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‘San Francisco is coming again:’ Mayor Breed touts progress in annual handle, vows to sort out housing, public security

San Francisco Mayor London Breed pledged Wednesday to confront the city’s most pressing and controversial issues — including homelessness, public safety and a COVID-battered economy — during an annual state of the city address that was the first she has delivered in-person to a crowd since the pandemic began.

Amid the city’s current fear over crime and street conditions, Breed vowed to add more police officers while continuing to pursue alternatives to traditional policing, and to invest in programs that address the root causes of crime. She pledged to clear the way for housing construction and create more shelter and treatment for people on the streets, while also emphasizing accountability for those resources.

Breed, halfway through her first full term, touted her administration’s progress on creating jobs and housing, but acknowledged there’s a long way to go. In a year in which discontented voters brought an unprecedented two recalls to the ballot, residents remain deeply divided over how to best solve the city’s biggest problems.

“We cannot sugarcoat it,” Breed told city and community leaders at the Mission Rock development where 1,200 homes are under construction near Oracle Park. “We have work to do. Our recovery will not be quick, or easy. But it is coming. San Francisco is coming back.”

Breed has become one of the most watched big city mayors in America. Over the last two years, she went from being praised nationally for her handling of the pandemic to being questioned by some over her response to the city’s struggling tenderloin neighborhood, where she has declared a state of emergency in an effort to eliminate drug dealing. Now, she’s poised to appoint three school board members after a landslide recall that she endorsed.

The city is struggling with emptied office buildings and vacant storefronts, particularly downtown. On Wednesday, the city lifted its vaccine mandate for businesses. Breed has tried to lure back tourists, conventions and remote workers downtown while battling perceptions that the city isn’t safe, with stories about viral shoplifting and the drug overdose crisis grabbing headlines.

In her speech, Breed mentioned Asian seniors fearful of leaving their homes, Tenderloin families terrorized by drug dealers and Bayview families dealing with gun violence.

“To those who say we don’t need the police — again, I say, listen to the residents. They are speaking louder than ever,” she said. “No, not for a return to the past, like when I was growing up, and there was often a deep mistrust between the community and the police. Even then, we needed the police.”

Breed gained national attention in December, and drew criticism from some elected officials and homeless advocates, when she pledged to step up policing against drug dealers — and users who refused services — as part of her emergency to reduce overdose deaths in the tenderloin.

Staffing shortages have hamstrung the effort to have officers more involved in clearing the Tenderloin’s streets, an issue Breed highlighted Wednesday. San Francisco was 540 officers short of a recommended staffing level as of early March, with 1,636 officers.

Breed said alternatives to police are needed in some situations, pointing to the city’s street crisis response team that sends mental health professionals to calls of people in crisis. She also said police were continuing to work on reforms to how they manage uses of force. Data shows police use of force decreased in recent years, but Black residents are still far more likely to have used force upon them than white residents.

Breed also touted her investment in the Black community, highlighting the Dream Keeper Initiative she created with Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton to 2020 to pour $60 million annually into Black-led community organizations.

“These are programs that recognize the root causes of crime are driven by poverty,” she said. “Let’s be the national model: For reform, for alternatives and for safety.”

Breed has clashed at times with San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a progressive on criminal justice who faces a recall vote in June. But she did not mention him or his office on Wednesday.

Boudin, who with and Public Defender Manohar Raju has criticized the mayor’s policing push, focused on positive collaboration Wednesday. In a statement, Boudin said he shares “the mayor’s optimism” and is committed to working with her and other departments to solve problems.

During Wednesday’s address, Breed only touched upon the drug crisis that prompted her Tenderloin emergency. Overdoses killed nearly twice as many people in San Francisco as COVID-19 over the past two years.

She said she would continue to open shelters for the homeless and increase mental health and addiction treatment. At the last count, 4,000 people in the city struggled with all three conditions. The city has made slow progress to increase treatment, with only 89 of the 400 beds planned added so far.

The city is on track to create 2,500 new permanent supportive housing units — subsidized housing with services for formerly homeless people — this year, Breed said. But the city struggles with quickly filling available units, with 10% — or around 850 units — vacant this week.

San Francisco is spending $1 billion on homelessness over the next two years, but there still aren’t enough resources. In 2019, a count found around 8,000 unhoused people, but the health department recently estimated 18,000 people citywide are experiencing homelessness.

Breed stressed not only resources, but also accountability, was needed.

“I’m done arguing if it’s okay for people to remain on the streets when we have a place for them to go. Because it’s not,” she said. “And to be honest, there are some folks who cannot — or will not — do what’s safe for themselves and for others, so we have to be honest about the need to deal with those struggling with mental illness and we need to make serious changes to our state laws.”

Her spokesman confirmed she has met with state leaders to talk about changes to conservatorship, controversial mandated treatment for someone who is a danger to themselves or others.

Along with shelter and treatment, Breed emphasized the need for more new homes in San Francisco. She’s fallen short of her goal to build 5,000 units annually the past two years — with 4,400 in 2020 and 4,600 in 2021. She called that “a start, but not nearly good enough.”

Breed said the city needs to “break down the obstructionism that blocks housing at every turn.” She’s been critical of the Board of Supervisors — many of whom sat near the front Wednesday — who have opposed some of her specific proposals to streamline housing approvals. She signaled her support to go to the voters in November to accomplish that goal.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who voted to kill a recent streamlining measure, said it wasn’t focused enough on affordable housing. Supervisor Connie Chan, who also voted against it, said she believed she shared the same goal with the mayor, just different approaches on how to get there, but was hopeful they could work together.

Mallory Moench (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench

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