S.F. touts successes in moving homeless off the streets. But the reality is complicated
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A homeless man carries his belongings after street cleaners arrived on Willow Street in the Tenderloin in May 2020.Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle 2020Show MoreShow Less
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Data show
s the number of tents lining San Francisco sidewalks dropped 65% from April 2020 to April 2021, but many of the city’s resources are only temporary because of the pandemic.Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle 2020Show MoreShow Less
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Tents line a city-sanctioned homeless encampment on Gough Street in March.Noah Berger/Special to The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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S.F. is rapidly losing care facilities for the mentally ill and elderly. But a plan to save them is promising
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Officials are trying to make it harder to eliminate residential care existing facilities, such as this one at 969 Buena Vista West Ave. in San Francisco.Yalonda M. James/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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The owner of 628 Shotwell St. applied to convert the former residential care facility into market-rate housing, according to city documents.Santiago Mejia/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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The owner of 628 Shotwell St. applied to convert the former residential care facility into market-rate housing, according to city documents.Santiago Mejia/The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
With overdoses spiking, San Francisco s leaders are trying to force the city into action
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Above: Kayla Crenshaw of Epiphany Center, which provides drug treatment to women, shows donated baby clothes to Michele Nguyen and daughter Annabelle; both women graduated from the program and said the city’s system to get into treatment is challenging. Below: James Dixon,
HealthRight 360’s director of residential services, leads a staff meeting at the treatment program.Mallory Moench / The Chronicle
San Francisco has suffered from a shortage of drug treatment beds for years, but the pandemic has made the problem more acute.
Just as overdose deaths skyrocketed in the city during the pandemic, fueled by the powerful drug fentanyl, COVID-19 constrained capacity in treatment programs. One temporarily halted new patient intakes to quell an outbreak. Under shelter-in-place, fewer people exited programs, lengthening wait times for some beds.