Housing tensions escalate as wardens shift focus to police staffing and overdose crisis

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San Francisco regulators quickly approved the controversial Housing Element plan on Tuesday, but they are now mulling new legislation that would allow the city to be sued if affordable housing goals are not met. They also intend to discuss more aggressive recruiting strategies to fill the ranks of the police, the practicality of creating new courts to deal with behavioral health issues, and removing barriers to setting up overdose prevention sites.

Committee assignments are here!

Board watchers have been waiting with bated breath for the committee’s assignments this year, and new board president Aaron Peskin, despite having a second case of Covid, announced them at roll call. The new appointments take effect February 1.

The committee appointments are usually seen as a barometer of the direction the board will take now that Peskin, who served twice as president on his first tour as chief in the 2000s, made the decision after a drawn-out vote earlier this month.

In a statement, Peskin said he was seeking an “ideologically balanced approach” to the appointments.

As expected, District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan will chair the Budget and Finance Committee, and District 8 Supervisor Raphael Mandelman will serve as vice chair. District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey will chair the rules committee.

District 2 Supervisor Katherine Stefani will serve as Vice Chair of the State Audit and Oversight Committee and remain Chair of the Public Safety and Utilities Committee with District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, a rookie, as her deputy.

Another shoe falls on housing

The oversight bodies unanimously approved the modified Housing Element of the City’s Master Plan, a state-approved development guide, in a very quick vote without debate. The plan contains new amendments in response to a recently passed state law requiring an increase in housing construction and has been the subject of intense debate so far.

Ongoing concerns about whether San Francisco will be able to meet its new development goals of nearly 82,000 new homes over the next eight years were voiced at Monday’s Land and Transportation Committee meeting, including concerns about getting funding and resolving political disputes over land acquisition for affordable housing.

Leaders also unanimously approved a resolution calling for the inclusion of affordable housing in plans to redevelop the Department of Motor Vehicles field office on Fell Street. District 5 Superintendent Dean Preston cited the project as an example of the assistance the city will need to meet its new affordable housing goals.

Preston later intervened in City Hall’s ongoing debate over housing priorities by announcing that he was working with the city’s attorney’s office to draft an “Affordable Housing Responsibility Act” that would allow private parties to sue the city if it is not implemented. target for affordable apartments set by the Housing Element.

Police Recruitment, Drug Crisis, Shooting

The new board cases included a resolution introduced by Dorsey urging San Francisco to match the highest recruiting bonuses offered to new and transferred police officers by other Northern California police departments.

The resolution also calls on the Police Commission to develop a plan to achieve the city’s statute level for the San Francisco Police Department’s 2,182 officer state level.

At last week’s police commission meeting, SFPD officials said in a presentation of this year’s budget process that the number of available full-time officers had dropped to 1,537 and the dropout rate for officers before retirement had risen.

Dorsey, former director of strategic communications for the SFPD, described the number of full-time employees as “the lowest in decades.”

“I’m more than ever alarmed by our police recruitment numbers, especially when viewed along with the dropout rate in the SFPD,” Dorsey said. “The trend is going sharply in the wrong direction and comes at the most inopportune moment when a disproportionately large cohort of officers is reaching retirement age.”

In the meantime, Mandelman has requested a hearing on the Care Courts, a state statutory program passed last September and backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that may require treatment for people with severe behavioral problems.

The Care Courts will provide a place where family, close friends and first responders can petition on behalf of individuals with severe behavioral problems who are unable to care for themselves to be included in a care plan that includes treatment and housing.

San Francisco will be one of the first seven counties to implement the program. The Care Court Advisory Panel estimated that between 1,000 and 2,000 people could be eligible for the program, with 300-400 people required to be enrolled in the first year, according to a letter of request sent by Mandelman to the Department of Public Health.

“I’m concerned about the department’s ability to expand the range of services,” Mandelman said, citing difficulties in meeting the goals of existing programs. “Care Court won’t be a silver bullet, but it could push DPH to pick up the pace or it could spur better regional cooperation.”

Accordingly, District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced legislation, co-sponsored by Mayor Breed of London, repealing the current permit system for overdose prevention sites, based on legislation by State Senator Scott Wiener, which Newsom later vetoed.

“Repeal of this regulation would eliminate a burdensome permitting structure, creating an additional barrier to reopening already hard-to-reach overdose prevention sites,” Ronen said. “By removing this hurdle, we hope we can make it easier for sites to reopen this year.”

Breed and Ronen introduced a regulation on January 18 allowing non-profit organizations to operate privately owned safe consumption spaces. Shortly thereafter, City Attorney David Chiu opined that opioid settlement funds could not be used to fund the sites.

Stephanie, a longtime gun safety law advocate, used her roll call time to discuss the recent spate of mass shootings, including in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay. She introduced resolutions calling for support for a new law to ban assault weapons in Washington, sponsored by US Senators Dianne Feinstein and Richard Blumenthal.

“The past few days have shown the extent of this problem,” Stephanie said. “We had 39 mass shootings in three weeks. […] I refuse to be silent and I refuse to be numb to this shit.”

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