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SF Criticized for Lack of Community Input on Opioid Settlement Funds Use

A coalition of addiction experts and treatment advocates is commending the San Francisco Department of Public Health for committing some of the $352 million opioid lawsuit settlement funds the city expects to receive over the next 18 years to expanding methadone treatment and addressing racial disparity in fatal overdoses. “These efforts are instrumental in reaching underserved individuals,” the San Francisco Treatment on Demand Coalition wrote in a November letter to the department. But the coalition criticized the department over its lack of transparency and community input.
SF Fails to Produce Evidence It Follows Encampment Clearing Policy

San Francisco cannot prove it follows an aspect of its encampment clearing policy intended to help people retain essential belongings. Despite 588 clearings from January to mid-November, the city lacks evidence of a single signed declaration that staff advised unhoused people to separate essentials from property it was confiscating.
Hostility Plagues LGBTQ Latin American Immigrants Seeking Addiction Recovery Support

A new San Francisco-based group offers safe space for a stigmatized population struggling with substance use disorder.
Shuttered Radiation Lab Poses Ongoing Health Risks for Growing Neighborhood

Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point," details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War. In part 6, we detail how cavalier attitudes toward radiation exposure and an indifference to how pollution left by the Navy might affect San Franciscans have been constants officials warned of plutonium blowing in the air three-quarters of a century ago.
Trial Courts Sued, Accused of Hampering Domestic Violence Survivors’ Ability to Appeal Rulings

Groups that advocate for survivors of domestic violence have sued California trial courts to force them to address the statewide court reporter shortage, which they say is impairing “equal access to justice.”
State Commission Gives Green Light to Close SF’s Great Highway to Cars

San Francisco on Thursday received state approval to proceed with closing a 2-mile section of the Great Highway to car traffic as early as spring 2025, and to begin planning a long-term park on that stretch of road. The car-free highway will have separate lanes for pedestrians and cyclists, along with a new continuous bike lane connecting Daly City to Golden Gate Park.
Destroyed Records, Dying Witnesses Consign San Francisco Radiation Lab to Obscurity

Our investigative series, “Exposed: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunters Point," details how the U.S. Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, based at a shipyard in San Francisco, exposed at least 1,073 dockworkers, military personnel, lab employees and others to radiation in technical exercises and medical experiments early in the Cold War. In part 5, we trace the obscure nature of the work at the lab to the military’s culture of secrecy, explore why officials shredded millions of pages of paper records and show how an ongoing lack of official interest in acknowledging this history has frustrated local people dealing with the shipyard’s environmental legacy.
Politics Didn’t Matter to Him When He Was Homeless. Now He Organizes His Neighbors.

Solomon Bukenya, a formerly unhoused San Franciscan, has never lost hope for long — surviving a genocide in Rwanda, the loss of his leg, addiction and homelessness. Though he had no interest in civic engagement for years, today he’s on a mission to make sure his community’s voices are heard. Even after a tumultuous election, he remains undeterred.

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