Mental health and drug addiction
Homelessness in San Francisco has been an issue of mental health and drug addiction for most of its population and now it’s a chronic issue that needs a more compelling change than just throwing money at it.
If we don't get to the root of the problem the only thing we are doing is giving more oxygen to the fire. As San Franciscans, our compassion has turned against us when we are afraid to walk on the streets and the quality of life of our hard working residents has declined drastically.
Some of us have two jobs to make ends meet and it is difficult to understand why City Hall is playing politics instead of taking action.
That is why San Franciscans are finished with politicians who are more worried about their careers than the wellbeing of their constituents. I am running for supervisor to fix this and other issues and then go back to work on my small business. I don’t want a career out of this supervisor position, but I do want to produce results.
I propose that we start picking up people and placing them in drug rehabilitation and mental health institutions because it is necessary to take care of this Issue first, in order to be able to deal with the homeless problem that is only growing. Until we decide - enough is enough - nothing is going to change.
A city and a government can be like a family - if you really invest in the right behaviors today and work together, it has a promising future, if you abuse or neglect it or aren’t accountable to it, it falls apart. SF’s policy has been about giving a large portion of its resources to people who are mentally ill and have a drug addiction dependency, with no track record for positive results, leaving the city broke and in chaos. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe in helping people who are in difficult and unhealthy situations to get back on their feet, but at some point, you have to prioritize the creation of jobs and help people go back to work and be part of the community again. This will never happen with the way legislation is now being passed - our city continues to provide financial resources to homeless people, who in many cases use it for drugs.
For example San Francisco politicians give $520 to every homeless person on the street every month and if you do the math for around 8000 homeless people (that currently reside here) that is almost $4,160,000 per month. It is clear that we are literally subsidizing the drug dealers in our city. That is why this “homeless” crisis will never end because our politicians have lost all common sense.
It is time for tough love because everything we have tried so far has failed.
Housing
Housing is never going to be affordable because it costs $700,000 per unit to build in SF and then we have developers doing the job and that is not going to be free of charge. How is it possible that a city with 44,000 employees and a 12.3 billion dollar budget cannot build its own housing? If elected, I will work to start an initiative that helps SF to open their own construction company, which will significantly decrease the cost to build units in SF. We have everyone on the payroll already, especially the Building and Planning Dept., which is usually the biggest stepping stone for developers. We may have to subcontract some part of the job, but San Francisco should open its own construction company.
Police
Defunding the police is a very tricky question. This is very confusing because it’s not accurately explained what this means. I agree that we need more accountability. I want to see what part of the budget is going where. I strongly believe in sending mental health workers into the streets to deal with the issues we see everyday, in partnership with the police officers.
Also, crime is already high in our city and with this recession it will probably not end anytime soon. We are using the term “defund the police” to allocate funds to social programs for the most vulnerable communities which were historically ignored by the nation. We need to provide a more EQUITABLE and 21ST CENTURY RELEVANT educational experience, and GREAT PAYING JOBS for our residents! This will never happen unless we STOP PLAYING POLITICS AND WORK TOGETHER TO PRODUCE REAL RESULTS FOR OUR CITIZENS.
Transportation
Public transportation will always be an issue in a city that wants to create more housing and reduce the number of cars from the streets. We need to support our public transportation with more frequent and smaller buses during non rush hours.
Education
This is a main concern for me. I fought the SFUSD many times over the injustices that we experience from discrimination, physical abuse, and lack of resources at every level. I am not afraid to say what needs to be said. I don't care, I am not a politician. We need to ask big corporations to contribute funds to our school district. Politicians say that this is not how it works-and the result is that we still lack adequate funding. Education is the foundation of a society and San Francisco has ignored this foundation for way too many years.
Small Business Recovery
It is time to help the hard working small business owners of our district and city. As a small business owner myself I understand how difficult it is to survive in a city like ours. We can work together to improve this situation and thrive in a world that has been affected by the pandemic and recession. Businesses are closing their doors by the hundreds and that is unacceptable for a community like ours.