San Francisco could offer eligible residents cash to stay sober
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco residents diagnosed with substance-use disorders might soon have a new cash incentive to stay sober.
Supervisor Matt Dorsey and Mayor London Breed announced a drug treatment and recovery initiative on Monday.
The proposal, called "Cash Not Drugs," would create a voluntary sobriety incentive for eligible residents on public assistance, offering up to $100 a week for those who test negative for illicit drugs.
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Dorsey, who is recovering from addiction and alcoholism, sees the program as providing tangible rewards by reinforcing positive behaviors.
"The underlying principal to ‘Cash Not Drugs’ is a simple one: a humane and effective approach to San Francisco's drug crisis should also include rewarding good behavior and not just punishing bad behavior," Dorsey said on the steps of City Hall.
Only residents who receive assistance from San Francisco County's Adult Assistance Program, or CAAP, and who have been screened or diagnosed with substance abuse disorders and referred to treatment are eligible.
"Contingency management has been researched and studied for decades, and it is considered 'one of the most effective behavioral interventions for initiating and maintaining abstinence from drugs," said Dorsey.
"Some of you also know that I lost my sister to a drug overdose. She was down in the streets of the Tenderloin. It was definitely very difficult to get her the help she needs," said Breed at the press conference. "I want to make it just as easy to get treatment, as it is to go out there and buy dope."
Tenderloin resident Salvatore Zucco said if the legislation is approved, he would sign up for the program.
He is currently a CAAP recipient, who receives more than $700 in cash per month.
Zucco said he doesn't have to go far to get his hands on fentanyl.
"Walk outside my building, literally that's it," he said.
Asked whether up to $100 a week is enough to get him to drop his habit:
"Maybe not in the long-term, but I definitely think it would be a good short-term incentive to make some sort of an effort," he said.
Zucco said he currently spends anywhere from $30 to $100 a day on fentanyl.
Jonathan Broomfield said his drug habit is expensive.
"That's why I say $100 would not do it at all," he said.
Broomfield said a minimum of $300 a week would incentivize him to join the program.
"Cash Not Drugs" would be funded by Homelessness and Supportive Housing Fund and CAAP Treatment Fund, established by Proposition F, according to Dorsey's office. In March, voters passed the ballot measure which required single, non-senior adults without dependents to undergo screening, evaluation and treatment for drug dependency to qualify for most CAAP benefits, if the city suspects they are addicted to illicit drugs.
The new legislation should be scheduled for a hearing in September.
Dorsey plans to introduce the legislation at the board of supervisors meeting on Tuesday.