Highlights for the Week Ending February 27, 2022
New Metrics: For the past few weeks, the City has been revising the data structure of the weekly reports. This latest report confirmed that the new reporting structure will premier in the next weekly report.
Overdose Crisis: With respect to the health emergency, the number of 911 medical calls has declined from 340 during the week of January 16 to 279 in the latest report, representing a drop of more than 21%. The City distributed 198 doses of Naloxone, which is the highest weekly total so far. The City has distributed 945 doses of Naloxone since the start of the Tenderloin initiative. This past week, the City reversed four overdoses at the Linkage Center, bringing the total to 24 overdoses reversed during the Tenderloin initiative.
Drug Sales: Since the start of the Tenderloin initiative, total calls for police service have declined from 1,336 for the week ending January 23 to 1,146 for the week ending February 27, representing a drop of more than 22%. The police made 14 arrests for drug sales or possession with intent to sell, which is the average level of weekly arrests taking into account the weekly fluctuations. Since the start of the Tenderloin initiative, the Police have made 123 arrests for drug sales or possession with intent to sell. This past week, the police seized 1,165 grams of fentanyl, about the same as last week, but the total amount of total narcotics seized fell from 2,479 grams to 1,449 grams. Since the start of the Tenderloin initiative, the Police have seized 14,971 grams of narcotics, including 8,907 grams of fentanyl.
Exits from Street Sleeping: Exits from street sleeping have seen steep drops over the last two weeks -- from 108 during the week of February 13 to 58 during the week of February 20 and down to only 16 during the week of February 27. The significant increase in exits during the week of February 13 was due to the addition of a non-congregate shelter, but it is not clear why exits have decreased all the way down to 16 this past week. All 16 exits were to shelter, with no one participating in the Homeward Bound program. Since the start of the Tenderloin Emergency Initiative, the City has helped 364 people exit street sleeping -- 357 into shelter and 7 through Homeward Bound.
Outreach: A footnote in the report for the week ending February 20 stated that “[d]ata gathered for Tier 2 Service Connections in previously OPs is being reviewed for accuracy in accordance with a digital data gathering methodology implemented in OP 10.” Since then, this new methodology has produced significantly lower numbers of "meaningful engagements" -- conversations about services that did not lead to a referral -- and "referrals" -- conversations in which the client expressed an intention to connect to a service. Since making these changes in methodology, the data for both meaningful engagements and referrals to services have been significantly lower than for prior weeks. For the week ending February 27, there were 549 meaningful engagements and 418 referrals to services. The City needs to explain how the reporting methodology changed. Additionally, if the new methodology is more accurate than the old methodology, the City needs to revise the older data according to the new methodology. Otherwise, the recent and ongoing data cannot be compared with the less accurate older data.
Street Maintenance: This week, the City repaired zero sidewalks and three streetlights, bringing the total during the Tenderloin initiative to 17 sidewalks and 42 streetlights. This week, the City removed 205 tons of waste and conducted 110 power washings, bringing the total during the Tenderloin initiative to 1,747 tons of waste removed and 1,054 power washings conducted.
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