San Francisco Public Press (https://www.sfpublicpress.org/2023/page/3/)
The Institute for Nonprofit News has honored San Francisco Public Press multimedia journalist Yesica Prado with a 2023 Insight Award for Visual Journalism for “‘Everything Is Gone, and You Become More Lost’: 12 Hours of Chaos as Berkeley Clears Encampment,” published last December.
As San Francisco continues to search for solutions, our team at “Civic” is exploring the origins of the city’s opioid overdose crisis, what has been done to help and what might be making things worse. After six months of research involving hundreds of studies, reports and archival news clippings, and three dozen interviews with people with lived experience and professional expertise in homelessness, addiction, medicine, criminal justice, housing, social work, street outreach, business, education, harm reduction, policymaking and advocacy, we’re launching the series, “San Francisco and the Overdose Crisis.”
Over six episodes, the series will explore what influenced rampant opioid addiction and its connection to homelessness, the 150-year history of policing and prosecuting drugs in San Francisco, the long battle to open a safe consumption site in the city, and grassroots efforts to stem the tide of drug-related fatalities.
We’re delighted to announce that we are adding a full-time reporter to our staff through the California Local News Fellowship program, a multi-year, state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting in California, with a focus on underserved communities.
Zhe Wu, a 2023 graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, will join the San Francisco Public Press in early September. We look forward to introducing her to you!
Supervisor Matt Dorsey received backlash this month for asking the mayor to redirect the entire $18.9 million in city funding budgeted for a new drop-in addiction treatment center toward jails instead.
Dorsey told the San Francisco Public Press that he reversed his previous support for the centers — called wellness hubs — once the city’s plans narrowed to one site from six, and removed safe consumption sites, which would have allowed people to consume drugs under supervision so they could receive immediate help in case of overdose.
Dorsey said he now wants the funds to go toward jail health services, including forcing treatment for people in jail who are struggling with substance abuse disorder.
KALW News Editor Sunni Khaled interviewed Public Press reporter Madison Alvarado about her reporting on San Francisco’s reparations plan for KALW’s “Crosscurrents.” Listen to their conversation and read Alvarado’s story about the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee’s final recommendations, which it submitted to the Board of Supervisors last month.
Accidental drug overdose deaths continue to torment San Francisco, according to data released Tuesday by the city medical examiner’s office.
While June saw the lowest monthly number of overdose deaths this year, 54, in July it climbed back up to 71. With 473 overdose deaths this year, San Francisco is on track to surpass its highest recorded number of overdose deaths in a calendar year — 725 in 2020.
A lawsuit against San Francisco Superior Court over its routine failure to uphold defendants’ right to a speedy trial is now in the hands of California’s Supreme Court. San Francisco has more than 1,100 cases past statutory time limits, and 115 of those defendants are languishing in jail without a conviction.
Berkeley is accelerating plans to more humanely deal with homelessness in the wake of a San Francisco Public Press report on a chaotic encampment raid in October, and city staffers say they will start collaborating with unhoused people and homeless advocates when planning to clean or clear large encampments.
Several city departments are changing procedures in response to complaints from those living in encampments and their advocates, and from residential and commercial neighbors.
The San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee shared its final recommendations to remedy historical and ongoing harms to local Black communities.
When we report a story, it can involve numerous interviews, sources speaking on background or deep dives into government or corporate records. But sometimes it’s amazing what a small object can reveal.
Like the rubber stamp recently discovered by Liana Wilcox, producer of the San Francisco Public Press’ podcast “Civic,” when she was helping her mother clear a storage area.
“I was with my mom going through some of her keepsakes and found a stamp that read ‘Lesbian Money.’ My mom told me that she found it in our old church’s basement,” Wilcox said, adding that she feared the rubber stamp had a sinister connotation.
