San Francisco supervisors unveil legislation to implement drug-free recovery housing

The housing and addiction crises in San Francisco continue to be salient public health issues and some lawmakers are exploring a different avenue toward supporting people in recovery: drug-free options within the city’s permanent supportive housing. 

On Monday, two San Francisco supervisors held a press conference outside of City Hall to announce legislation prioritizing drug-free recovery housing in the city. Supervisors Matt Dorsey and Rafael Mandelman’s legislative effort, dubbed Recovery Housing First, aims to have at least 25 percent of San Francisco’s supportive housing portfolio be drug-free recovery housing. 

Currently, San Francisco has adopted a harm-reduction policy in its permanent supportive housing, meaning that supportive housing operators currently accept residents regardless of their sobriety or substance use behavior. Recovery Housing First, however, aims to explore an alternative, abstinence-focused supportive housing option for individuals in San Francisco. 

Danica Gutierrez, a mother of three and supportive housing resident, stated her support for the legislation in a news release sent out by Dorsey.  

“The stark reality of living in permanent supportive housing where active drug use is allowed is incredibly distressing, and it creates an unsafe and unstable environment for families like mine,” said Gutierrez. “As a single mom striving to provide a secure and nurturing home for my family, I am compelled to raise awareness about the urgent need for drug-free PSH options.” 

Currently, state law mandates that state-funded supportive housing adhere to harm-reduction and drug-permissive tenets based on state “Housing First” policies.

“Recovery Housing First will prioritize urgently needed alternatives to drug-permissive supportive housing, which for too many people in recovery is causing more harm than it’s reducing,” Dorsey said in a statement. 

Recovery Housing First aims to provide support for those who seek housing, but wish to be accommodated in a drug-free environment. 

 “It’s time to listen to our recovery community,” Mandelman said in a statement. “Recovery Housing First will add a desperately needed new choice that every unhoused San Franciscan deserves: recovery-oriented supportive housing, free of illegal drug use, if thatʼs what a resident wants.” 

But what happens to residents who relapse?

According to Dorsey’s office, relapses would not be considered an automatic cause for eviction. Discharges from recovery housing would only occur when a participant’s behavior substantially disrupts the welfare of the recovery community in which the participant resides. 

However, participants will be allowed to rejoin recovery housing if they express a renewed desire to live in an abstinence-focused housing setting. 

Recovery Housing First follows the introduction of Assembly Bill 2479, authored by Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco. The bill seeks to amend existing state law to allow up to 25 percent of state funding for housing and housing-based services to be used for recovery housing. The bill unanimously passed in the state Assembly on May 22 and now awaits review in the Senate. 

According to Dorsey’s office, AB 2479 paired with Recovery Housing First will expand options for San Francisco residents who wish to explore recovery in drug-free housing accommodations. 

Randy Shaw, executive director of Tenderloin Housing Clinic, a nonprofit that provides housing and legal services to low-income San Franciscans, has seen support for recovery housing. 

“We know there is a huge demand for recovery housing in San Francisco,” Shaw said in a statement. “In a recent survey of our tenants, 71 percent of the roughly 450 who responded said they would prefer drug-free housing.” 

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