San Francisco awarded $5 million to launch LEAD diversion pilot

Director Garcia announced that San Francisco has been awarded more than $5,000,000 to launch LEAD SF, a law-enforcement-assisted diversion program modeled on Seattle—s LEAD initiative. Garcia said the pilot will begin in late April in two high-arrest areas: the Tenderloin Civic Center BART Station and the 16th Street Mission BART Station.

—LEAD is a program that was developed in Seattle, that we are mirroring here in San Francisco,— Garcia said, describing the model—s approach to referring repeat, low-level drug offenders at the earliest contact with law enforcement to community-based health and social services as an alternative to jail and prosecution. The department will work with the Police Department, BART Police and criminal-justice partners, Garcia said.

Garcia named internal leads and community partners who will participate in the pilot, including adult probation, GLIDE, the Felton Institute, and the Drug Policy Alliance. She said the grant was one of only two awarded in California, and that the program will be tied to measurable outcomes; if it succeeds, staff may recommend continued funding or budgetary adjustments to sustain services after demonstration dollars are exhausted.

Commissioners asked whether the grant is strictly demonstration funding or could be transitioned into base budget items. Garcia said LEAD will be a multiyear pilot with an outcomes focus; the department is planning protocol development, memoranda of understanding with partner agencies, and an integration with Proposition 47-related treatment-bed expansions.