Advocates at Budget hearing: 'Housing is health care,' call for treatment‑on‑demand and expanded supportive housing

Dozens of community presenters and service providers used Wednesday’s Budget & Finance Committee hearing to urge targeted budget investments that, they said, would stabilize people leaving psychiatric care and reduce repeat crisis visits.

Bill Hirsch of the AIDS Legal Referral Panel told supervisors "housing is health care," pressing the city to prioritize permanent supportive housing and scattered‑site cooperative living for people with chronic mental illness. Community speakers — including representatives of the Mental Health Association, Progress Foundation, HAPN (HIV/AIDS Providers Network), and multiple frontline nurses and people with lived experience — presented specific budget asks: short‑term pop‑up peer clinics, restoration of family and children’s services, a full‑time psychiatrist for transitional‑age youth, and funding to backfill federal cuts to HIV services.

Advocates emphasized that outreach and aftercare must match crisis capacity. Multiple speakers described clients released from psychiatric emergency services without referrals or warm handoffs and advocated for more intensive case management and peer navigators to provide one‑on‑one linkage and follow‑up, especially evenings and weekends.

Providers urged wage parity for community‑based organization staff to address high turnover, and asked the board to fund low‑barrier and low‑capacity residential treatment programs appropriate for methamphetamine and co‑occurring disorders. The Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association (HESPA) outlined a consolidated $1.77 million behavioral‑health funding package that includes pop‑up peer clinics, restored family and children’s mental‑health services, and psychiatrists/access clinicians for youth.

Several speakers supported piloting supervised consumption/overdose‑prevention sites and asked for $2 million to fund pilots that include overdose prevention and referral to treatment. Nurses and SEIU representatives urged supervisors to ensure staffing plans accompany any expansion, noting severe workplace vacancies and limits on releasing staff for training or planning because units (including psychiatric emergency services) are routinely understaffed.

The committee pledged follow‑up: supervisors asked DPH for data clarifications and committed to consider community proposals during the budget process. Chair Feuer continued the item to the call of the chair for DPH to return with the requested metrics and staffing plans.

Representative quotes: "Housing is health care." — Bill Hirsch, AIDS Legal Referral Panel "We need intensive case management rather than just giving someone an appointment time and expecting them to show up." — public commenter

Ending: The board did not adopt specific funding at the hearing. Supervisors asked DPH and community partners to deliver the requested follow‑up information so the board can evaluate concrete budget additions during upcoming deliberations.