San Francisco Mayor London Breed says something needs to be done to clean up and clear out criminals in the Tenderloin.
The mayor on Tuesday rolled out a bold and potentially controversial plan to do just that.
"It comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement, more aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the (expletive) that has destroyed our city," Breed said. "What I'm proposing today and what I will be proposing in the future will make a lot of people uncomfortable, and I don't care."
Breed said public safety is her top priority and she believes the city can and will turn a new leaf.
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The plan includes a proposed multi-agency crackdown, starting with a police blitz -- flooding the district with officers who will target the area's biggest issues of drugs and fencing of stolen goods.
The second wave of the proposed plan will rely on public health intervention, which includes tracking down addicts who live, and use, on the streets and getting them into treatment.
So will it work?
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Tom Wolf was once one of those addicts living on the Tenderloin streets and breaking laws to feed his drug habit. He said the plan is what the Tenderloin needs.
"I'm really happy to hear the mayor take a tougher approach on this," Wolf said. "It's going to require a balanced approach. We can't arrest our way out of everything, but there needs to be some target specific enforcement."
Wolf knows the revolving door in the area all too well.
In 2019, he was arrested six times before ultimately turning his life around.
"If you're stealing, breaking car windows to support your fentanyl addiction, you need to be held accountable just like I was three years ago," Wolf said.
Wolf said he is proof people can get clean and stay clean, and believes others can do it with a commitment and accountability from the city.
