San Francisco to open new sobering center

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is offering new details on the latest plan to get drug users off the streets and into drug treatment. The plan calls for the opening of a new sobering center. Not only will the people suffering from addiction get a path to treatment, but the police would be freed up to return to patrols quicker. 

New sobering center

What we know:

Evidence of the city’s drug crisis is not hard to find. But with the opening of sobering centers, like the one planned for 6th Street, across from the Hall of Justice, officers will be able to offer treatment as a way to address intoxicated people on the streets. 

“It’s unacceptable for our kids, for our families. Whether you’re living in SoMa, living in the Mission District, you live here in the Tenderloin, we have to try new approaches,” said Mayor Lurie. 

Lurie said this drop-off sobering center would streamline the process and get officers back on the streets quickly. 

“Right now, SFPD, they have to make a choice being short-staffed. ‘Do I take this person in who is using and spend three or four hours, or do I get them into this new center and get back out of the street within 30 minutes, within 45 minutes,” Lurie said. 

Investment not incarceration

At an event on Wednesday for a new effort to prevent youth violence, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said the sobering center is an important step to address a crisis that impacts his district – the Tenderloin. 

“I appreciate the innovation and ensuring that we’re not actually sending people to jail. We’re sending them to the sobering center so that they have the resources in the care and the service is to get better,” Mahmood said. 

At that same event, San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju said, “Programs like this remind us that safety doesn’t come from incarceration. It comes from investment. Investment in youth investment and housing investment and mental health and investment in communities,” Raju said. 

 Sound familiar?

If this sounds familiar, that may be because the city opened a similar crisis stabilization center this past spring where emergency responders and street teams can bring people for treatment. 

This new sobering center will be for those who are picked up by law enforcement. 

San FranciscoSan Francisco Police DepartmentDaniel LurieNews