Joint Statement of Opposition to a Law Enforcement Response to the Overdose Crisis in San Francisco
As organizations that advocate to improve community health and provide associated direct services, we are deeply concerned about the overdose crisis and impact of increased law enforcement presence on the safety of our communities. All residents, including those in historically low-income neighborhoods, should feel safe walking the street, gathering outside, and bringing their children to […]
San Francisco Sees Significant Increase in Fatal Overdoses After Closure of the Tenderloin Center Without a Replacement, and With Increased Punitive Measures for People Who Use Drugs
San Francisco, CA — The San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has released their Report on Accidental Overdose Deaths for the first three months of this year. The preliminary number of accidental overdose deaths in March 2023 is 66, which brings the total accidental overdose deaths this year to 200. According to the San […]
How to Address the Overdose Crisis & Reduce Public Drug Use Without Compelling Treatment
STATEMENT BY VITKA EISEN, PRESIDENT & CEO, HEALTHRIGHT 360, IN ADVANCE OF PARTICIPATION AT TOGETHERSF ACTION “DOES SAN FRANCISCO ENABLE DRUG USE?” PANEL ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5, 2023 For information on tonight’s TogetherSF Action Panel, visit: https://www.mobilize.us/tsfaction/event/552818/ San Francisco, CA — All opioid overdose deaths are preventable, and every year, thousands of lives are saved by […]
Outrage at Governor Newsom’s decision to veto SB 57, landmark overdose prevention bill
The Safer Inside coalition denounces the decision by Governor Newsom to turn his back on the drug overdose crisis and Californians dying from fatal overdose. SAN FRANCISCO, August 22, 2022–Today, the Safer Inside Coalition denounces Governor Gavin Newsom’s shocking decision to veto SB 57 (introduced by Senator Scott Wiener), which if passed would have allowed […]
Statement on Hateful Actions, Harmful Rhetoric, and Damaging Stigma
San Francisco – Over the July 4th weekend, a number of individuals all wearing “Blue Lives Matter” shirts attempted to gain unauthorized access to our two newest HealthRIGHT 360 programs—both programs offering low-barrier, loving, health-promoting, harm reduction services in San Francisco. The goal of their intrusion was to film our clients/guests with the intent of […]
Statement on the Supreme Court Ruling Upending Roe vs Wade
San Francisco – In the week between Juneteenth and Pride celebrations of liberation, the United States Supreme Court overturned 50 years of precedent guaranteeing reproductive rights and self-determination for people who are pregnant. Many studies have shown that this ruling will have the greatest impact on low-income people and people of color, Black people in particular – […]
Statement on the Leaked Supreme Court Draft Opinion on Roe vs Wade
San Francisco – The recently released draft Supreme Court opinion, if it stands as the court’s final ruling, would effectively end the protection of an individual’s right to choose as a federally guaranteed right under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. If this stands as the final ruling, which will be issued in June, people seeking […]
Statement in Response to Policing People Who Use Drugs
San Francisco – HealthRIGHT 360 continues to stand in opposition to the criminalization and policing of people who use drugs under the Mayor’s Declaration of Emergency in response to drug overdose deaths in the Tenderloin. The Tenderloin Linkage Center, a coordinated effort undertaken by multiple city departments and providers, shows great promise as a non-coercive space […]
CEO Statement on Tenderloin Declaration of Emergency
San Francisco – There is a tired old trope about San Francisco being ungovernable because we can’t agree on things, but you won’t hear that from me. If you think I’m going to defend the status quo in the Tenderloin, I hate to disappoint you. We know the Tenderloin needs an intervention, and it has […]
Healthright 360 Board Approves Contract With SEIU
HealthRIGHT 360 Board of Directors votes unanimously to approve a historic first union contract between HealthRIGHT 360, SEIU Local 1021, 721, and 221. San Francisco – In December 2019, HealthRIGHT 360 began the process of building our new relationship with our staff’s chosen union representative (SEIU) and initiating the process for HealthRIGHT 360’s first-ever collective […]
Overdose Awareness Month Statement by Dr. Vitka Eisen
San Francisco — The problem with pendulum metaphors in the drug policy world is that they constrain thinking to a singular line of ideas and actions in which all movement is only forward or back along a two-dimensional plane. It would appear that in the face of increasing overdose deaths around the country there seems […]
Statement on Juneteenth 2021
On June 19, 1865, two-thousand Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to formally declare the abolition of slavery in the South – almost 2.5 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. June 19th, coined Juneteenth, is the annual celebration of the day that the last enslaved people of the South were informed of their […]
