SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — Voters in San Francisco will be deciding on a set of controversial public safety measures in the city's March 5 election, including one supported by Mayor London Breed that would mandate drug testing for welfare recipients.
Breed has faced criticism over her handling of crime, homelessness and open-air drug use in the city. The mayor is facing reelection in November, with early polls showing her trailing behind trailing behind her challengers.
Breed's new measures have garnered strong opposition from residents of the progressive city, but the mayor and supporters of the measures have signaled a need for major change in the face of high crime levels and overdose deaths.
Proposition F
Proposition F will likely be the most controversial of Breed’s three ballot measures up for approval in the coming election.
That proposition would require San Franciscans who receive cash welfare benefits from the city’s County Adult Assistance Program to undergo drug testing if the city believes they’re addicted to illegal drugs — if the person tests positive, they would be required to enroll in a free treatment program to keep their benefits. Proposition F needs a simple majority to pass.
The County Adult Assistance Program provides debit cards to extremely low-income or no-income residents that don’t have children. Benefits range from $109 per month for homeless individuals to $712 for people who are housed or agree to enter housing, with 30% automatically deducted for rent. There are roughly 5,200 single adults enrolled in the program, which is administered by the city’s Human Services Agency.
Critics of Proposition F say that there are already stiff eligibility requirements to enter into the Assistance Program, and that there is insufficient evidence that people abuse the program.
Breed has repeatedly said that she believes the city’s response to drug use in the city is too lax in the face of record overdose deaths related to fentanyl use.
The city estimates that Proposition F will cost as much as $1.4 million per year to add the tougher screening and training needed to implement the screening. Breed says the measure promises to pay for itself all or in part by using money saved from clients that disenroll in the Adult Assistance Program.
Even if passed, the proposition could be blocked in the courts. Service Employees International Union Local 1021, a union representing city workers, could argue that its understaffed workers are negatively affected by the measure.
The California Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer violated state law when he promoted a ballot measure cutting employees’ pension benefits because he failed to meet and confer with the union beforehand.
Proposition E
Proposition E, the most sweeping initiative on the ballot, will allow police to install and use publicly-owned surveillance cameras and deploy drones with facial recognition technology to apprehend suspects, as well as allow the San Francisco Police Department to test other new tech without completing a Board of Supervisors vetting process.
Officers will also be allowed to use their cruisers to chase people suspected of theft or auto burglary, which is currently prohibited. The proposition needs a simple majority to pass.
The proposition is a key part of Breed’s “Safer San Francisco” initiative, which has been criticized by some progressive groups and scholars, who say they are troubled by the broad language of the measure. The use of facial recognition drones has been a hot button issue — studies have shown that the tech misidentifies Black and Asian people and could lead to false arrests.
Proposition E would work in tandem with Proposition B, a measure introduced by Supervisor Matt Dorsey. Proposition B would require San Francisco to set and achieve a minimum staffing level of 2,074 police officers over the next five years and directs City Hall to be open and transparent with voters about how they paid for it. The city currently has around 1,600 police officers. That measure also needs a simple majority to pass.
Proposition C
Breed’s last proposal, Proposition C, would allow the city to convert empty office space into housing. It costs more and takes longer to build housing in San Francisco than anywhere else in California, according to a report from Governor Gavin Newsom, and Proposition C could help Breed meet her ambitious goal to build 82,000 new homes by 2031.
Specifically, Proposition C would exempt office-to-housing conversions from the city’s real estate transfer tax the first time they’re transferred to new owners. Right now, San Francisco collects a real estate transfer tax on most property sales and some leases. The proposition would also create a one-time exemption from that tax for owners of empty office buildings who switch their properties to housing. This exemption would only apply to the first 5 million square feet of converted properties. Proposition C needs a simple majority to pass.
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