Many of you have seen my fliers at your door as we canvas every district in the city.
From the very beginning I have championed a tough love approach that offers a helping hand up and a choice to be made—accept services and a place to stay, or move along. As mayor I will not allow homelessness to continue to fester.
Originally published September 10, 2021
Our homeless population is diverse and the root causes of their homelessness are varied, and that’s why we need varied solutions to our homelessness. I am heartened to hear that my colleagues agree that we need to expand conservatorship. I am also supporting Governor Newsom’s Care Court proposal which will allow judges to compel people to come in from outside and to get the mental health or drug addiction treatment that they need to stay housed. That’s what is important, whether it is a locked facility or whether it is permanent supportive housing that we are building, that has the services to reintegrate folks back into society, address their root causes, and prevent them from becoming unhoused again. There’s also a portion of the population that just needs interim housing before they get to permanent housing and need services for a short amount of time. We are already serving those individuals, but we don’t have enough units and that’s why it’s important for us to continue to build additional units of housing as well.
For more detail, be sure to watch my answer to the question of homelessness during a recent candidate forum here.