By Sri Ravipati
(SAN FRANCISCO) In a monumental expansion, San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Thursday announced that the city will create 400 new treatment beds for people experiencing mental health issues or substance abuse.
The beds will increase San Francisco's public treatment capacity by 20% and allow the city’s outreach teams to refer more people in need, many of whom are unhoused, to treatment facilities. The city's Street Crisis Response Teams, for example, respond to roughly 500 calls per month and would benefit from the expansion.
San Francisco’s Department of Public Health is currently acquiring facilities that can house the treatment beds —140 of which will open this year.
One of these facilities is the 20-bed South of Market Recover, Initiate, Support, and Engagement Center, which will open this fall. The center will help people intoxicated on methamphetamine or other substances seeking help or resources for recovery long-term.
Parts of the plan are still being determined, like the 10-bed residential treatment facility for young adults undergoing serious mental health issues and substance abuse.
“This is an unprecedented expansion of our system of care and treatment for people with mental health and substance use disorders,” Breed said in a statement. “We are responding with the urgency that this crisis deserves, while saving millions of dollars by removing bottlenecks in the system so that people can move into lower, less costly levels of care when they are ready. Each one of these placement facilities takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to make happen, but we should see the benefits for years to come.”