San Francisco Democratic supervisor blames capitalism for city’s drug and homelessness crisis

San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, blamed capitalism for the city’s homelessness and drug problems and said the city’s policies have been “inconsistent.”

In a new investigative documentary by the United Kingdom outlet Unherd, Preston said what is occurring in the troubled neighborhood of Tenderloin, where open-air drug markets are often found, “is absolutely the result of capitalism and what happens in capitalism to the people at the bottom rungs.”

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Preston represents District 5, which covers embattled neighborhoods such as Tenderloin, along with Japantown, Western Addition, and Haight-Ashbury. He said the crises in neighborhoods such as Tenderloin are the result of people struggling financially in a capitalist world.

“The biggest driver of why folks are on the street is because they lost their jobs, income or were evicted from their homes, usually for not being able to pay the rent,” Preston said. “So you have major landlords literally causing folks to lose their homes, and real estate speculation making it impossible for folks to find an affordable place to live.”

When Unherd asked if Preston felt safe walking around in his represented district, the local Democrat said, “I don’t think every instance of poverty or addiction or behavioral health issue is a safety threat to someone walking by. I mean, there’s a lot of people who are doing things that are very harmful to themselves on the streets, who aren’t necessarily a safety threat.”

Preston defended his position on defunding the police and calls to cut $100 million from the police budget, despite being more than 500 officers short of the recommended 2,182 in the most city commission staffing analysis, according to the city’s Police Department.

He attacked the city’s recently implemented strategies to tackle the drug problems, such as making on-spot arrests, a policy pushed by San Francisco’s Democratic Mayor London Breed.

“I think it’s completely counterproductive to be arresting people for doing drugs,” Preston said, acknowledging the crises have “gotten worse because the approach that we’ve taken is very inconsistent as a city.”

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This fall, San Francisco and state police partnered with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and other federal agencies to increase arrests of drug dealers and suppliers near federal buildings and make on-spot arrests in Tenderloin.

“Arresting drug users has not made our city any safer,” Preston said. “It’s actually made it less safe. It increases overdoses.”