A new ‘linkage center’ aimed at connecting homeless street addicts with drug rehab facilities opened in San Francisco last week – but distressing images show an open air illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight.
Images taken by DailyMail.com show a woman slumped over in a wheelchair, her pants down around her ankles, preparing to inject a needle into her thigh. The woman sitting on the ground next to her has a needle to her neck.
Many others are sitting on the ground among trash, empty food containers and dirty blankets, as they fumble in with drug paraphernalia in the cold weather.
The center, which opened on January 18, is part of the San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s Tenderloin Emergency Intervention plan introduced last year. The linkage center is located at 1172 Market Street, in the United Nations Plaza. The supervised drug consumption area is an outdoor fenced section of the linkage center – just blocks away from the city’s court house, San Francisco City Hall and the Civic Center. The area of the city’s Pioneer Monument is overrun with homeless tents.
In December, Breed declared a state of emergency in Tenderloin and announced a sweeping crackdown on open air drug use and drug dealing in the downtown neighborhood – one of the city’s poorest and most drug-infested areas.
The Tenderloin has long been an epicenter of homelessness and drug use, but city officials said the problem has worsened as the national opioid crisis escalated over the course of the pandemic.
Announcing a crime crackdown, Breed argued that San Francisco officers should get aggressive and ‘less tolerant of all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city’, as she went back on her plans to defund the police.
‘It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,’ she said. ‘And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies.’
But, the photos taken by DailyMail.com this week shows that streets in the area are not anywhere close to being cleaned up, and a far cry from being a safe neighborhood.
A woman is slumped over in a wheelchair, preparing to inject a needle into her thigh, at a new ‘linkage center’ that opened in San Francisco last week, aimed at connecting homeless street addicts with drug rehab facilities
A group of women sit on the ground at a new linkage center in San Francisco where hundreds of people were seen using and dealing drugs, including the woman pictured seen with a needle to her neck
The center, which opened January 18, is aimed at helping connect people to services, but distressing images depict an illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight
Drone images show the site with dozens of people openly dealing, smoking and injecting drugs on the plaza. A San Francisco police cruiser rolled past but did nothing
The linkage center is located at 1172 Market Street, in the United Nations Plaza, the city’s largest open air drug market. The supervised drug consumption area is an outdoor fenced section of the linkage center, where many people were seen fumbling with drug paraphernalia
The center is equipped to serve up to 100 people at a time who are suffering from drug use and mental health issues, connecting with long-term and short-term services like health care and housing
The center, which opened on January 18, is part of the San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s Tenderloin Emergency Intervention plan for a sweeping crackdown on open air drug use and drug dealing in the downtown Tenderloin neighborhood
The plan came in the midst of a local, state, and national debate over whether the city should open a ‘supervised drug consumption’ site as a tactic for reducing drug overdose deaths
A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco – many of whom pitch tents in the Tenderloin – are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both
The center is equipped to serve up to 100 people at a time who are suffering from drug use and mental health issues, connecting with long-term and short-term services like health care and housing
Mayor Breed and members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have advocated a supervised drug consumption site, and purchased two properties in the Tenderloin to serve people suffering from addiction
The linkage center (in blue) is located at 1172 Market Street, in the United Nations Plaza. The supervised drug consumption area is an outdoor fenced section of the linkage center. Photos taken by DailyMail.com show people on the streets in the Tenderloin district also taking drugs. This is happening just blocks away from San Francisco City Hall and the iconic Pioneer Monument
At a press conference at the time, Breed said that the city was in ‘crisis’ and that the streets were ‘nasty’ as more crime and drug overdoses littered the streets.
‘We are in a crisis and we need to respond accordingly,’ she said on Friday. ‘Too many people are dying in this city, too many people are sprawled on our streets. ‘We have to meet people where they are.’
Breed said that rapid drug intervention is needed because about two people a day are dying of overdoses, mostly from fentanyl, in the Tenderloin and the city’s South of Market neighborhood.
‘The work that we have in place after our assessment allow us this ability through this emergency declaration to move quickly, to move fast, to change the conditions – specifically of the Tenderloin community’ she said.
‘This is necessary in order to see a difference.’
The move came after Breed performed a dramatic U-turn on the ‘defund the police’ strategy as she called for ‘more aggressive policing’ to replace ‘bulls**t progressive policies’ and said she would ask for more money to be given to the police to stamp out drug dealing, car break-ins and theft.
On January 18, the day the site opened, Mayor Breed issued a list on her web site of the services available at the linkage center; they did not include a supervised consumption site
Daily Mail was the first to report on the operation of the illegal supervised drug consumption site at the linkage center, as a half-dozen people were witnesses smoking fentanyl in an outdoor area on the site, and two people passed out at a table
A man sits on the ground next to a fence that surrounds the linkage site in San Francisco where witnesses have seen hundreds of people dealing and using drugs
Drone images show people using drugs within the fence of San Francisco’s new Linkage Center, which is an essential component of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Emergency Initiative aimed to link addicts to services
Trash litters the area at the linkage site which opened on January 18, is part of the San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s Tenderloin Emergency Intervention plan introduced last year
People at the linkage center cling to one another in drone images captured just after the center opened in January
Mayor Breed said that the city was in ‘crisis’ and that the streets were ‘nasty’ as more crime and drug overdoses littered the streets. Pictured are people sprawled out at the new linkage site where many have been witnesses dealing and using drugs
Despite Breed’s promise to crack down on rampant crime and homelessness, people are still living on the streets in the Tenderloin neighborhood
The emergency declaration paved the way for the city to cut through red tape that delays the public response to deteriorating conditions in the Tenderloin and quickly provide shelter, counseling and medical care to people suffering from addiction, Breed and city officials said.
There will also be more coordinated enforcement of illegal activities, street cleanups and other infrastructure improvements to make the neighborhood safer, they said.
Shortly after, she announced the opening of the ‘linkage center,’ which is aimed at connecting homeless street addicts with drug rehab facilities.
The center is equipped to serve up to 100 people at a time who are suffering from drug use and mental health issues, connecting with long-term and short-term services like health care and housing.
Mayor Breed and members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have advocated a supervised drug consumption site, and purchased two properties in the Tenderloin to serve people suffering from addiction.
‘Our work in the Tenderloin requires all of our City departments and community partners working together to address the major challenges we know exist,’ Mayor Breed said in a release last week. ‘As part of that work, this Linkage Center will help us create a space for people who are struggling with addiction and other challenges to get immediate support, and then transition into longer term care and housing. This is hard work, and I appreciate everyone joining in partnership to make a difference for the people of the Tenderloin.’
But the city never approved the creation of a supervised consumption site at the linkage center and the site is in violation of state and federal laws.
DailyMail.com was the first to report on the operation of the illegal supervised drug consumption site at the linkage center, as a half-dozen people were witnesses smoking fentanyl in an outdoor area on the site, and two people passed out at a table.
An employee of a city contractor at the linkage center told DailyMail.com that two people had overdosed and had to be revived within the first week of the site opening.
A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco – many of whom pitch tents in the Tenderloin – are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both.
In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry
Many people at the site were seen buying and selling drugs at the site after Mayor Breed announced a crime crackdown, arguing that San Francisco officers should get aggressive and ‘less tolerant of all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city’, as she went back on her plans to defund the police.
An employee of a city contractor at the linkage center told Daily Mail that two people had overdosed and been revived within the first week that the the site was open
Signs posted to cars near the linkage site announce ‘nothing to steal’ as crime continues to rise in one of the city’s poorest and most drug-infested neighborhood
Some people rant in the streets, nude and in need of medical help. Last year, 712 people died of drug overdoses, compared with 257 people who died of COVID-19
Drone images show dozens of people sprawled out at the linkage site, many in wheelchairs and on crutches
When confronted with evidence that the linkage center housed a drug consumption site, spokespersons for Urban Alchemy and for Mayor London Breed declined to comment
An employee of a city contractor at the linkage center told DailyMail.com that two people had overdosed and had to be revived within the first week of the site opening
People at the site are seen using and selling drugs, slumped over, and sitting among trash that litters the area
Witnesses reported seeing people take their clothes off, rant in the streets and even saw two people overdosed. Last year, 712 people died of drug overdoses, compared with 257 people who died of COVID-19
When confronted with evidence that the linkage center housed a drug consumption site, spokespersons for Urban Alchemy and for Mayor London Breed declined to comment.
When DailyMail.com visited the area just days after the site opened, there were hundreds of people openly dealing, smoking and injecting drugs on the plaza. A San Francisco police cruiser rolled past but did nothing.
Last November, Mayor Breed introduced legislation to allow safe drug consumption sites in San Francisco, a goal she has pursued for years.
State Supervisor Scott Weiner introduced a bill in the state legislature to legalize such sites for San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles.
New York City recently established two safe consumption sites, in East Harlem and Washington Heights. The sites are illegal under federal law, but to date the Biden administration has taken no action against them.
On January 18, the day the site opened, Mayor Breed issued a list on her web site of the services available at the linkage center; they did not include a supervised consumption site.
Signs point to the entrance of the linkage center in the Tenderloin area
The center operates seven seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with limited staff due to the impact of COVID-19. However, the center will expand to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and have the capacity to serve 100 people at a time
In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry, according to the release
Mayor London Breed launched an emergency police intervention in December aimed at curbing open drug use, brazen home break-ins and other criminal behaviors taking place in San Francisco’s crime-ridden Tenderloin neighborhood
Crime in San Francisco has been a serious issue in the past year. Since the start of the month, the city recorded three homicides – up from two in the same period in 2021. Meanwhile, overall crime so far this month has decreased by 21.8% compared to the same time period last year
San Francisco is grappling with deep societal pains common to any large US city.
Across the entire city last November, there were 3,375 reports of larceny theft, the majority being car break-ins, with SFPD’s Central District seeing the most car smash-and-grabs, at a total of 876.
This month so far, there has been a 50 percent increased in homicides with three reported between January 1 and January 23, compared to only two during the same time frame last year, but overall crime has decreased by 21.8 percent, according to crime statistics released by the San Francisco Police Department.
Assault in the city has decreased by more than 10 percent from 151 cases last year at this time to 135.
Larceny theft cases have also decreased about 15 percent with cases so far this month at 1,282, which are down from 1,517 from the same time last year.
Robbery cases decreased about 24 percent and rape cases decreased 22 percent.
A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco – many of whom pitch tents in the Tenderloin – are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both. Some people rant in the streets, nude and in need of medical help. Last year, 712 people died of drug overdoses, compared with 257 people who died of COVID-19.
The linkage center operates seven seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with limited staff due to the impact of COVID-19. However, the center will expand to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and have the capacity to serve 100 people at a time.
In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry, according to the release.
The center will also provide services like COVID-19 vaccination and testing as well as HIV and Hepatitis C testing.
The center is being overseen by both the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Department of Emergency management, with assistance from city departments and several community organizations.
The linkage center operates seven seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., with limited staff due to the impact of COVID-19. However, the center will expand to operate 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and have the capacity to serve 100 people at a time
The site is surrounded by a fence of the open air illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight
In addition to connecting people with services, the center will also help people living on the streets with access to basic things like food, water, bathrooms, showers and laundry, according to the release
A woman is seen using a water bottle to shower off outside a tent at the linkage site. A high percentage of an estimated 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco – many of whom pitch tents in the Tenderloin – are struggling with chronic addiction or severe mental illness, often both
The emergency declaration paved the way for the city to cut through red tape that delays the public response to deteriorating conditions in the Tenderloin and quickly provide shelter, counseling and medical care to people suffering from addiction, Breed and city officials said
A fence surrounds the open air illicit drug consumption site that is now littered with needles and crowded with addicts shooting up in broad daylight
The center (pictured) being overseen by both the San Francisco Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Department of Emergency management, with assistance from city departments and several community organizations