Mayor Lurie Builds On Momentum Of Neighborhood Street Teams, Announces Next Phase Of Coordinated Street Outreach To Improve Street Conditions

SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Daniel Lurie today announced the next phase in San Francisco’s approach to street outreach, taking a significant step in transforming the city’s homelessness and behavioral health response. Building on last year’s integration of nine siloed teams, which led to an increase in shelter placements and acceleration of 311 response times, the next evolution of street teams will fully consolidate street outreach functions under the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH), deepening the link between the city’s health and homelessness work while strengthening a critical tool for getting people on the streets into treatment and on the path to long-term stability. The city’s street outreach work will also remain closely coordinated with drug enforcement efforts, centralized under the Drug Market Agency Coordination Center (DMACC) run by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD).

This phase builds on more than a year of work under Mayor Lurie’s Breaking the Cycle plan to transform the city’s homelessness and behavioral health response. The city is adding a significant amount of new treatment resources under Breaking the Cycle, including more than 600 new treatment-focused beds and a 24/7 police-friendly crisis stabilization center at 822 Geary Street, which has shown greater success at connecting people in crisis to care. This spring, the city will open the RESET Center to combat drug use, and Mayor Lurie has reformed and expanded the city’s Journey Home program to help reconnect people with loved ones. Earlier this month, Mayor Lurie appointed Mike Levine as the new executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), bringing in a leader with years of experience integrating health care and homelessness services.

“When I took office, the city was sending out nine different teams to try to get people off the street—it wasn’t coordinated, and it wasn’t effective. We brought those teams together, and it’s clear the strategy is working, so we’re going to take it a step further,” said Mayor Lurie. “People struggling with addiction need health care, so we’re putting the Department of Public Health in charge and doubling down on our work to connect people to treatment. We’re going to continue the progress we’ve made, help people addicted to drugs access treatment, and provide the safe and clean streets San Francisco’s families deserve.”

This new phase of street teams will strengthen the city’s broader work to improve street conditions by more directly integrating street-level outreach with the health and clinical systems that drive long-term outcomes: treatment, medication management, stabilization, and ongoing care coordination. The consolidation of all street-level outreach under SFDPH—including the contracted Homeless Outreach Team and Homeless Engagement Assistance Response Team—will also eliminate longstanding fragmentation across outreach programs, placing all street outreach work under the department best positioned to define and advance the model over time.

Under SFDPH, street teams will continue to offer immediate medical and behavioral health care, overdose prevention treatment, shelter placement opportunities, and other support services to people in crisis. SFDPH will assume operational responsibility for the city’s street teams beginning July 1.

“Tackling the behavioral health and homelessness crisis and getting individuals on the street connected to the right level of care and services has and will continue to be a cross-departmental effort. We are grateful for the mayor’s leadership and partnership from other city departments in unifying San Francisco's teams around a shared goal of improving the health and quality of life for all San Franciscans,” said SFDPH Director of Health Daniel Tsai. “Now, with the Department of Public Health leading this next evolution of outreach and coordination for our street teams, we have the structure in place to rapidly provide the health interventions that people with complex needs such as substance use disorders, serious mental illness, and chronic health conditions need to reach long-term stability.”

Last year, Mayor Lurie introduced a new model for San Francisco’s street teams, connecting nine previously siloed teams under a neighborhood-based structure overseen by the Department of Emergency Management (DEM). The integrated model coordinates the operations of multiple departments to help individuals facing high-acuity behavioral health challenges or chronic homelessness get on a path toward long-term stability.

In one year, the integrated model successfully got more people off the street and into treatment, improving street conditions for all San Franciscans through more than 2,000 shelter placements and 40% faster closure times for 311 complaints related to street conditions. In their first four months, the neighborhood street teams were placing people in shelter 40% more quickly than teams under the previous model, according to preliminary data.

“This is what DEM does—we step into complex situations, build the structure, and get it running,” said Mary Ellen Carroll, Executive Director of the Department of Emergency Management. “Our team did that with the street teams, just like we did with DMACC. I'm proud of what we built in a short period of time, and I'm confident that moving this work to SFDPH will strengthen it by connecting outreach directly to treatment and ongoing care.”

This evolution reflects the approach San Francisco has taken to previous multiagency emergency initiatives. In 2023, DEM helped bring together local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to disrupt open-air drug markets under DMACC, before transitioning the lead agency role to SFPD for sustained operations. DMACC continues to operate successfully under SFPD: Since DMACC’s inception, SFPD officers have seized over 1,257 pounds of narcotics, including 357 pounds of fentanyl. Additionally, officers have made 14,283 arrests, including 2,528 arrests of drug dealers.

“The San Francisco Police Department will continue to work closely with our partners, including the Department of Public Health, to ensure our streets are clean and safe,” said SFPD Chief Derrick Lew. “We are focused on getting individuals the help they need as we continue to enforce the law and improve street conditions across the city.”

“SFFD would like to recognize DEM for building a strong foundation coordinating street-based responses and improving coordination between agencies,” said San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) Chief Dean Crispen. “As street-based responses transition to SFDPH, SFFD looks forward to building on that progress and supporting shared city goals of improving health outcomes and access to care.”

“As we move toward a more health-driven homelessness response, this transition is a logical next step,” said Shireen McSpadden, Executive Director of HSH. “Bringing outreach teams and clinical services into closer alignment will help connect people to care and services within and outside of the homelessness response system more quickly, while HSH continues to play a central role in shelter and housing placements.”