IN a side street off a busy thoroughfare in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMA) neighbourhood, dozens of people with nowhere else to go have…
IN a side street off a busy thoroughfare in San Francisco’s South of Market neighbourhood, dozens of people with nowhere else to go have set up home.
Like many large cities across the United States, fentanyl – a cheap-to-make synthetic opioid – has taken hold here and the death toll is still rising. By the end of July, there had been a total of 473 overdose deaths in this city – which has a population of about 800,000 – putting it on track to surpass its 2020 annual record of 725 overdose deaths.
She formed SFMentalhealth in the year she took office – with a crisis-focused street team and an increase in mental health beds and treatment services. That December she declared a state of emergency in Tenderloin, the downtown area at the heart of the crisis, and a month later put funding in place for a Linkage Centre, offering respite from the street and access to support for drug users.
Critics of the Coalition on Homelessness, which took the initial legal action, include tech giant Elon Musk who last month called for a boycott on the law firm Latham & Watkins for providing support to the not-for-profit. This is a response to the catch-22 situation people turned away from mental health services because staff insisted they first needed to address their substance use – and vice versa – too often find themselves in.That's an ongoing issue that’s also been highlighted in Scotland for decades.
“There’s an expectation for a person to be drug-free or presenting as not under the influence of substances in order to engage in support around their mental health. There is a sense of needing to prove that you are ready to access mental health support through reducing or abstaining from substance use. “The only support people receive is when it reaches crisis point and even then it can be challenging accessing appropriate, timely and trauma-informed care.
“If there’s a front-desk person, they are specifically trained to accept anybody who walks in the door.” Bright colours, comfortable furniture and good food all send signals to people that they belong, she says.
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