SF Street-Level Drug Dealing Task Force

Meeting Notice #1 & Agenda

Thursday, Jan 30, 2020

5-6:30pm PT

1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place

Room 421

 

Attendees (not including 6 present community members):

 

Task Force Member	Present	RAND Team	Present	LISC	Present
Tara Anderson	X	Courtney Armstrong	X	LeVar Michael	X
Curtis Bradford	X	Sarah Hunter	Via phone	Vicky Rodriguez	X
Robin Candler	X	Beau Kilmer	X	James Stark	X
Porsha Dixson	-
Teresa Friend	X
Louie Hammonds	-
Lindsay Lasalle	X
Hadi Razzaq (was not assigned until after meeting #1)	-
Commander Raj Vaswani	X
Pedro Vidal	X
Thomas Wolf	X
Max Young	X
Open Seat TBD	-

 

1. Introduction from D6 Supervisor Matt Haney
   1. Open air drug dealing and its impact in SOMA and Tenderloin is a key concern among community to D6.  We need a plan & recommendations, as the status quo is unacceptable.  Ideas/solutions can come from the experts who are living it/part of community/understand it/committed to it.  Not all will agree, but try to have empathy/understanding so that we come out of here with some ways forward to address harms/challenges.  TF, this is yours now, you have been appointed by the Board of SF, you have facilitators, LISC/RAND, you have community members.  We have staff to back you up on this, research/whatever you need to make strong recommendations. Police Dept, DPH, DA, PD office, are all part of the Task Force.  Thank you for your service.  I’m here from SD to support you but not to sway you

 

2. Meet the Team (Reference PowerPoint slides p 6-14. Presented by Vicky Rodriguez, LeVar Michael, and James Stark from LISC, and Beau Kilmer from RAND)
   1. LISC
      1. Project Management
      2. Additional technical assistance/advising to help completion of report
      3. Peer network & trainings
   2. RAND
      1. Taskforce Facilitators – implement and lead monthly Taskforce Meetings
      2. Data Gathering and Analysis
      3. Produce final report

 

3. Expectations as a Task Force member (Reference PowerPoint slides p 15. Presented by Beau Kilmer from RAND)

1. Task Force is comprised of diverse membership
2. We need the city and its constituents to provide data
3. We need your input—if data is meaningful or not.  If programs from other cities—is that helpful or not.  Does this work for our community based on resources here?
4. Quarterly reports and at end of the year—provide recommendations
5. Review the ordinance review – describes duties of each TF member. Take a look at that and become familiar of what is in there of expectations of TF. They put in a minimum of what needs to be done.  Probably take more time than once a month meeting.  Ad hoc/subcommittee meetings, etc. may be possible; TF will decide on this 

 

4. Visioning Exercise – What does success look like to you? (Reference PowerPoint slides p 16-18. Participants were asked to brainstorm on responses to the following questions and that the bulleted information were comments from TF members. Facilitated by Vicky Rodriguez from LISC)
   1. When you hear open air drug dealing what does that mean to you?
      1. Anger and frustration. You see people trying to get better and see dealers ready to take advantage of those who are vulnerable. Frustrated about not being able to do something
      2. These are quality of life issues. You can get killed during drug interactions. You’re setting yourself up to be ripped off or killed for drugs
      3. You can’t get rid of the dealing on its own. We have to solve for it together. You can’t just take away the dealers
      4. The TL has always been this way. The issue won’t go away if you take away one side. It’s a housing crisis, a public health crisis.
      5. This isn’t just a problem of the Tenderloin. Even though most of the dealing happens in the TL people are coming from all over the city and it’s affecting the residents of the TL.
      6. There is an opportunity to change the paradigm and dialogue so that it’s not just a TL problem
      7. The term street-level is cache. Drug deals are happening everywhere, but in the TL it’s happening on the streets.
      8. What we’ve done in the past in policing has failed to solve the problem. It has exacerbated the problem. It has created more violence in the community that way.
      9. We can’t stop drug dealing but how do we reduce harm in the community and heal the community in a way where we can make positive change. What can we do to help folks not deal on the street
      10. You can’t legislate drug dealing behavior. The issues of these people are complicated. They are displaced and end up on the streets. Then you have the inability to find sustainable employment. You end up in jail and then are ineligible to apply for SSI, and other government funding aid.
   2. What would your community look like if it wasn’t an issue?
      1. It’s not just sourcing people in the Tenderloin. The dealers are going and working at all levels of society. People come to the TL to buy, but it’s pervasive every. It’s not just the people visible, it’s at every level of our society
      2. It’s got to be dealt with in a way that isn’t just going corner to corner
   3. What are ways to address street level drug dealing?
      1. Be clear about who we are talking about. There isn’t just one approach. There are many types of dealers in the neighborhood and different types of users. It’s not TL residents that are keeping the drug trade alive. It’s beyond the TL and beyond SF. Be clear on who we are talking about
      2. What are the problems with drug dealing? Can we attribute those problems to the dealing or is it beyond that? It’s not just the dealing
      3. There are dealers out there because of the cartels. They are exploited and now they are exploiting others on the street. They’re selling fentanyl and that’s really dangerous.
      4. The community impact is big. The police officers have learned that there’s so much frustration from the community. A lot of businesses are struggling because of this. The violence associated with the drug dealing is impacting families trying to get to school. There’s the vulnerable population trying to get better, but can’t because the dealing is in their face. We need to try harm reduction, some consequences, some education. The organized drug dealing we see, there’s a lot of money and a lot of violence. The DA’s office does do diversion programs. They see a lot of people from outside of SF that come into the TL and do dealing. People are coming from outside of the state coming to the TL because they know there’s a market here. They are preying upon San Franciscans.
      5. There is an organized drug dealing problem and there are other levels. The answer is not to let them back on the street and prey upon other vulnerable populations
      6. It’s a safety threat to visitors. There’s not enough policing to safeguard
      7. Keep an open that all the interventions can be utilized and targeted to specific interventions. Focus on different demographics
   4. Once report is complete and recommendations are implemented what would that look like?
      1. The fantasy is that we shift into the balance of supply and demand. This is multi-faceted approach that is more complicated.
      2. Hope that we have patience and commitment to the changes we are making
      3. Hope that we do more work as a community. Make progress and efforts collectively and advocate for resources to continue to this work

 

5. Pathway moving forward (Presented by Beau Kilmer of RAND)
   1. Taskforce monthly meeting discussion
      1. Consider holding meetings in the TL and in SOMA so we can hear more directly from people. Make it accessible at the library or elsewhere and it will help people in the community participate
      2. Next meeting will be Wed, Feb 26^th at 5pm
      3. Project workplan and timeline will be shared with members
   2. On-going communications
      1. Create a Google share drive or something that we can place all these resources. We can send this directly to all TF meetings
   3. Next Steps
      1. Discuss costs associated with drug dealing. Read the article and discuss what costs are not included in this report.
      2. There are other TFs that made recommendations that affect district 6. Discuss those ideas that should be implemented