{"id":67412,"date":"2025-11-24T09:21:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/67412\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T09:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:21:23","slug":"sf-lays-out-treatment-or-jail-plan-to-tackle-drug-crisis-as-critics-respond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/67412\/","title":{"rendered":"SF lays out \u2018treatment or jail\u2019 plan to tackle drug crisis as critics respond"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON<\/a>) \u2014 The City of San Francisco is taking a new approach to address the drug crisis on its streets. Starting next spring, Mayor Daniel Lurie says a law-enforcement-led sobering center will open on 6th Street.<\/p>\n

KRON4\u2019s Lindsey Ford spoke with operators of sober living homes in the city \u2014 and they said this location is part of the major concerns. Watch the full report in the video player above.<\/p>\n

Bay Area middle schoolers find loaded gun during field trip to public park <\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto rolled out a new plan to clean up the city\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n

They say anyone caught intoxicated or using drugs in public will be arrested \u2014 but this time, they\u2019ll have a new option.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreatment or jail,\u201d said Mayor Lurie. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to tolerate people continuing to use fentanyl on our bus stops and in our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not arresting people for their behaviors. We\u2019re trying to help them and so sometimes you have to meet people where they are,\u201d said Sheriff Miyamoto.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/p>\n

Photo: KRON4 News.<\/p>\n

Come next spring, detainees who choose treatment over arrest will be taken to a law-enforcement-run sobering center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a site in which falls between a jail and a hospital and provide a sober environment for four to six hours while having access to clinicians and support staff,\u201d added Miyamoto.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Miyamoto said detainees can stay up to 24 hours.<\/p>\n

But Adrian, who lives in a sober living home, fears it\u2019s only a short-term fix for people battling addiction. \u201cI love the idea of getting more resources out there. My worry is that I don\u2019t want to be another one of those situations where it\u2019s like a place to leave people uncared for and to get people off the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julie Archer, founder and director of a San Francisco-based sober living facility named Potentials Unlimited Sober Living Environment, said addiction has many complex layers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of just putting them in a sober house for six hours, because, as soon as they get out, they\u2019re going to be craving. It\u2019s just not enough. They\u2019re going to go right back, and to have a location like 6th Street \u2014 that\u2019s a trigger within itself,\u201d said Archer.<\/p>\n

Archer says location matters and 6th Street is already a hotspot for drug activity.<\/p>\n

One of her sober living homes is in the Cayuga Terrace neighborhood, and she believes real recovery starts only when people get hospitalized and receive a proper psychiatric diagnosis before entering sober living.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause a lot of these addicts have a lot of trauma, a lot of trauma,\u201d added Archer.<\/p>\n

Adrian said living in a sober living facility has helped him. His other concern about the law-enforcement sobering center: how will the city follow up to support long-term recovery \u2014 especially for people who are unhoused and have no address to reach them?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to pick up a pipe, or a needle, than to actively look for a job\u2026 apply for resources from the city,\u201d said Adrian.<\/p>\n

Archer said she\u2019s seen family and loved ones struggle with addiction \u2014 and believes real recovery only happens when the person wants help, not when they\u2019re forced into it. \u201cThey might have some bumps in the road but as long as they pick themselves right back up, keep doing what they\u2019re doing, they\u2019re going to stay sober. But you have to want it, you have to want it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) \u2014 The City of San Francisco is taking a new approach to address the drug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[636,40078,101,103,102,104,106,105,40077,40076],"class_list":["post-67412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-daniel-lurie","tag-paul-miyamoto","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sober-living","tag-sobering-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67412","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=67412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}