets of the city and we need to do something a lot more aggressive,” Breed said at Footprint, an athletic apparel and shoe store that has been repeatedly burglarized.

While Breed’s name isn’t on the presidential primary ballots going out now — San Francisco uses a method where residents rank mayoral candidates by preference a single time in November — the two measures she’s pushing are. They serve as an opening salvo for her re-election campaign as she faces off against fellow moderates who say her approach to the city’s problems has been weak.

Breed said rates of retail theft and auto smash-ins have declined recently, thanks in large part to strategic operations by city police. Similarly, police have stepped up enforcement of drug laws.

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