Mayor Lurie Unveils "Breaking the Cycle," Vision for Tackling San Francisco's Homelessness and Behavioral Health Crisis

SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Daniel Lurie today unveiled “Breaking the Cycle,” a new vision to break cycles of homelessness, addiction, and government failure by fundamentally transforming the city’s health and homelessness response.

Signed today, the new executive directive outlines a roadmap with immediate actions and longer-term reforms that will tackle the enduring homelessness and behavioral health crisis — enabling more effective coordination across departments, policymaking rooted in evidence and reliable data, and accountability for government and nonprofit partners to deliver results. These reforms will better support the city’s most vulnerable residents while keeping public spaces safe and clean and ensuring responsible management of taxpayer resources.

The new roadmap builds on work the Lurie administration has been doing since day one to get people off the street and connected to the services they need. After announcing the Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance on his first day in office, Mayor Lurie partnered with the Board of Supervisors to pass it 10-1 and then signed it into law last month — unlocking critical tools to treat this crisis as the emergency it is. He also announced plans for a 24/7 police-friendly stabilization center that will open at 822 Geary Street this spring on an expedited timeline thanks to the ordinance. Earlier this month, Mayor Lurie also launched the Family Homelessness Prevention Pilot, an 18-month effort enabled by $11 million from Tipping Point Community that will provide more accessible and coordinated support to families on the brink of homelessness to help them stay housed.

“I believe our city must be judged by how we care for our most vulnerable residents, and today, we are outlining immediate actions and long-term reforms to address the crisis on our streets,” said Mayor Lurie. “This directive will break the cycle of homelessness, addiction, and government failure by transforming our homelessness and behavioral health response. My administration is bringing a new era of accountability and will deliver outcomes that get people off the street and into stability.”

San Francisco faces a persistent homelessness and behavioral health crisis, despite government spending billions of dollars over decades. Roughly two people die every day from overdose in the city. More than 8,000 people experience homelessness nightly, according to the 2024 Homelessness Point in Time Count Report, with thousands more at risk. Of those surveyed in the Point in Time Count, 51% self-report behavioral health challenges, either mental health challenges, drug addiction, or both. Additionally, 36% experience chronic homelessness — continuously cycling through the city’s systems without achieving stable housing — a clear indicator that the city’s approach has not been working.

The “Breaking the Cycle” directive outlines a framework to fundamentally transform the city’s response to this crisis with more coordinated services, better measurement of outcomes, and accountability for government and providers to deliver those outcomes. Through the reforms in this framework, the city will more effectively get people off the street and connected to services, prevent more people from becoming unhoused, maintain safety and cleanliness in public spaces, and better manage taxpayer resources.

“Mayor Lurie is giving San Francisco’s homelessness and behavior health crises the focus and attention they deserve,” said Board of Supervisors President and District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. “I look forward to continuing to work with him and his team to make progress on these challenges.”

“This is a well-sequenced strategy that’s focused on the right priorities: getting people better, reclaiming the public realm, and reversing years of perverse incentives that have done more to exacerbate problems than solve them,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey. “It’s also bold. Mayor Lurie’s directive is taking aim at some sacred cows here — from harm reduction to homelessness spending — that quite frankly deserve scrutiny for why they’ve failed to achieve better outcomes. This is real accountability, and I support it.”

“We are a proudly compassionate city. But despite years of investments to address our public health and homelessness crises, we aren’t making progress in the way San Franciscans expect and deserve,” said District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio. “Mayor Lurie’s new executive directive demonstrates a commitment to address these challenges head-on. He understands our current approach needs structural reform. That’s why I fully support the mayor’s announcement and goals to improve accountability, break down department silos, and deliver lasting results for our most vulnerable populations.”

“We need these aggressive measures. The answer to San Francisco’s homelessness and fentanyl crises must be real solutions for those suffering here, not policies that fuel drug tourism,” said District 2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill. “There is no such thing as safe fentanyl use, and taxpayer dollars should never support it. Reassessing fentanyl supply policies is a necessary step to prioritize treatment and recovery. Street teams must focus on breaking the cycle of addiction, not just responding to crises. The streets of San Francisco belong to our families and children, not open-air drug markets. It’s time for policies that put public safety and recovery first, backed by data-driven accountability to ensure real results.”

“San Francisco deserves outcomes on our homelessness crisis, and the ‘Breaking the Cycle’ directive is a start towards getting results,” said District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood. “I support its focus on bureaucratic reform and look forward to working with Mayor Lurie on ensuring the directive delivers on equitable access to shelter for our unhoused neighbors across the city.”

“All of San Francisco is urgently calling for improvements to the challenges we see on our streets. This directive represents a package of crucial reforms that will bring dignity and effective solutions to our unhoused neighbors,” said District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter. “This sends a clear message that we will no longer continue down a path that has shown to be unsustainable and ineffective.”

“For years, my son struggled to get the support he needed while living on the streets of San Francisco. Too often, I felt like he was just another number in a system that wasn’t working,” said Tanya Tilghman, cofounder of Mothers Against Drug Addiction and Deaths. “Mayor Lurie’s plan gives me hope that people who are struggling like my son was will finally get real help to rebuild their lives. No one should have to wait months for treatment or shelter when they’re ready to turn things around.”

“The open use of drugs on our streets is harmful to individuals and our community. I applaud Mayor Daniel Lurie’s move to reassess how safe smoking supplies are distributed in San Francisco,” said Richard Beal, director of recovery services at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. “We need to treat people with compassion, but we cannot enable public drug use.”

“Swords to Plowshares looks forward to working with the mayor to make sure these much-needed resources reach veterans and help them achieve the long-term stability they deserve,” said Tramecia Garner, executive director of Swords to Plowshares. “Expanding treatment capacity and treatment beds to meet a growing level of clinical need and increasing the flow of philanthropic support will help meet the complex needs of veterans facing both mental health and substance use challenges.”

"These important reforms serve Mayor Lurie’s vision for creating safe streets while serving the needs of San Francisco’s most vulnerable,” said Keith Humphreys, Esther Ting Memorial Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. “This integrated approach is essential for helping the many San Franciscans who simultaneously experience homelessness and a mental health or addictive disorder. I admire how this plan simultaneously promotes compassion and accountability. This is the strategy San Francisco needs to simultaneously reduce homelessness and increase recovery.”

Key reforms in “Breaking the Cycle” include:

100-Day Actions:

• Take immediate steps to streamline the city’s efforts to move people from the street into shelter and to permanent housing, including by launching a new model for street outreach teams, adding capacity to ensure those on the street have somewhere to go, and reforming policies and services that help people move through the city’s system
• Implement reforms to health and homelessness services and assistance programs to help put people on the path to stability and self-sufficiency

Six-Month Actions:

• Add beds, with services that meet the needs of those on the street, delivering on Mayor Lurie’s 1,500-bed commitment
• Recalibrate the city’s relationship with nonprofit partners to improve services and ensure accountability for delivering outcomes
• Review funding priorities to prioritize flexibility to meet the current need and a focus on helping people move out of the city’s system into stable housing

One-Year Actions:

• Leverage state and federal funding to expand and improve health and homelessness services
• Strengthen coordination and evidence-based decision making, including by reforming key programs and the city’s data and technology systems
• Bolster workforce development and economic self-sufficiency programming to help more clients achieve stability and self-sufficiency
• Review the organizational structure of the city’s health, homelessness, human services, and housing programs to explore potential adjustments that could improve accountability, coordination, efficiency, and overall service impact