Mayor Lurie Signs Legislation To Expand Drug-Free Permanent Supportive Housing, Building on Progress of Breaking the Cycle Plan

SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Daniel Lurie today signed into law transformative legislation, authored by District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey and recently approved by the Board of Supervisors, that will create more drug-free permanent supportive housing options in San Francisco. This legislation advances the administration’s transformation of the city’s approach to homelessness and addiction by expanding supportive communities where residents can pursue long-term stability and sobriety.

Building on more than a year of progress under Mayor Lurie’s Breaking the Cycle plan, these new housing options will expand the city’s efforts to get people off the street, into shelter and treatment, and on the path to stability. Earlier this year, Mayor Lurie announced that unsheltered homelessness in San Francisco had fallen 22% to its lowest level in 15 years. Under Mayor Lurie’s leadership, the city has consolidated street outreach to help increase shelter placements by 40%, ended a policy that allowed for the distribution of fentanyl smoking supplies without connection to counseling or treatment, and stood up more than 600 new treatment-focused beds. Supervisor Dorsey’s legislation is also a key next step following his “Recovery First” legislation signed by Mayor Lurie last year, which enshrined long-term recovery as San Francisco’s primary substance use disorder policy goal. In May, Mayor Lurie also co-sponsored Assemblymember Haney’s AB 1556, which would allow state funding to be used for sober, recovery-focused housing, helping to close a persistent gap in our city’s efforts to respond to the dual crisis of homelessness and drug addiction.  

“Our administration is transforming how the city confronts the homelessness and behavioral health crisis,” said Mayor Lurie. “We are not just getting people off the streets; we are helping them achieve long-term stability and recovery by standing up the right kind of housing and connecting them to the services they need. Thanks to Supervisor Dorsey’s leadership, our city is expanding and accelerating these critical efforts to keep San Francisco safe and deliver better outcomes for our city’s most vulnerable residents.”  

“This ordinance affirms the right of supportive housing residents themselves to choose a drug-free residential community if that’s what they want—and it finally moves us past the arrogant harm-reduction dogma that has too long insisted that the rights of active drug users must take precedence over the rights of everyone else,” said Supervisor Dorsey, who has publicly acknowledged his own journey in recovery from drug addiction and alcoholism as an instrumental factor in seeking elective office four years ago. “Drug-free permanent supportive housing options are critically important to the success of many people exiting homelessness—not simply for those in recovery or seeking recovery from addiction, but also for families with children, seniors, or anyone else who simply wants to live in a residential community free of the negative consequences that often accompany rampant drug use. I’m grateful to my fellow recovery community members and our allies who worked with us over two years to craft and advocate for this legislation, which is informed by lived experience and motivated by a shared conviction that abstinence-based recovery saves lives. I am enormously grateful to Mayor Lurie for being such a stalwart ally to the recovery community, and thanks as well to my co-sponsors: Board President Rafael Mandelman and Supervisors Stephen Sherrill, Danny Sauter, Bilal Mahmood, and Alan Wong.”

The new housing options will include individualized service plans, relapse-prevention and intervention planning, case management, peer support, and on-site recovery programming. This model is informed by national recovery-housing guidance and emphasizes community, housing stability, and helping residents build what recovery experts call “recovery capital,” including meaningful relationships, employment, education, health and financial independence.

“Drug-free and recovery-supportive housing options are lifesaving for people seeking to overcome addiction,” said Keith Humphreys, Stanford University Professor of Psychiatry and former White House Senior Drug Policy Advisor. “This important reform will also benefit everyone who lives in public housing, giving them the right not to live in a drug-saturated building.”

Residents will voluntarily choose the model because they believe a substance-free living environment, recovery-focused services, and a strong peer community will help them sustain their recovery over the long term. If residents relapse, they will retain their leases and tenant protections while staff work with them to reengage in recovery and recommit to the individualized plan developed when they entered the program.  

“Every person deserves the opportunity to live in a community where sobriety, safety, and accountability are protected—not compromised,” said Cedric Akbar, Co-Founder of Positive Directions Equals Change. “This legislation recognizes that recovery is not simply about treatment; it’s about creating environments where people can heal. We commend Mayor Lurie, Supervisor Dorsey, and the Board of Supervisors for advancing a policy that puts the long-term wellbeing of San Francisco residents at the center of our homelessness response.”