When I asked a major provider of housing for the homeless in the Tenderloin, Randy Shaw, whether people come to San Francisco for the drugs he said, without hesitation, “Yes, one hundred percent. No doubt about it. We have the worst overdose rate of any city in the country.” Matt Haney, the San Francisco supervisor who represents the Tenderloin, told me, “Undoubtedly there are some people who come here because they are sick with addiction. This is a place where you can access drugs more easily.”
