Some San Francisco supervisors are proposing a new plan called Mental Health SF, which would offer free mental health care to any resident in the city.
At a rally on the steps of City Hall, city supervisors Matt Haney and Hillary Rosen pushed for the plan which supporters say would completely overhaul a broken system.
The ballot measure “guarantees all San Franciscans access to mental health care and drug addiction services.”
The initiative connects different services at a central hub allowing the city to track patients, beds and providers.
They say the alternative is dangerous – more people turned away from care, or never served at all.
“We’re just trying to figure out how to stabilize you, and put you back onto the street? That’s a total failure. What we should try to be doing is bringing people into the system and figuring out what they need,” said District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney.
Haney said that to pay for the program part of the money would come from state reimbursements, but the other part would be an “excessive CEO salary" tax of 0.1 percent charged to companies where the CEO makes more than 100 times the average worker.
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The proposed ballot measure will go before voters this November.
SF Supes @MattHaneySF & @HillaryRonen- in coordination with @PhilTing- announce overhaul of SF’s “besieged” mental health system, a ballot initiate called MentalHealthSF. If approved by voters, would provide universal psychiatric care program for all San Franciscans. @nbcbayarea pic.twitter.com/goy8NIT0eT — Sam Brock (@SamNBCBayArea) May 28, 2019
