San Francisco’s mayor wants drug testing for welfare recipients

SAN FRANCISCO — Recipients of public assistance — in a city once known for its embrace of counterculture drugs — would have to submit to tests for substance use under a proposal announced Tuesday by Mayor London Breed as she faces mounting pressure to address San Francisco’s fentanyl epidemic.

Breed, who is running for reelection in 2024, outlined the plan the same day that an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune launched his own mayoral bid, arguing that his incumbent opponent had let the drug and homelessness crises fester under her watch.

Her proposal — which progressive critics immediately compared to Republican-style welfare mandates — would require all recipients of locally-funded cash assistance participate in a substance abuse treatment program if screening showed drug use.

“No more handouts without accountability,” Breed said at a City Hall news conference. “People are not accepting help. Now, it’s time to make sure that we are cutting off resources that continue to allow this behavior.”

The proposal from the Democratic mayor of this ultra-liberal city reflects the depth of frustration with a fentanyl crisis that has led to record overdoses, turned parts of downtown into open-air drug markets and is correlated with an increase in car break-ins and other property crime.

It follows similar moves by leaders of other blue cities like New York and Portland, who are pushing forced treatment for mentally ill residents and sweeps of homelessness encampments that were once anathema to the Democratic Party. Breed, and her big city counterparts, are taking more drastic measures around the intertwined problems of drug use, homelessness and mental health to show voters they’re serious about public safety concerns.

Breed has increasingly leaned into tough-on-crime rhetoric in recent months as she faces political headwinds and a growing field of challengers. On Tuesday, she defended her welfare proposal with a Clinton-esque commentary about the need for incentives that make subsidies contingent on personal responsibility.

But she faces a tough road getting the progressive-leaning Board of Supervisors to go along with her proposal. Several were swift to call her plan inhumane and politically-motivated. About a dozen states, mostly deep-red, require drug testing for welfare recipients.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, a progressive and potential rival in the mayoral race, said Breed is deflecting because she has failed to work with the police department to effectively close open-air markets for drugs and stolen goods.

“These are serious times in San Francisco — and we need serious ideas, not politicians desperately grasping for a political lifeline,” he said.

Breed announced her proposal on the same morning that Daniel Lurie, a longtime nonprofit executive and Levi Strauss heir, formally announced he will challenge her in next year’s election.

Lurie told a crowd of hundreds of supporters that he would seek to dramatically increase San Francisco’s police presence to respond to the crises that have roiled its streets.

“My administration will finally slam the door shut on the era of open-air drug markets and end the perception that lawlessness is an acceptable part of life in San Francisco,” he said during a rally at a community center in Potrero Hill.

Several details of Breed’s drug testing proposal are unclear, including which specific drugs would be tested for. Her office said she would unveil the text of the legislation in the coming weeks.

Supervisor Matt Dorsey, a recovering addict and former spokesperson for the police department, is carrying the measure with Breed. He said more coercive incentives are needed to get people into treatment, especially amid the “unprecedented loss of life in San Francisco” due to drug overdoses.