Dorsey, who struggles with his own substance use disorder, introduced legislation calling for future city-funded supportive housing to be drug-free, which he says would allow for relapses if they don’t put fellow residents’ sobriety at risk, but some advocates remain skeptical.
A proposal introduced by District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, with co-sponsors Rafael Mandelman, Stephen Sherrill, Danny Sauter, and Bilal Mahmood, would require new permanent supportive housing sites to evict tenants for drug use — if it poses a danger to others' sobriety — or risk losing their funding, which some advocates believe could help residents maintain sobriety, as the Chronicle reports. The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the legislation later this spring.
Dorsey’s aim is to reduce the amount of accidental overdose deaths that occur in permanent supportive housing in San Francisco by ensuring a more reliably drug-free environment. One-fourth of the city’s overdose deaths last year occurred in supportive housing complexes, according to the Examiner.
San Francisco currently follows state guidance across its more than 15,000 supportive housing units, which does not allow eviction based solely on drug or alcohol use in the absence of other lease violations, and does not require any sites to be drug-free. State guidelines also call for a harm-reduction approach, where tenants are met with nonjudgmental support around substance use, offered education on safer practices, and connected to treatment options if they choose.
“The entirety of our permanent supportive housing portfolio is drug tolerant, and that means that no one can be evicted for the use of illicit drugs on site,” Dorsey told the Chronicle. “This poses some real problems for people who are in recovery or seeking to get into recovery, because we’re putting them in environments where they’re not succeeding.”
Per the Chronicle, Dorsey’s measure argues city-funded buildings have flexibility within that framework, and the new law would require new projects to adopt stricter policies or risk losing city funding. The legislation also directs the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to survey residents on whether they prefer housing that permits or prohibits drug use, with results shaping future developments.
As someone who’s dealt with substance abuse disorder himself, Dorsey told Mission Local he believes that if he relapsed in treatment — and it posed a risk to fellow residents’ sobriety — he should also be evicted.
“If I was doing something that was endangering the sobriety of somebody who was fighting for their sobriety … if I was in a sober facility and if I got evicted, I would be inclined to say I should go,” said.
“By the way,” he added, “I have been in situations like that even in treatment.”
As Mission Local points out, Dorsey’s circumstances weren't comparable to residents in need of government-funded, permanent supportive housing, as he consistently had insurance and private housing.
Dorsey clarified the proposal would not make a single relapse grounds for eviction, emphasizing that removal would only apply in cases where a resident’s drug use is deemed “substantially disruptive” to others, per the Chronicle. Even then, he said the goal would be to avoid pushing people back into homelessness, instead connecting them to treatment or placing them in housing that allows ongoing use.
“If somebody is persistently using drugs in a way that is disruptive... then the city would find a drug-tolerant option for people who want to have a low-barrier option,” he said, via the Examiner.
The Examiner notes that the legislation does not draw a clear line between relapse and persistent use, leaving those determinations to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing on a case-by-case basis, which is likely where the skepticism lies among opponents of the legislation.
Some advocates warn that tying city funding to stricter eviction policies could put planned supportive housing projects at risk, and complicate efforts to backfill gaps left by declining federal support, including Continuum of Care funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Dorsey said the proposal is intended to apply to future developments, though he acknowledged the city is still far from meeting demand for drug-free housing options, according to the Chronicle.
“This will give us a road map forward,” Dorsey said. “It will provide that, to the extent that city-funded permanent supportive housing comes online, that will have to be drug free until and unless we’re starting to meet the demand.”
Advocates also raised concerns about the potential for increased evictions under the proposal. Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, said the measure raises broader tenant rights issues, even as it allows for relapse and includes provisions permitting medically assisted treatment, per the Examiner.
Friedenbach said she supports recovery-oriented housing options, but described the proposal as overly restrictive, reportedly calling it “performative” and unlikely to yield significant improvements.
“We would like it to be about creating pilots instead of banning the flexibility that we need to maximize our badly needed housing resources,” said Friedenbach, speaking to the Examiner.
Randy Shaw, the executive director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, said he supports the legislation.
“Those residents are getting treatment, but they’re not tenants; they don’t have any tenants’ rights,” he told the Examiner. “We really need options for people to have permanent housing where they’re in a drug-free environment.”
According to Mission Local, Dorsey has framed his own history with substance use as central to his approach, speaking openly about past relapses and a disciplinary process during his time as a civilian employee with the San Francisco Police Department that he described as a “last chance.” He reportedly asked then-Mayor London Breed to consider him for the District 6 supervisor seat after reaching 18 months of sobriety, telling her he wanted to bring the perspective of someone in recovery to the role.
When speaking to Mission Local, he pointed to upcoming and potential initiatives tied to his broader drug policy agenda, including support for Mayor Daniel Lurie’s RESET Center pilot, which is expected to launch soon, as an alternative to jail or hospitalization for people arrested while under the influence.
Dorsey said he plans to make drug policy a central focus of his reelection platform, including a proposed “sober new deal” program offering temporary conditional income to support people completing treatment. He has also floated creating a kennel and foster care program for pets, which he said can be a barrier for some people seeking recovery.
Image: Matt Dorsey/Facebook
