Now SF Mayor, Lurie Unveils Emergency Plans to Tackle Drug, Homelessness Crises

Daniel Lurie is officially San Francisco’s mayor — and he’s not wasting any time easing into his first elected office. In his inaugural address on Wednesday, Lurie outlined plans to crack down on the city’s drug and homelessness crises and expedite notoriously slow City Hall functions.

Lurie made a move toward a much-discussed campaign promise, announcing a package of fentanyl emergency ordinances. Though he had often vowed to declare a fentanyl state of emergency on his first day in office, experts had said it likely wouldn’t be possible under city rules.

“As we speak, the San Francisco Police Department and Sheriff’s Department are rapidly shifting resources and personnel to bring drug dealers to justice and clean up our streets,” he told the hundreds of people gathered at Civic Center, including former mayors Willie Brown, Art Agnos, Frank Jordan and the incoming Board of Supervisors.

Lurie’s administration will make permanent the Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, a move spearheaded by former Mayor London Breed to streamline efforts by local law enforcement and other city departments to shut down open-air drug dealing in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott has also been tasked with creating a road map to extend its operation to 24 hours a day and expand its reach to the 6th Street corridor, which has seen an increase in drug activity in recent months.

As of December, the DMACC has made more than 5,000 arrests and seized 277 lbs of fentanyl, according to SFPD data — numbers Lurie hopes will grow with a wider reach.

“The fentanyl crisis is not a 9-to-5 operation, and neither can we be. We have to have a response 24-7,” he told reporters ahead of his speech, riding a cable car down Powell Street with his family.

Lurie, who has made efforts to connect with the incoming and returning members of the Board of Supervisors since his November election, said that the package of emergency ordinances will go before the board on Tuesday and with an expedited approval process, could go into effect in about a month.

If passed, it would expand his and certain department leaders’ emergency powers to roll out drug and homelessness initiatives without the regular policy approval process, which can take six to 12 weeks.

The package will ask supervisors to waive certain rules around executing contracts and grants and speed up approval of contracts and leases for behavioral health, substance abuse and shelter services.

“This is truly a new era of cooperation and mutual respect between City Hall, the Board of Supervisors, law enforcement, and the thousands of city employees working on the front lines,” he said.

A career philanthropist, Lurie is also asking the board to authorize the use of private funds for public initiatives to address the fentanyl crisis. The ordinance would grant behested payment waivers to designated staff members, allowing them to fundraise and pre-authorize the city’s acceptance of private gifts.

This isn’t unheard of — Breed fundraised privately to bring pandas back to the San Francisco Zoo last spring.

If the board approves the package, it would also increase the city controller’s ability to transfer or repurpose funds and, together with the city administrator, to regulate and review the ordinances as a whole.

Lurie plans to lean heavily on the Police Department in his early days, launching two new police units in the coming months. In the spring, the Crisis Stabilization Unit will begin operating a 24-hour drop-off location where police can take people struggling on the streets who don’t need to go to the emergency room or be taken to jail.

SFPD Chief Scott said the unit would help the department deal with the volume of calls that it gets daily and can’t keep up with.

“You see people that need help, and jail is not always the appropriate solution, the emergency room is not always the appropriate solution,” he said. “You need a place for those [people], and we don’t have the capacity right now to handle the volume of people that need help.”

Lurie will also create another police-led team dedicated to revitalizing the downtown corridor in a bid to make it more welcoming to tourists, businesses, and the city’s workforce. San Francisco has been slower than other major cities to bounce back from the pandemic, with companies pulling their offices out of downtown and leaving previously bustling streets ominously quiet.

“My job is not to demand that the private sector be back in the office every day,” Lurie said. “My job is to make you want to be downtown again — for work, with your family, and with your friends.”

He said the area should be inviting all year, not only when a conference like 2023’s Asia-Pacific Environmental Cooperation forum or next week’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference comes to town.

“This is where our comeback begins,” he said. “It is the greatest honor of my life to serve as your mayor at this critical moment in our history. I’m asking all of you, every single one of you, to join me in reclaiming our place as the greatest city in the world — with a new era of accountability, service, and change. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”