{"id":371151,"date":"2026-06-23T05:24:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/371151\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T05:24:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:24:04","slug":"jackie-fielder-to-return-to-city-hall-after-mental-health-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/371151\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Fielder to return to City Hall after mental health crisis\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mission District supervisor Jackie Fielder will be back at San Francisco City Hall on Monday after a three-month leave of absence for mental health issues<\/a> that, she said, grew gradually in her first year in office until she experienced a collapse and checked herself into a hospital.<\/p>\n

From there, on March 27, she called two reporters and Mayor Daniel Lurie to say that she planned to resign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt a pressure to escape, and that was my emergency escape button,\u201d she told Mission Local in an interview Saturday. \u201cI was just feeling a lot of intense feelings to get out of the role on that one day, when I was having my crisis. That\u2019s when I had called you to talk about me wanting to resign, and inviting you to come to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fielder subsequently reversed her decision<\/a> after learning she could take medical leave, she said, and Fielder\u2019s doctor recommended a three-month rest. She had struggled with basics like exercise, sleep and eating regularly, she said.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s political establishment issued an outpouring of well-wishes<\/a> after the initial news of Fielder\u2019s hospitalization, and Fielder said she is now in the midst of a visiting tour with her colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve told the mayor today that I\u2019m coming back,\u201d she said on Saturday. \u201cHe was gracious and glad to see me, glad that I was coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stress, she said, had been steadily building since she kicked off her bid<\/a> for District 9 supervisor 25 months ago. \u201cI\u2019ve been running 100 miles an hour since really early 2023, when I started the campaign,\u201d she said, and had experienced \u201cmany, many sleepless nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Jackie Fielder attends a rally to urge Mayor Lurie to end family stay limits and support immigrant communities in April 2025. Photo by Gustavo Hernandez.<\/p>\n

It accelerated once in office, Fielder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been compounding, especially with the first year in office, where something was coming up every single week,\u201d she said, naming her fight with Mayor Lurie\u2019s administration<\/a> on family homelessness, and the threat of a federal immigration surge<\/a> last October.<\/p>\n

The District 9 supervisor\u2019s role is especially grueling, she added: The district has two BART stations that \u201cattract thousands of people\u201d and host myriad problems<\/a>, \u201ca lot of people living on the streets,\u201d a \u201chigh immigrant population that has been very afraid of ICE,\u201d and skyrocketing rents<\/a>, increased evictions<\/a>, and other \u201caffordability pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fielder said that, as the pressure built, she felt \u201cvery alone\u201d and as if \u201ceverything was on me as the supervisor to handle.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Francisco supervisors have previously gone public with their own struggles on the job, though most are drug or alcohol-related: Aaron Peskin checked himself into rehab in 2021<\/a> after years of heavy drinking while in political life, and Matt Dorsey has parlayed his series of<\/a> relapses<\/a> into a successful public career.<\/p>\n

But discussions of mental health among politicians, locally or nationally<\/a>, are rare.<\/p>\n

Asked whether her relationship with Lurie, which had grown strained over the first year, had changed as a result of her crisis, Fielder said the two had \u201calways kept it professional.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s shown a lot of grace in this time,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve always worked together to serve constituents,\u201d she added, naming the mayor\u2019s focus<\/a> on conditions at 16th and Mission<\/a>. Fielder and Lurie both say the area needs more police foot beats<\/a>, and support the current interdepartment strategy of using street teams<\/a> for the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re able to still work together and have our teams work together. On a personal level, he\u2019s been very gracious and kind in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ASupervisor Jackie Fielder speaks in front of City Hall during a rally in May 2025. Photo by Gustavo Hernandez.<\/p>\n

Fielder named two immediate legislative priorities now that she\u2019s back:<\/p>\n

Authorizing \u201cMicroenterprise Home Kitchen Operations<\/a>\u201d (MEHKO) to help street food vendors, who are sounding the alarm<\/a> over a new city law they say will put them out of business<\/a>. Such home kitchens would allow vendors to stay in compliance with health and safety laws. San Francisco, Napa, and Marin are the only Bay Area counties<\/a> without MEHKO ordinances.<\/p>\n

Building more public bathrooms across the city and creating a \u201cgoal for the city to establish more bathrooms.\u201d Filth and sidewalk cleanliness have been major issues at the Mission District BART plazas and neighborhood streets.<\/p>\n

Fielder said her office would continue its focus on conditions at 16th and Mission, family homelessness, evictions and affordability, and immigrant rights. Asked whether the crisis would spur her to tackle mental health issues legislatively, she said she was not sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fielder has not asked for any accommodations at work, she said, and does not expect to.<\/p>\n

The three-month break, she added, has let her get a handle on the basics. She spent the time \u201cgetting a lot of sleep, feeding myself, exercise, walks, jogs, spending time with my family and friends. Just generally taking care of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good, I feel ready. I\u2019ve taken the time that I\u2019ve had to do what I need to shore up my mental health,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel prepared and ready and almost brand new.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mission District supervisor Jackie Fielder will be back at San Francisco City Hall on Monday after a three-month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[13133,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-371151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-jackie-fielder","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}