Part 1 of 3: Where SF gets it wrong when it comes to attacking homelessness

Image by Pedro Ribeiro Simões

In a punchy conversation with California Insider's Siyamak Khorrami, JConr Ortega—San Francisco homeless advocate who was previously unhoused for 20 years—unpacks the City's failing homeless approach. By incentivizing drug abuse through no-strings-attached paychecks and “safe” injection sites, cities like SF cripple individuals wanting to get clean and resume working life. A selection of Ortega's comments follows.

So the one thing that made our city unique, and especially when it comes to homelessness and the drug crisis, especially being coupled together through Covid, is our city was a prime real estate place for people to come into to get their free drugs. And we have not seen a ceasing of increased people coming over for these drugs, that they're remaining homeless on the streets, which is what's fueling our homelessness problem as well. (2:33–2:58)

So the unique thing about San Francisco is we have this cash program, where the city goes out and actually hands around $650 to every homeless person that they interact with. Now, if you're a homeless person and you're getting free money from the city, free taxpayer money from the city, you're not going to have an incentive to want to actually come back into a civilized life of going to work every day, paying taxes, because then if you become that person who's paying taxes, the tax money's being used for other people who don't want to become an actual working citizen. So there's a lot of incentive to not actually get off the streets, which we see a lot in San Francisco. (10:26–11:09)

We are the most compassionate city. But at the same time, we [have] got to have a limit on what we're doing because we're only encouraging more homelessness. We're not actually fighting homelessness. (13:09–13:17)

So when it comes to people who have a drug use, they want to get off the drugs. I've spoken to many people, especially when I was homeless, who feel so trapped, they feel like this is a giant spider that's holding them together, they just feel it's a dark entity that's just preventing them from wanting to get better. They want to get clean, but again, it goes back to that incentive of keeping people addicted because if your organization gets money to treat this person, you don't want them out of the problem. You want them to continue the problem.

And then when you go to the homeless person because of the fact that they don't have a home—when they're getting all these benefits of cash, when they're getting all these benefits of clothes on the streets, when they're getting all these benefits— they're not going to want to go into a shelter that requires them to be sober, to be clean, and to actually hold yourself accountable. (14:06–15:07)

Well, [city-funded nonprofits handing out drug paraphernalia] goes back to the city spending money on incentivizing and encouraging drug use. So it's not the city coming in and saying, “Hey, you're in a bad state. You are drug addicted, and we want to get you better. We want to get you back to a fully-functioning human being.” No, what we're going to do instead is, “Here's a needle. You can take that needle, you can shoot up. If you overdose, hopefully someone has Narcan and will revive you. But be safe with your needle.” If you're a person on the street taking drugs, that's not a message you want to hear if you're constantly telling people you want to get out of this. So it's going up to a person and—I use this analogy—you have a snake that's biting you. It's like, “Hey, can I take the snake off? Can you take the snake off of me?” It's like, “Here, here's another snake. Let me add another one on top of you.” It's like, “That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking you to get me better.” So people just handing out needles is just ridiculous to me. (16:42–17:42)

Watch the whole thing here.

Related:

• Is homelessness also an opioid addiction crisis?

• Progressive/nonprofit model of treating homelessness and addiction is “mistreatment of the foulest sort” say critics

• Case study: How smart states combat homelessness with tough-on-drug policies

Follow Opportunity Now on Twitter @svopportunity

Sign up to receive updates on Opp Now articles

Email Address:

First Name:

Last Name:

Opp Now enthusiastically welcomes smart, thoughtful, fair-minded, well-written comments from our readers. But be advised: we have zero interest in posting rants, ad hominems, poorly-argued screeds, transparently partisan yack, or the hateful name-calling often seen on other local websites. So if you've got a great idea that will add to the conversation, please send it in. If you're trolling or shilling for a candidate or initiative, forget it.