{"id":18306,"date":"2022-04-07T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=18306"},"modified":"2022-10-09T05:45:48","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T09:45:48","slug":"the-tenderloin-suffers-under-another-inhumane-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/the-tenderloin-suffers-under-another-inhumane-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tenderloin Suffers Under Another Inhumane Crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThe Tenderloin is a beautifully complicated area.<\/em> It\u2019s rich in all sorts of intersecting narratives. Sadly, some people fear it, some avoid it.\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u2014\u00a0Paul Harkin, HealthRIGHT 360.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I<\/span>n December, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin (TL), a neighborhood which has long been home to some of the most disenfranchised people in the city. At a news conference with police officers lined up behind her, Breed, a Democrat,\u00a0unleashed<\/a> a \u201ctough on crime\u201d tirade that was positively Reaganesque.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end. And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement\u2014more aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To that end, she is giving the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) even more policing powers, and wants to funnel more money to them in overtime funding.<\/p>\n

What is on offer for the TL residents who are struggling with combinations of homelessness, unemployment, addiction or mental health issues?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised by my grandmother to believe in \u2018tough love\u2019\u2014in keeping your house in order,\u201d Breed wrote in a\u00a0Medium<\/i>\u00a0post<\/a>, \u201cand I believe we need a little of that, now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about a press conference that calls for \u201ctough love\u201d for landlords or real estate speculators?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tough love is code for punishment and prison.<\/h4>\n

Thousands of people in and around the TL literally don\u2019t have a house to \u201ckeep in order.\u201d They sleep in cardboard boxes in front of stores, or live in tent encampments (urban camping) or cars (vehicle residency). It is not a choice and it\u2019s not their fault. Their enemy is the cost of housing in San Francisco, which is famously, outrageously,\u00a0unaffordable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why doesn\u2019t Breed take aggressive steps to bring more apartments under rent control, and immediately move people into hotel rooms or the\u00a040,000 vacant homes<\/a>\u00a0in the city? How about a press conference that calls for \u201ctough love\u201d for landlords who charge extortionate rent\u2014or for real estate speculators who buy up rent-controlled buildings and\u00a0evict tenants<\/a>\u00a0so they can convert them into luxury condominiums for the rich?<\/p>\n

Central to the mayor\u2019s Tenderloin Plan is ramping up the drug war under the well-worn guise of \u201csafety\u201d and \u201cprotecting the children.\u201d After\u00a0meeting with families in the TL, she\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0it\u2019s a neighborhood full of children (like most neighborhoods) and referenced a shooting near a park where children play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout evidence, officials frame unhoused people as dangerous to housed people, particularly their children,\u201d stated the California ACLU in its October 2021 report,\u00a0The Legal War Against Unhoused People<\/a>. \u201cThey are condemned as a threat to public safety, and a form of blight that needs to be swept up, disappeared, and excluded from places where housed people gather.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic drug use isn\u2019t about drug use.\u00a0It\u2019s about not having a living room where you can get high with your friends.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is what the mayor\u2019s Tenderloin crackdown is all about.<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe are not giving people a choice anymore,\u201d Breed\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cWe are not going to just walk by and let someone use\u00a0[drugs] in broad daylight on the streets and not give them a choice between going to the location that we have identified \u2026 or going to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeannie Little, the cofounder of the Harm Reduction Therapy Center (HRTC), a mental health and substance use treatment organization that provides services in the Tenderloin, pushed back on the idea that using drugs in public spaces is really a choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic drug use isn\u2019t about drug use,\u201d\u00a0she told\u00a0Filter.\u00a0<\/i>\u201cIt\u2019s about not having a living room where you can get high with your friends. If you see people completely laid out, unconscious, possibly overdosing on the street, you might be seeing an accident, you might be seeing someone getting the best rest they\u2019ve had in days, or you might be seeing someone who is suffering from the long-term ravages of poverty, homelessness and trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Francisco\u00a0officials, substance use experts and social services organizations<\/a>\u00a0oppose Breed\u2019s\u00a0plan. \u201cThe War on Drugs has produced exactly the conditions you see in the Tenderloin today, having contributed to mass incarceration, generational carceral trauma, and the dehumanizing conditions for so many people\u2026\u201d\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0Dr. Vitka Eisen, the CEO of HealthRIGHT 360, in a statement on the mayor\u2019s declaration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been times of a massive police presence, hundreds of arrests in a day. All that malarkey, it doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For Paul Harkin, HealthRIGHT 360\u2019s director of harm reduction services, the mayor\u2019s announcement smacked of cognitive dissonance.<\/h4>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t couple compassionate care with a harsh police response. People need to be cared for, not brutalized,\u201d he told Filter<\/i>. Harkin has been working in the TL for over 20 years, witnessing numerous law enforcement crackdowns. \u201cThere have been times of a massive police presence in the Tenderloin, hundreds of arrests in a day. All that malarkey, it doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a lot of unintended consequences, too,\u201d he continued. \u201cIncrease in overdose, a spread of drug activity to other neighborhoods, contested turf wars and the disruption of dealer supply chains.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor knows of one vital resource for people using drugs in public; safe consumption sites. She has\u00a0publicly advocated for them<\/a>\u00a0since 2018. Her support is deeply personal. Breed\u2019s younger sister\u00a0died of overdose<\/a>. If she had declared an overdose emergency, funded and opened dozens of safe consumption sites three years ago when she was elected, fewer people would be using drugs outside and far fewer would be dying. Instead, Breed abandoned the fight.<\/p>\n

San Francisco has among the highest\u00a0per capita<\/i>\u00a0overdose death rates<\/a>\u00a0of any US city. Over the past two years, there have been over\u00a01,360 such fatalities<\/a>\u2014an average of\u00a0nearly two\u00a0a day, and\u00a0more than double the total COVID-19 death toll.<\/p>\n

The \u201cbullshit\u201d that Breed said she will no longer tolerate in the TL is actually a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe decades in the making. COVID-19 made it exponentially worse. And those who stand with the unhoused and the dead need to call bullshit on Breed.<\/p>\n

It is jaw-dropping to witness all this preventable-but-not-prevented human suffering,then walk a few blocks and behold world-class\u00a0museums.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I spent time in the Tenderloin in summer and fall 2021, I would see people sitting on sidewalks and huddled in doorways, searching for veins to inject.<\/h4>\n

I saw people without shoes, shirts and pants unconscious on the ground. Some people were incoherent or in clear distress. Tents were lined up block after block, and there were people pushing wheelchairs and shopping carts filled with blankets, tarps, clothes and electronics. Trash, rotted food and human excrement lay on streets that the city doesn\u2019t clean nearly enough.<\/p>\n

It is jaw-dropping to witness all this preventable-but-not-prevented human suffering, and then walk a few blocks and behold world-class\u00a0museums<\/a>, artsy coffee houses\u00a0with comfy couches, and a vendor charging $7 for a pint of organic blueberries. San Francisco is\u00a0one of the 10 richest cities in the world<\/a>\u00a0and has the\u00a0most billionaires.<\/a>\u00a0This high-tech dystopia is a monument to 40 years of neoliberal policies, of leaving basic human needs like housing to brutal market forces.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/p>\n

At the same time, however,\u00a0the Bay Area has always been a progressive leader in\u00a0harm reduction-based drug policies<\/a>\u00a0and creating\u00a0new<\/a>,\u00a0innovative<\/a>\u00a0services. In addition, San Francisco has long been a\u00a0center<\/a>\u00a0of power for the LGBTQ community\u2019s fight for liberation. During the AIDS crisis, activists confronted discriminatory mental health and medical systems. They created a vast structure of\u00a0social services programs<\/a>,\u00a0assisted housing<\/a>\u00a0for people living with HIV, and drug treatment\u00a0grounded<\/a>\u00a0in the harm reduction principle of\u00a0\u201cmeeting people where they\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the power of the politically connected California real estate industry and the\u00a0gutting of federal funding<\/a>\u00a0for new housing by more than 80 percent have\u00a0hobbled\u00a0Housing First<\/a> ambitions.<\/h4>\n

Article 34 of the state Constitution also\u00a0requires voter approval for any public housing project to be built in a community. Passed in 1950, it unleashed a vicious Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) movement. Several attempts to\u00a0repeal Article 34<\/a>\u00a0have failed. San Francisco\u2019s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing must also share blame. Hundreds of affordable homes\u00a0are unoccupied<\/a>\u00a0because of excessive documentation requirements, computer glitches, and staff turnover.<\/p>\n

The health consequences of an epic failure to adequately house people year after year are dire, with\u00a0greater morbidity and mortality rates<\/a>\u00a0among people who are unhoused.<\/p>\n

Delivering services outside is vitally important, but can\u2019t substitute for permanently housing people and the stability and dignity that brings.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Social service organizations in the TL work to provide things that are inside a home\u00a0outside<\/i>\u2014on the streets and sidewalks, in parks, plazas and parking lots and via mobile vans. There are\u00a0portable toilets<\/a>,\u00a0sinks and shower stalls,<\/a>\u00a0soup kitchens, pop-up\u00a0free food<\/a>,\u00a0laundry trailers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0safe sleeping villages.<\/a>\u00a0Health and mental health care are provided outside of hospital, clinic or office-based settings, too. There is a\u00a0mobile pop-up therapy van<\/a>, Street Overdose Response Teams and the\u00a0Street Medicine Team<\/a>, who write buprenorphine prescriptions on the spot and provide routine medical services.\u00a0Care Through Touch<\/a>\u00a0offers free chair massage.<\/p>\n

Creating and delivering such services outside is vitally important, but it can\u2019t substitute for permanently housing people and the stability and dignity that brings.<\/h4>\n

Single room occupancy hotels<\/a>\u00a0dot the TL\u2014 \u201cthe centerpiece of low-income housing,\u201d as Harkin called them.\u00a0They have a mixed reputation. Some are well maintained with private bathrooms and provide social services to tenants, while others are\u00a0dilapidated, dangerous and filthy<\/a>, with shared toilets in hallways that don\u2019t work and owners who don\u2019t give a fuck. \u201cSo many who live there have died of an OD,\u201d Harkin said. \u201cWhy don\u2019t we have safe consumption sites run by peers in every SRO? There are other services offered in hotels\u2014healthcare, training and employment. But can we start with the\u00a0keeping them alive part<\/i>\u00a0in the era of an unprecedented overdose crisis? This is simple shit that we know works.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Place to Go<\/h3>\n

Hostile perceptions of unhoused people are inextricably linked to an unprecedented crisis in public sanitation. Human waste in public spaces\u00a0angers communities<\/a>,\u00a0makes the housed public lose empathy and can trigger police \u201csweeps\u201d and\u00a0criminalization<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Complaints about people relieving themselves on the streets, in doorways, and on the subway have been increasing for years, but the COVID-19 lockdown greatly exacerbated\u00a0them. People without housing depend on an inadequate number of\u00a0free restrooms in libraries, parks, transit hubs and drop-in centers. Overnight, as a result of the pandemic, they closed. \u201cYou probably smell me now,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Richard Parry, who is unhoused. \u201cHuman waste is everywhere. It\u2019s not because we are lazy. It\u2019s because people aren\u2019t letting us in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are human, we need a place to go to the bathroom.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With mass homelessness, defecating and urinating in public places becomes inevitable because it isn\u2019t a choice.\u00a0But\u00a0public urination<\/a>\u00a0is a crime and can result in a civil summons, a fine or arrest. It can land a person on a\u00a0sex offender registry<\/a>.\u00a0Interviews with people on the streets reveal that the inability to access toilets is one of the most\u00a0degrading aspects<\/a>\u00a0of their lives.<\/p>\n

\"lack<\/p>\n

To address the issue, the San Francisco Public Works department created the\u00a0\u201cPoop Patrol\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Pit Stop<\/a>\u00a0program, which operates portable toilets staffed by paid attendants. The Tenderloin has the most\u00a0requests<\/a>\u00a0to clean up human waste.<\/h4>\n

A woman in a leopard print jacket at the corner of Eddy and Turk put it bluntly: \u201cWe are human, we need a place to go to the bathroom.\u201d Keisha,* who was living in her van, told me she uses the Pit Stop toilets when she isn\u2019t at work delivering food for Meals on Wheels.<\/p>\n

Rows of gender-neutral toilets with solar panels on top are conveniently located across from a tent encampment and are integrated into the busy, noisy landscape of the\u00a0TL\u2019s \u201cLittle Saigon,\u201d where a roast pork or tofu bahn mi at the hole-in-the-wall Saigon Sandwich shop costs a reasonable $4.75.<\/p>\n

JCDecaux<\/a>, a for-profit company that operates in collaboration with several nonprofit organizations, has installed\u00a025 self-cleaning toilets<\/a>\u00a0with sinks across the city. The French designed bathrooms are compact, oblong metal structures painted army-green with capitalized letters in gold \u201cTOILET.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking up Market Street to check one out in the Castro, I passed the SF LGBTQ Center building, painted a deep purple, rainbow flags whipping in the wind. Further along was a whimsical, Keith Haring-style mural painted on a boarded-up store window.<\/h4>\n

The pandemic had hollowed out the once-vibrant scene. With the exception of the charming, vintage streetcars that noisily travel up the middle of the wide street, it was eerily quiet, with little pedestrian foot traffic. Shops, offices, theaters and restaurants had closed. In their place were tent villages and groups of unhoused people socializing on sidewalks. In a colorful painting on the side of a building, the gay rights activist Harvey Milk was smiling and holding a megaphone: \u201cHope will never be silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

I spoke with Jimena, a friendly bathroom attendant employed by the nonprofit organization Civic. Years ago, she explained, \u201cPeople had to pay for a token to use the toilets, but the token machine kept breaking, so it was made free. At one point, the city shut them all down because people started living and using drugs inside of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials reopened the bathrooms and staffed them with paid attendants, imposing a 20-minute time limit. Most attendants are people who were formerly unhoused or incarcerated. Jimena used this facility when she was living on the street. \u201cIt\u2019s very beneficial. Without this bathroom people will go in public places,\u201d she said. \u201cThe toilet and the floor is cleaned after every use,\u201d she added with a touch of pride. \u201cIt\u2019s durable. This is the Castro, so it\u2019s open 24 hours a day. That\u2019s why people who are homeless stay near here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want people living inside \u2026 the bare bones design gets people to move along.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most modern public toilets in the US are designed to\u00a0deter unhoused people, drug users and sex workers.<\/a><\/h4>\n

The Portland Loo, a stand-alone public toilet\u00a0used in\u00a0numerous states<\/a>, is an example of \u201ccrime prevention through environmental design\u201d and\u00a0hostile architecture<\/a>.\u00a0Law enforcement input was sought in its development,\u00a0and it shows. The dull, gray structure is cage-like with a concrete floor and a toilet made of\u00a0prison-grade steel<\/a>. Metal slats at the bottom and top of the restroom are angled to minimize privacy and allow police\u00a0surveillance. The bathroom can be ordered with blue lights \u201cto prevent drug users from locating veins<\/a>.\u201d To prevent bathing or washing clothes, there is no sink. Instead, a spigot outside dispenses a timed amount of cold water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want people living inside \u2026 the bare bones design gets people to move along,\u201d Evan Madden, the sales manager for The Portland Loo, told\u00a0Filter.<\/i>\u00a0 He is personally torn about drug use inside the loo, he said, and believes that it is a \u201chuman right to use a bathroom.\u201d\u00a0Madden noted that\u00a0the city of Seattle didn\u2019t install blue lights in the toilets they purchased because they can \u201ccause more health problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urban Alchemy<\/h3>\n

The Tenderloin is full of openly hostile architecture. If there are any benches at all, metal dividers make it impossible to lie down. Building owners embed sharp steel \u201canti-homeless spikes\u201d in flat surfaces to deter sitting or sleeping. Bus stops have no seats. In the 1990s, San Francisco\u00a0removed all of the benches<\/a>\u00a0from Civic Center Plaza.<\/p>\n

\"hostile<\/p>\n

Negative signage like \u201cNo aggressive panhandling,\u201d \u201cNo soliciting,\u201d and \u201cNo camping\u201d creates an unwelcoming environment for unhoused people. And that is the goal.<\/p>\n

\"no<\/p>\n

The Turk-Hyde Park in the TL is defined by this goal. Inside are manicured grass and trees, playground equipment and a wood trellis with benches and tables underneath. It\u2019s a pristine, relaxing oasis in the city, but not for everyone. The miniature park is enclosed by high black metal fencing. One sign states, \u201cAdults must be accompanied by a child except during permitted or programmed activities.\u201d A second lists regulations with clear targets: camping and\u00a0smoking<\/a>\u00a0is prohibited, \u201cTHIS PARK IS A DRUG-FREE ZONE\u201d and no \u201cwheeled conveyances other than strollers with children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking by Turk-Hyde at various times, I almost never saw parents with children inside.<\/h4>\n

Directly across from the park on the sidewalk stood a row of orange and blue tents. Crammed inside and huddled outside were folks who could only gaze at the clean, beautiful, empty and forbidden space.<\/p>\n

\"Turk-Hyde<\/p>\n

That park is where I met staff from Urban Alchemy (UA) for the first time. Wearing a black cap and jacket with a logo, Calvin explained that the organization\u00a0employs former prisoners as \u201cpractitioners.\u201d His job is to clean the park and make sure no one comes in who isn\u2019t accompanied by a child. Calvin told me he interacts with a lot of homeless people. I pointed out the cluster of tents across the street and he said, \u201cThey don\u2019t want housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few blocks away I talked to another UA employee who said he spent 43 years in the penitentiary. Lawrence described his job as providing security in the TL. I asked if that included deescalating conflicts. \u201cI can\u2019t because of my experience in the penitentiary,\u201d he replied, \u201cI walk away and get a coworker who can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Urban<\/p>\n

Lawrence also expressed the view that homeless people don\u2019t want housing. That notion, and \u201cWhy don\u2019t they just stay in a shelter?\u201d is something I heard over and over.<\/h4>\n

Shelters have bad reputations. During the pandemic they became \u201ccongregate death traps,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0as community organizer\u00a0Shams \u201cDa Homeless Hero\u201d DaBaron put it.\u00a0The complaints are valid. Who wants to sleep in a bunk in a warehouse-like room with a hundred other people? Theft of belongings is a problem, as are curfews and the lack of privacy.\u00a0Personal safety<\/a>\u00a0is another reason shelters are avoided by many women.<\/p>\n

\u201cFentanyl is all over the Tenderloin and we\u2019ve reversed a lot of overdoses.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dozens of UA employees were visible in the TL, sweeping up trash and greeting people as they walked by. \u201cI\u2019m a harm reductionist,\u201d said Diego, who wore a black Raiders face mask\u00a0and introduced himself as an experienced peer advocate and former drug user. \u201cFentanyl is all over the Tenderloin and we\u2019ve reversed a lot of overdoses.\u201d A see-through plastic pocket in his lime-green reflective vest\u00a0held a 4 mg container of Narcan nasal spray. Another hung from a chain around his neck just in case a second dose was needed.<\/p>\n

\"Urban<\/p>\n

Diego\u2019s concern for the people he works with was obvious, as were the job\u2019s difficulties.<\/h4>\n

\u201cI take work home with me,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now I\u2019m looking for a woman who was reported missing and I heard that there is a guy raping women in the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urban Alchemy\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0that prison experience uniquely qualifies employees to work with vulnerable populations in the Tenderloin because they\u00a0\u201cshare a special bond with society\u2019s most vulnerable \u2026 because we see ourselves in their struggle,\u201d\u00a0and that<\/a>\u00a0long-term incarceration gives an\u00a0\u201cability to read people in unpredictable situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a specific skill set you don\u2019t find in the general population,\u201d Dr. Lena Miller,\u00a0UA\u2019s CEO, told\u00a0Filter<\/i>\u00a0in a phone interview. \u201cYou have to go through so much trauma and come out the other end and still find the light to have this skill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are under stress and pressure for decades, you develop an exquisite sense of emotional intelligence and you learn how not to react,\u201d she elaborated. \u201cPeople say stuff on the street that is traumatizing, it\u2019s nothing compared to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incarceration is a singularly traumatizing experience. For those who\u2019ve been in prison for decades, and especially in\u00a0solitary confinement<\/a>, the cumulative harm is devastating. And formerly incarcerated people need jobs, which they are legally denied. UA\u2019s\u00a0hourly pay rates<\/a>\u00a0are well above the minimum wage. \u201cOur population reflects who is in prison,\u201d Miller said. \u201cOur workforce is 60 percent Black, 35 percent Latino and 10 percent white.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not a Trojan horse for the police, we are the buffer between the community and the police.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

UA therefore serves a need created by structural racism.<\/h4>\n

Yet surviving the trauma, violence and deprivation of imprisonment doesn\u2019t automatically qualify a person to work with vulnerable groups; in fact, it could be triggering and re-traumatizing. And stationing practitioners, who are disproportionately Black men, many on parole, in a chaotic, high-stress, environment while Mayor Breed is unleashing a law enforcement crackdown puts them at real risk.<\/p>\n

Critics of Urban Alchemy argue, too, that practitioners perform another role:\u00a0policing people<\/a>\u00a0experiencing homelessness and working with law enforcement to\u00a0evict them from public spaces<\/a>. Miller adamantly denies this: \u201cWe are not a Trojan horse for the police, we are the buffer between the community and the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Mayor Breed\u2019s blunt speech in December, she\u00a0said<\/a>, \u201cwe can\u2019t keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three months later, she announced she would do exactly that.<\/h4>\n

More police have been assigned to the Tenderloin to arrest sellers and people using drugs<\/a>\u00a0if they refuse services. Over 100 cops patrol the neighborhood. The\u00a0estimated cost<\/a>\u00a0for voluntary overtime is $175,000 a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want them to die.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The\u00a0Tenderloin Linkage Center\u00a0<\/a>which is next to the UN Plaza, was created as a result of Breed\u2019s emergency declaration to connect people with housing, drug treatment and mental health services. Early data showed that just\u00a03 percent<\/a>\u00a0of people had been connected to those services. But there is a service there that, despite Breed\u2019s dropping the ball, is finally available.<\/p>\n

In a fenced-off area adjacent to the building, people are allowed to\u00a0use drugs<\/a>. It\u2019s referred to as the \u201cPrivacy Area\u201d and participants are monitored by trained staff who, in the event of an overdose, can respond with naloxone.<\/p>\n

Vitka Eisen of HealthRIGHT 360, who is a former\u00a0heroin user<\/a>,\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0its purpose very simply.\u00a0\u201cWe don\u2019t want them to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

*All first-name sources are pseudonyms, to protect privacy at sources\u2019 request. This article was originally published by\u00a0Filter<\/a>, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. Follow Filter on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Twitter<\/a>, or sign up for its\u00a0newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Tenderloin is a beautifully complicated area. It\u2019s rich in all sorts of intersecting narratives. Sadly, some people fear it, some avoid it.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Paul Harkin, HealthRIGHT 360. In December, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":18315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300,264],"tags":[748,946,16344,16983,253,832,515,1196,508,16982,757,10403,15205],"coauthors":[16981],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18306"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18320,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18306\/revisions\/18320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18306"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}