SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Since San Francisco's Tenderloin Center opened in January this year, it has been seeing up to 500 people a day seeking services or a safe place to use drugs.
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The center was opened as part of the emergency response to the city's drug overdose crisis, which has been ravaging the Tenderloin neighborhood in particular. Recently, the Board of Supervisors gave approval for the center to stay open for another six months until the end of the year.
Until this week, journalists have not been allowed inside.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health had said this was because of concerns about the privacy of the people coming to the center. This week, SFDPH invited a small group of reporters to the center before it opened to the public. So, it was not possible to see the services in action, but one guest, Juliana McNeil, talked about her experience.
The center has been a haven for those not just in San Francisco suffering from homelessness or substance abuse, but throughout the Bay Area.
"I was sleeping on the streets of Oakland and I came here and they embraced me," said one such center participant, Juliana McNeil. "They got me not only a hot meal, they gave me a hygiene kit, clothes."
And they're helping her get housing.
Along with those services, the center has provided a safe place for people to use drugs, something that is technically not legal yet in California.
State Sen. Scott Wiener's bill to authorize safe consumption sites for medically-supervised illicit drug use has cleared another hurdle in the legislature. San Francisco Mayor London Breed and other California officials have voiced support for the move.
Vitka Eisen, the CEO of HealthRight 360, told KCBS Radio she and her staff work in what is called an "Overdose Prevention Community Space."
"This is not what I think the Mayor or the city envisions of what they will eventually open – a supervised consumption site or safe consumption site," she said. "This just – really, we're here for overdose prevention."
Reversing overdoses can be tough, but the center has resources on hand.
One of the most important tools they have available is the overdose reversal drug, naloxone – also known as Narcan.
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