Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), along with local lawmakers and activists, announced the introduction of a new version of a bill to allow state funding for recovery housing on Monday. Mayor Daniel Lurie, Supervisor Matt Dorsey, and former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf joined members of the Salvation Army, drug policy advocates, and people in recovery in front of Wells Place, a new, 60-bed, two-year recovery housing facility on Octavia Street at the former site of the Marina Inn, which is operated in partnership with the Salvation Army’s “The Way Out” initiative.
“This is something that should not be that complicated,” Haney told reporters. “We have a deadly fentanyl overdose epidemic in our city and in our state. We should give people who are ready to take the steps to get to recovery and stability an opportunity to do so. They want to live in housing where they receive the support to be off of and away from drugs, with people who will support them in that process. Their peers, others who are also fighting towards recovery. Staff, like at the Salvation Army here, who are supporting them. Right now, the state isn’t investing in that. It is wrong, it’s misguided, and frankly, it’s dangerous … even in some of those places where we’re getting people off the streets, because they’re not receiving support for recovery, we’re seeing overdoses in those units … some of them are ending up back in the streets, in the hospitals, or worse. And so, for the people who have the courage to step forward, and the folks who want to support them, our city, under our mayor’s leadership, under our Board of Supervisors’ leadership, wants to invest in that, and the state should give them that opportunity. That’s what this bill would do.”
A previous version of Haney’s legislation would have allowed up to 25 percent of a county’s permanent supportive housing to be sobriety-mandatory, but it was vetoed by Governor Newsom, citing a desire to maintain “Housing First” rules that prohibit requiring sobriety as a condition of housing, fearing it could reduce overall housing access.
The new version, AB 1556, would enable recovery housing to satisfy state requirements, including that clients be offered a harm-reduction placement as an alternative, that relapse would not be grounds for eviction in recovery housing, and that clients receive relapse support, among other concessions.
“To all the people that have been calling me and asking me if this bill is going against people who relapse — it does not, because as long as I’m a part of this, anyone who relapses will go to a different level of care, and we will maintain their housing,” said Cedric Akbar, a recovery advocate, community leader and elected member of San Francisco’s Democratic Central Committee, speaking in support of the bill. “This is not to put anyone on the street. This is to enforce and make stable places for people who are fighting for sobriety for their lives every day.”
“This is not to put anyone on the street. This is to enforce and make stable places for people who are fighting for sobriety for their lives every day.”
— Cedric Akbar, community advocate
The continued advocacy by Assemblyman Haney, in partnership with Mayor Lurie, Supervisor Dorsey and others, reflects a continued push for drug-free supportive housing in the face of the epidemic of fentanyl use and overdose deaths, including inside supportive housing. Supporters are confident that the new bill, with its amendments, will pass and by signed by Governor Newsom.
“Every single day, we see the dual crisis of homelessness and drug addiction play out on our streets. We see people struggling in plain sight. And in San Francisco, while we have seen the number of overdosed deaths in our city ticked down. We still have far too many people dying on our streets,” Mayor Lurie told reporters. “Over the past year, we’ve taken steps to respond with urgency … at this very minute, we are opening the RESET center, a new model that allows police officers to quickly arrest those engaged in public drug use and bring them to a health focused facility where they can sober up and have a chance to get connected to treatment. This is just another example of how we are transforming the city’s health and homelessness work through our Breaking the Cycle plan. Focusing on what works, and closing the gaps in our system. But … there is still a major gap. That is sober housing. Right now, state funding cannot be used for sober, recovery focused housing. That limits our ability to support people who are working hard to get and stay sober. This bill will fix that.”
Former Oakland Mayor Schaaf is now president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, an organization that represents over 300 of the region’s largest employers.
“Street homelessness and addiction are bad for business, but more importantly, they’re bad for our human souls. And this team has been working nonstop for four years,” she said at the press conference. “Four years, to make sure that people who are choosing drug free, recovery, housing options are not punished by California law. Assemblyman Matt Haney’s bill is gonna put an end to that unfair disadvantage, starting right now.”
“The importance of this legislation is that it puts into the game, the most important ally we could have in the struggle against drug overdoses. It’s the recovery community itself,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey, himself a recovering addict. “I will just say, if God forbid I ever relapse, programs might help me. But what’s going to save my life, it’s the brothers and sisters behind me. All [recovery programs] are premised on a common foundation that we get to keep this recovery by giving it away by helping others. If we get recovery into the game, we help one another. That is a force multiplier, that is something that’s gonna help, because taxpayers don’t pay us, we help each other.”
