Overrun by drug addiction and squalor, the City by the Bay wants to bring its disastrous experiment in harm-reduction to the rest of California.
Over the past two years, San Francisco has seen more than 1,360 drug overdose fatalities—more than double the number of Covid-19 deaths over roughly the same period. Open drug use and escalating violence in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood forced Mayor London Breed to make an “emergency declaration” last December, resulting in the opening of a “Linkage Center” intended to connect the mentally ill or addicted homeless to basic services. The city selected Urban Alchemy—the 800-pound gorilla in the world of private, nonprofit social-services contractors—as the site’s operator. Mere days after opening, news emerged that the Linkage Center was also operating as a drug-consumption site, in apparent violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
