“Cruel and Reckless”: Hearing Reveals that Mayor Has No Plan To Replace Services Upon Closure of Tenderloin Center; Hundreds Daily Will be Left Without Lifesaving Help

SAN FRANCISCO — Four months after the Mayor announced the December closure of the Tenderloin Center, the Mayor and the city’s Department of Public Health revealed at a hearing today that they still have no plan in place to ensure a continuity in services for the 400 vulnerable San Franciscans who visit the center daily.

On October 18, 2022, Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district now includes the Tenderloin, introduced a resolution at the Board of Supervisors calling on the administration to open a replacement site before the Tenderloin Center’s closure date, and held a hearing to determine plans for the closure.

The Mayor unilaterally decided to shutter the Tenderloin Center in December. Since then, the Mayor and Department of Public Health committed to opening new Wellness Hubs, including one in the Tenderloin, but they have yet to announce a date, location, or plan to transition people currently relying on the Tenderloin Center.

“What is the Mayor waiting for?” said Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district now includes the Tenderloin. “It would be cruel and reckless to leave so many vulnerable people without the help they need.”

Since opening less than a year ago, the Tenderloin Center has served over 110,592 guests. Notably, the Center reversed 280 overdoses and distributed over 13,000 doses of Nalaxone to guests, undoubtedly saving many more lives.

Before the hearing, community members, service providers, homelessness advocates and Tenderloin Center guests gathered for a press conference on City Hall steps to appeal to the City to open up Wellness Hubs with replacement services and stop any gaps in care.

“The Mayor is blocking a Wellness Hub to replace the Tenderloin Center, guaranteeing a gap in services, and unnecessary suffering and death,” said Sara Shortt, an organizer with the Treatment on Demand Coalition.

“There are lives at stake,” said Vitka Eisen, CEO of HealthRIGHT 360, at a rally held before today’s hearing, “And all I have to say is that from December 5th on, City Hall owns every single overdose in this city. Every single death lies right here.”

The Tenderloin Center (then named the Linkage Center) was announced in December 2021 via Mayoral State of Emergency declaration as a public health response to the city losing two people a day to drug overdoses. The center was aimed toward people with substance use issues so they could access behavioral health services and get off the street. In its recently published Overdose Prevention Plan, DPH built on the success of the Tenderloin Center by calling for similar centers in smaller sites dubbed “Wellness Hubs,” with the first one opening by the end of 2022. Despite this promise for replacement services, the City has yet to announce a site location or opening date for the first Wellness Hub, and today refused to commit to a date for opening a Hub in the Tenderloin or Civic Center area.

“There is no reason that the City can’t open up a Wellness Hub in the area in time to avoid a gap in services,” said Supervisor Preston. “We have the community support, we have the resources, and we just need the Administration to have the same political will to move quickly that they did last December. Let’s get this done.”

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