A federal lawsuit brought by Tenderloin residents and businesses over public drug use has been dropped, in part because conditions in the neighborhood have dramatically improved. 

When four residents and two businesses filed the suit in March 2024, they blamed the city’s harm-reduction policies — including distributing drug paraphernalia and operating supervised consumption sites and shelter spaces — for fueling drug dealing and making the streets more dangerous.

Though the drug crisis is far from over, it’s less visible in that particular neighborhood as the city ramped up enforcement on sidewalk encampments and backed away from some of those harm-reduction policies, including distributing fentanyl-smoking supplies.

The case was dismissed April 28 with prejudice, meaning the claims cannot be refiled.

U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction on March 28, finding they lacked standing to pursue their claims. In a seven-page order, Tigar wrote that plaintiffs failed to show ongoing or imminent injury, could not tie the city’s policies to the conditions they described, and did not explain how the injunction they sought would fix those conditions.

The court also noted that the city submitted photographic evidence showing that conditions near plaintiffs’ homes and businesses had largely improved, and that plaintiffs acknowledged as much in depositions.

“The city remains committed to working with residents to improve safety and expand opportunity in the Tenderloin,” City Attorney David Chiu said Tuesday. “Lawsuits like this waste resources, and the courts are not equipped to step into the shoes of policymakers. When residents and government work together, we get better results.”

Mayor Daniel Lurie credited his administration’s “Breaking the Cycle” initiative on homelessness and behavioral health with turning the corner in the Tenderloin. “There is still work to do, but our city is finally moving in the right direction,” Lurie said.

Matthew Davis, an attorney with Walkup, Melodia Kelly & Schoenberger, who represented the plaintiffs pro bono, pushed back on the city’s characterization of the outcome as a legal victory, saying the lawsuit achieved substantial results even without a final court order.

Davis said the suit exposed several city practices that have since been curtailed or ended, including the operation of the Tenderloin Linkage Center, which he said had a supervised fentanyl consumption site; city-run shelters at former tourist hotels that he said allowed open drug activity; and the unregulated distribution of fentanyl smoking supplies on public sidewalks by city-funded vendors.

He also noted that several high-ranking city officials invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked about the center’s operations as part of the litigation.

“The city agreed that it would never again open a drug consumption site in the Tenderloin,” Davis said in an email. “The lawsuit also exposed the horrific conditions around the city-run shelters. Drug dealers and users literally blocked the sidewalks around the shelters. This led to the city shutting them down.”

Davis said the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss after the court declined to order the city to stop funding organizations that still distribute fentanyl smoking supplies in the Tenderloin — a practice he contends continues to attract drug activity. “We had taken it as far as we could,” he said.

He noted that the plaintiffs sought injunctive relief, not monetary damages, and that his firm absorbed more than 1,000 hours of work and tens of thousands of dollars in costs without seeking compensation.

“Compare that to the legal work done on behalf of the Coalition on Homelessness that sued the city for clearing tent encampments from the sidewalks,” Davis said. “The city paid them $2.82 million.”

The city’s Drug Market Agency Coordination Center, a multiagency task force, has conducted enforcement operations in the Tenderloin since 2023. According to the city attorney’s office, officers have seized more than 1,266 pounds of narcotics and made 14,283 arrests, including 2,554 arrests of drug dealers, since the task force launched. 

Alongside The Standard’s reporting, city statistics appear to show that the numbers of tents and structures have plummeted (opens in new tab) during the last two years in the Tenderloin but are rising in South of Market and the Mission.

SFPD Chief Derrick Lew said officers would continue Tenderloin enforcement efforts regardless of the lawsuit’s resolution.

“Our residents and business owners deserve clean and safe streets,” Lew said, “and our officers will be relentlessly enforcing the law.”