Update 3-10: The community meeting on March 12 has been postponed. The Health Commission will move a vote on the project to the April meeting. For more information about this change, useful links, and to provide feedback to DPH, scroll down.
UPDATE: A second public meeting will be held on March 12, 6-8pm, at Kelly Cullen Auditorium (220 Golden Gate Avenue @ Leavenworth). The Health Commission will vote on the project at their March 17th meeting.
The following position has been shared with the Mayor’s Office, Health Commission, other pertinent City departments such as DPH, and potential program operators and neighborhood stakeholders includuing residents, merchants and property owners.
A Climate of Containment
Over the past year, City decisions—and most recently the process surrounding the 180 Jones Meth Sobering Center—have reinforced a narrative that the Tenderloin is a containment zone. Whether or not the City has acted intentionally to create a containment zone is irrelevant. People living here feel this narrative as a truth of their existence, and the impacts of this narrative on community health are real. In particular, the most vulnerable among us—children, seniors, low income people of color and residents experiencing homelessness—are confronted with persistent traumatic stress resulting in detrimental impacts to community health, social connectedness, and individual health outcomes including risk of high Adverse Childhood Experience Scores (ACES) and a startling ten-year reduction in life expectancy.
We ask the City to work in collaboration with Tenderloin residents, community-based organizations, and business leaders to mitigate negative impacts on community health. We are confident that the City can readily address the concerns associated with the 180 Jones proposal and work with the community toward a permanent Tenderloin Meth Sobering Center.
TLCBD position regarding sobering center
The Tenderloin Community Benefit District (TLCBD) represents property owners, residents, and merchants in the Tenderloin. We offer our support, advocacy and partnership to create a permanent and successful Tenderloin Sobering Center. However, we cannot condone the current 180 Jones project as it stands, which has many unanswered questions and unidentified mechanisms for operations, and moreover has shown little regard for the concerns of and impacts on the neighboring community.
The following position has been formulated after our engagement with residents, merchants, property owners, people with lived experience of addiction, community-based organizations, as well as several conversations with City staff, members of the Meth Task Force and potential program operators at HealthRIGHT 360.
1. We support a 24-Hour, Trauma-informed Tenderloin Sobering Center in a permanent structure to serve people suffering with addiction in the Tenderloin.
a. TLCBD commits to partnering with the City to identify and advocate for a permanent site immediately.
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The decision to locate the service at 180 Jones deserves further scrutiny. Any decision should be postponed until the Tenderloin’s concerns can be addressed in a public meeting. This request is supported by the following points:
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Health professionals involved with the project were not consulted in the siting of the sobering center.
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City officials have referenced a broad analysis of City-owned land for this purpose, but it has not been shared with the community.
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180 Jones is one block northeast of De Marillac Academy, one block south of City Academy and Boeddeker Park. It sits across the street from Boys & Girls Club Tenderloin Clubhouse, two housing sites that are home to over 500 children, a Salvation Army youth program site, and an early childhood daycare center. We do not believe a site like this would have been chosen with such disregard for a concentration of children in any other neighborhood in San Francisco.
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The sole community meeting was cut short and did not provide adequate interpretation services.
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Basic operational questions still need to be answered so that the City and HealthRIGHT 360 can ensure adequate resources and mitigations are in place to support a successful Sobering Center.
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The Sobering Center should hold a written agreement with specific commitments to the neighborhood:
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Client access to the center should be prioritized by the geographic boundary listed above (3a) and limited to that area for a period of at least one year. We propose only four modes of client access:
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Entering on their own.
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Engaged by walking health workers from HealthRIGHT 360, DPH, or other qualified community partners trained in de-escalation, addiction treatment, harm reduction, crisis intervention, and conflict resolution. These teams should engage with potential program participants while supporting health on Tenderloin sidewalks.
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Via Tenderloin Police Station officers and EMS personnel working within the boundaries listed above (3a).
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As reported by community members to Sobering Center staff via a hotline.
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We request clearly-defined methods for ‘warm handoffs’ including linkage to navigation centers, shelters, HSH access point, and other partners. It should state what happens when clients are released when other agencies are closed.
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Clear baseline measures and success metrics with regular reporting of progress.
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Research extending to the surrounding environment to better understand impacts
of the service and overall community health.
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A Community Advisory Committee (CAC) established to hold these agreements and to regularly assess progress through formal reporting and bi-weekly meetings. The CAC should have a method of accountability and authority.
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Four newly-added, Problem-Solving Beat Officers assigned only to the area north of McAllister Street, west of Mason Street, east of Polk Street and south of O’Farrell Street.
MESSAGE FROM DPH REGARDING POSTPONED MARCH 12 COMMUNITY MEETING
As you might know, the San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) and HealthRIGHT 360 are working together to create a safe place for people in the Tenderloin who are experiencing homelessness and methamphetamine intoxication. This drug sobering center called “Project 180,” at the corner of Turk and Jones streets, would serve the Tenderloin until the Fall of 2021 when housing construction on the site is scheduled to begin.
As urgent as this work is, DPH and HealthRIGHT 360 must also do what we can to create safety for our neighbors vulnerable to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and to reduce the virus’ spread in San Francisco.
The community meeting about the Project 180 proposal that was scheduled for Thursday, March 12 in the Kelly Cullen Auditorium is now canceled. As DPH recommended on March 6, large gatherings should be canceled to help reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), and people in vulnerable populations should stay home as much as possible.
In addition, the Health Commission vote on this contract that was scheduled for Tuesday, March 17 has been postponed until April. More information will be posted in the coming weeks on the Health Commission website at https://www.sfdph.org/dph/hc/nextMeeting.asp.
Many of you have already spoken with the project team, attended the Feb. 11 community meeting, provided comment for the March 3 Health Commission meeting, and/or emailed us to provide valuable feedback.
DPH and HealthRIGHT 360 still want to hear from you. Over the next several weeks, we will continue to gather and respond to public input about Project 180 by phone, email and — whenever possible and safe for all involved — in small-group meetings. If you and your neighbors, colleagues, fellow parents, business owners or friends would like to coordinate such a conversation with us, please email Drug.SoberingCenter@sfdph.org. Please note if you’d like interpretation, and in what language(s). And please feel free to forward this message to your networks.
Thank you for your understanding and for your continued interest in Project 180.
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