Health Commission approves $480,000 gift to buy long-acting injectable buprenorphine for same-day access pilot

The San Francisco Health Commission on Jan. 5 approved a resolution authorizing the Department of Public Health to accept and expend a $480,000 gift from Breaking the Cycle through the Homes for the Homeless Fund LLC (a Housing Accelerator Fund subsidiary) to purchase long‑acting injectable buprenorphine for a test-of-change pilot.

Todd Barrett, chief medical officer for the San Francisco Health Network, explained that the funding would allow clinics and one behavioral health site to stock long‑acting injectable buprenorphine so that people seeking treatment could receive same‑day initiation instead of returning for later injections or separate appointments. "We developed a test of change where we've where we're asking half to to give us $480,000 so that we can buy around 450 doses of long acting injectable buprenorphine to have in our clinics," Barrett said.

Barrett framed the pilot as an effort to improve engagement and retention in medication-based treatment and to study associated healthcare economics. He said such an approach "will save lives" and estimated the 450 doses would "save around 9 lives" in the pilot period. The commission moved, seconded and approved the resolution by voice vote; no public comment was recorded on the item.

What the item does and next steps

The approved resolution authorizes DPH to accept and expend the donor gift and proceed with the pilot. DPH staff said they will evaluate how the pilot affects treatment initiation, retention and downstream healthcare utilization and will bring outcomes to the commission in future updates.

Vote record

The resolution was approved by voice vote with commissioners saying "Aye." The meeting transcript records affirmative voice votes but does not provide a roll-call tally by name; staff said there was no public comment on the item.