London BreedVerified account

For too long, our city has been subject to a drumbeat of negative attention, some of it deserved. We haven't built enough housing, we face a homelessness crisis, and people continue to suffer from mental health & addiction issues. The question is: what do we do next?

I refuse to accept that we should we hang our heads, concede our problems are too great, and the soul of our city is lost. I’m frustrated, just as you are. But I’m also motivated. Because there's no problem we can’t solve together. It's time we hold our heads high once again.

In six months, we've build three navigation centers with 338 beds. We've helped nearly 1,000 people out of homelessness. I've announced my plan to add 1,000 shelter beds by 2020 and we're declaring a shelter crisis so we can get them built now.

In the next four years, I want to create enough shelter beds, step-up housing, homeless housing units and subsidies for every person who is currently unsheltered. That's 4,000 new placements. And let's be clear: every neighborhood must be a part of the solution.

We should pass my windfall proposal: $185 million for 310 new shelter beds, 300 units of master-lease housing, 255 units for formerly homeless seniors and adults, and much more. Every dollar we take away is one fewer bed. One more person on the street.

Thank you @LarkinStreet, @ECS_SF, @ChinatownCDC, @HamFamSF, @HealthRIGHT360, @JamestownSF, @CHP_SF, and the countless other organizations and community leaders who are united behind this plan.

The problem goes beyond homelessness. People injecting drugs & suffering from mental illness need more than housing. They need help, and we are helping. We've added 50 mental health stabilization beds--I'm adding 100 more this year and pushing to strengthen conservatorship laws.

To bring all our mental health programs together, I'm creating a Director of Mental Health Reform. We need to build up people's lives, not shuffle them from emergency room to emergency room, jail cell to jail cell. The criminal justice system is not a mental health solution.