San Francisco Wins Nearly $100 Million for Mental Health, Addiction Treatment Beds

San Francisco secured nearly $100 million in state Proposition 1 bond funding to expand psychiatric and addiction treatment capacity at three city sites, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced March 12, adding to a string of awards the city has collected from the $6.4 billion measure California voters narrowly passed in 2024.

The funds will extend treatment and recovery services at a sobering center and two inpatient treatment facilities, and will add dozens of addiction treatment beds to a facility on Treasure Island. Construction on the Treasure Island project is set to start next winter. A UCSF expansion is also part of the funded package.

"The expansion at UCSF will give our front line workers another critical tool to help those who need it and keep people and our neighborhood safer with funding for new treatment and the recovery center on Treasure Island," Lurie said. "San Francisco will continue expanding our capacity to help people get on a long term path to stability."

The announcement landed against a difficult fiscal backdrop. San Francisco is proposing to cut millions of dollars across city departments, including public health, to close a nearly $900 million budget shortfall, and federal funding cuts have added further pressure. Lurie framed the state award as a way to navigate those constraints without sacrificing treatment capacity. "These investments strengthen our city's ability to respond with compassion and accountability. Facing a serious budget deficit as we are here in the city, we are leveraging every possible funding source," he said. "We're not simply pouring money into something that's broken, but investing in solutions that get people off the streets, into treatment and on a path to recovery."

Daniel Tsai, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, described how the Proposition 1 dollars would be allocated across the three behavioral health initiatives, though a precise per-site breakdown has not yet been released publicly.

The award is part of a $1.18 billion tranche that Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week, dispersed among 66 projects at 130 behavioral health facilities statewide, including the three San Francisco sites. Statewide, California has now distributed nearly $4.17 billion in one-time Proposition 1 dollars, funding nearly 7,000 residential treatment beds and 27,500 outpatient treatment slots, though some projects have faced delays.

San Francisco has been an active recipient throughout the bond program's rollout. Last year the city received funding for 73 new locked and dual-diagnosis treatment beds through Proposition 1, making this latest award a second significant infusion in as many years for a city that has struggled to meet the demand for behavioral health services among its unhoused population.