Welcome back to our “Meet the Candidates” series, where District 8 supervisor candidates respond to a question in 100 words or fewer. Answers are published every Wednesday.
District 8 includes neighborhoods in the center of the city, including the Castro, Noe Valley, Glen Park, Twin Peaks, Duboce Triangle, Dolores Heights, Parnassus Heights, Ashbury Heights, Corona Heights, and Diamond Heights.
Under the Lurie administration, San Francisco has increased arrests of people using drugs on the street.
Some politicians have argued that arrests are an opportunity to connect drug users to treatment — San Francisco’s jail offers addiction medication and some who are arrested are also given a treatment plan and a referral to a substance abuse program.
But many drug users end up cycling in and out of jail. Over 40 percent of people booked into jail in January 2025 were booked again that same year (about half of the returners were charged with either drug use or possession).
“It is hard, even with the best of intentions, to operate a therapeutic program inside a facility whose larger purpose is focused around danger and control,” said Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University.
This week’s question: The city has recently stepped up its arrests of drug users. Do you support that move?
Mission Local color codes the answers to yes/no questions. A green background means the candidate answered yes, a red background means no, and a yellow background means that the candidate dodged the question.
Darshini Patel
Job: Former DoorDash employee, worked on the 2012 Obama campaign and the 2024 Harris campaign, former Obama staffer
Age: 38
Residency: Homeowner, has lived in District 8 for 10 cumulative years since 2010
Transportation: Public transit, walking and biking
Education: Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College
Languages: Gujarati, English
No, not as a primary response to drug use. Arresting people may move the immediate problem, but it doesn’t reduce it long term.
San Francisco is spending $14 million on RESET, an arrest-based pilot the City Attorney flagged as high legal risk, even though diversion models that connect people directly to services have a stronger evidence base.
Seattle’s LEAD program found participants were 58 percent less likely to be rearrested. San Francisco already has similar programs. We should scale treatment, case management, and diversion rather than use arrest as the gateway to care.
Arrest dealers. Divert users to treatment. Measure results.
Endorsed by: UESF
Manny Yekutiel
Job: Founder and owner of Manny’s, co-founder and former executive director of Civic Joy Fund
Age: 36
Residency: Renter, has lived in San Francisco since 2012 and District 8 since 2013
Transportation: Driving, public transit and walking
Education: Bachelor’s degree from Williams College
Languages: English, Hebrew
The least compassionate thing we can do is allow people struggling with addiction to repeatedly overdose and die on our streets. But enforcement alone is not a solution. San Francisco needs to dramatically expand treatment, rehabilitation, sobering, and stabilization services, and sober housing so there are more places for people to go to get off deadly drugs.
We have a responsibility to intervene when someone is trapped in a cycle of dangerous drug use, and then give them a real path toward recovery.
Endorsed by: Mayor Daniel Lurie, District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, former Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Jane Fonda, Senator Cory Booker, Grow SF, Abundant SF, San Francisco Apartment Association … see more here.
Gary McCoy
Job: Former staffer to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and former vice president of policy and public affairs at HealthRIGHT 360
Age: 48
Residency: Renter, has lived in San Francisco for 24 years and District 8 for 15 years
Transportation: Driving, biking, public transit and walking
Education: Former City College of San Francisco student, certified phlebotomy technician from Bay Area Medical Academy
Languages: English
I’ve been sober for over 15 years, and I understand what it takes to get people off our streets and into recovery. Public drug use is a problem that can’t be addressed simply by arresting people. We should arrest drug dealers while expanding treatment and step-down beds for drug users so they aren’t back on the streets after treatment.
We need to emulate L.A. County’s R95 initiative, which lowers barriers to entry and provides incentives to stay in treatment to the 95% of drug users who won’t seek it on their own — even after a stint in jail.
Endorsed by: Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Supervisor Matt Dorsey, San Francisco Labor Council, Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club, San Francisco Tenants Union, UESF … see more here.
Michael Nguyen
Job: Patent attorney
Age: 44
Residency: Renter, has lived in District 8 since 2006
Transportation: Driving, public transit and walking
Education: Bachelor’s degree from Southwestern University, law degree from University of California Law San Francisco
Languages: English, some Spanish, some Vietnamese
No, I don’t support criminalizing drug use. Arrests alone aren’t a sustainable answer to the open air drug crisis on our streets. We need the four pillars working together: prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and enforcement. The evidence shows that the four pillars approach actually prevents overdose deaths and ends the crisis, rather than just pushing it from neighborhood to neighborhood.
Right now we don’t have a sustainable plan, just a shell game that moves the same people around the city without solving anything.
Endorsed by: GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club (#2), San Francisco Green Party, former supervisor Dean Preston, UESF … see more here.
Candidates are ordered alphabetically and rotated each week. Answers may be lightly edited for formatting, spelling, and grammar. If you have questions for the candidates, please let us know at io@missionlocal.com.
Election Day is on Nov. 3, 2026. You can register to vote via the sf.gov website.