For years, progressive California Democrats have championed a “Housing First” approach to homelessness and drug addiction that prioritizes getting people into housing first, and connecting them to necessary addiction and recovery services once they’re off the street. But a new bill, authored by Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, a member of the Legislative Progressive Caucus, seeks to complement that approach by redirecting some state housing funds to go toward drug-free sober living spaces — a practice California banned in 2016 with a law that bars the state from funding housing services that mandate sobriety. “Our state’s laws right now don’t adequately support recovery, because they ban funding any housing where drug-free recovery is explicitly the goal,” Haney told The Bee on Wednesday.
“That’s wrong.” Assembly Bill 2479 would allow for up to 25% of the hundreds of millions of dollars the state spends on homeless housing, assistance and prevention programs to go toward sober living environments, where residents are required to abstain from substances, except for those using Medication-Assisted Therapy, such as suboxone. “Fentanyl has changed everything,” said Haney, who lives in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood and serves as chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Fentanyl, Opioid Addiction, and Overdose Prevention.
“We have to do everything we can to get people away from fentanyl. ..
. When someone is ready to take the step .
