San Francisco Mayor Seeks Mental Health Bond on November Ballot
San Francisco Mayor Seeks Mental Health Bond on November Ballot
(Bloomberg) -- San Francisco Mayor London Breed wants voters in November 2020 to decide on a bond measure for mental health services as the city copes with a deepening homelessness crisis.
In a letter dated Friday to City Administrator Naomi Kelly, Breed asked for a bond proposal funding public health to be moved up from 2023 to help the 4,000 people who are homeless and suffer from both mental health and substance abuse issues.
“We need to move forward. We have no time to waste,” Breed wrote. “We need to make significant new investments in our behavioral health system to increase our capacity to help people who are suffering and in crisis get off the streets, into care, and out of homelessness.”
Breed didn’t set a size for the bond measure, and the board of supervisors must approve putting the question before voters, who last week passed a $600 million bond for affordable housing, the largest of its kind in San Francisco’s history. Ballooning income inequality has sent the city’s homeless population skyrocketing 17% over the last two years.
City officials had anticipated asking voters to authorize $220 million in bonds for public health in 2023. Breed said in her letter that the current behavioral health system isn’t serving the people who are suffering and the measure should go to voters sooner.
“The lack of capacity in our system to serve this population has exacerbated the crisis on our streets and it is incumbent upon us to advance real and meaningful solutions without delay,” Breed said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Romy Varghese in San Francisco at rvarghese8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Campbell at ecampbell14@bloomberg.net, Michael B. Marois, William Selway
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