Mayor London Breed
City Hall, Room 200
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA 94102
Re: Letter of Request
Honorable Mayor London Breed,
My name is Saori Okawa, and I am a student at City College of San Francisco who intends to pursue a career in social work and clinical counseling. I firmly believe that you have brought many positive changes to the problems on homelessness, such as building Navigation Centers, (with the newest one coming in Embarcadero this summer), adding beds to facilities, and expediting the process of unfreezing funds that will derive from the Homelessness Tax (formerly Proposition C). However, I implore you to reconsider the implementation of Senate Bill 1045.
While Senate Bill 1045
is an expansion of the current conservatorship bill, “Laura’s Law,”
which aims to protect homeless individuals with both mental illness and
substance abuse, the bill does not address the root of the problem. San
Francisco’s mental health care system is still inept to adequately house and
provide wraparound medical services to the individuals that will be conserved
under this bill. Approximately 1,000 people are currently on waitlists for
shelters, navigation centers including the behavioral health navigation center,
Hummingbird Place), transitional homes and respite care centers. Senate Bill
1045 will place conserved individuals ahead of everybody, and push back all the
others who have been waiting voluntarily on the waitlists for a long time.
Senate Bill 1045 is of grave concern because it can be construed as taking away the civil rights of the conserved individuals. The bill is not an exemplary solution to addressing the mental health crisis on the streets because there is still no guarantee that sound, safe services such as protective housing and mental health support will be available.
Thank you very much for taking time to read my letter. I have built an academic website on the homeless crisis in San Francisco, which reflects my research on this issue (http://homelesscrisisinsfcompanies.tech.blog). I would greatly appreciate your reconsidering of the implementation of Senate Bill 1045.
Sincerely,
Saori Okawa
The Homeless Crisis: Can Tech Companies Help San Francisco? 
Your letter was good written. In the letter you should your concern and explain well. Homeless mental health issue should be get attention. Like you said, building shelter is a big progress, but the key solution should help them get back to normal life with medical helping.
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This letter gave me chills because of the action you have taken for the good change. I feel like I am into social work too and I love giving back to the community. I hope you will hear back from the Mayor.
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The homeless problem if one of the big things Mayor Breed said she was going to tackle. I haven’t seen any change thus far. Maybe she’ll read your letter and consider your call to action.Great letter by the way.
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You’re taking aim at such a critical issue at such a critical juncture, I hope you get a response from this letter. Even more than that, I hope we see real change from the current administration with regards to this issue. If we don’t, it’s just going to get worse and worse.
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Awesome letter! I’m hoping London Breed sees this and responds
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This was so well written! great job! I enjoy reading your work on such a controversial topic. I really hope Mayor Breed takes a look at your letter and gives you feedback!
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Saori
Your letter is firm and level headed. The data does not lie. It demonstrates the lack of planning without being negative toward the Mayor’s office. Your essay pushes all of us to question and consider numbers and results. It is solid and supported with the extensive statistical support.
Well done!
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Thanks for doing this Saori! I really hope the Mayor London Breed gets the chance to read and take action.
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Great letter. I know that some changes are in process.
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