Mayor says fentanyl emergency ordinance unlocked contracts, housing and treatment capacity; backs drug market intervention

Mayor Daniel Lurie told the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Dec. 16 that the city's fentanyl state of emergency ordinance has allowed his office and departments to act faster on housing, treatment and public-safety efforts.

"Since its passage, we have moved quickly to unlock resources and deploy new tools to get fentanyl off our streets and keep San Franciscans safe," Lurie said, describing expedited hiring and contracting and an acceleration of behavioral-health programming.

Lurie said departments used the ordinance to expand services and capacity: his office and City departments "execute[d] 31 contracts and 1 lease," the ordinance helped produce interim housing and recovery beds, and it enabled departments to stand up new behavioral-health programs. He also said the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) used the authority to launch new services including "219 new interim housing beds, 60 of them recovery focused," and that the Department of Public Health used the ordinance's contracting provisions "5 times, including rapidly opening approximately a 150 new mental health and substance use treatment and recovery beds."

Supervisor Mahmoud, who raised the District 5 special-order topic, asked which specific resources, tools and contracts had been used under the ordinance during the past year. Lurie responded that the ordinance "enabled HSH to execute 31 contracts and 1 lease" and that it has "given the city the flexibility it needed to respond to a crisis with urgency, coordination, and accountability."

Mahmoud also asked whether the mayor would join supervisors who have endorsed a drug market intervention approach intended to disrupt street opioid markets. Lurie said, "Yes. I will. And I look forward to working with you... to tackle this crisis in the Tenderloin and SoMa and wherever else it demands our attention." (Chair: Mandelmann.)

Why this matters: Supervisors pressed for specifics about outcomes and strategy while weighing the tradeoffs of emergency authorities that accelerate contracts and hiring. The mayor’s answers framed the ordinance as a tool to move faster on housing, treatment and public-safety staffing; he also signaled willingness to partner with the board on new interventions.

Next steps: Supervisors and the mayor signaled continued collaboration on operationalizing drug market intervention and on tracking contract outcomes and treatment capacity expansions.