Homelessness and street behavior trouble San Francisco

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The Golden Gate Bridge, Cable Cars, Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz.

The list of iconic spots to see in San Francisco goes on and on.

But people are growing increasingly concerned that another sight could be added to that list -- dirty and unsafe streets.

In a recent 2018 Dignity Health CityBeat Poll, homelessness and street behavior topped the list of San Francisco voters' concerns, even though that concern did drop by 16 percent from the previous year.

A street view in San Francisco. /VCG Photo

The woman in charge of cleaning up San Francisco's streets is the city's new Mayor London Breed.

She succeeded Chinese-American Mayor Ed Lee, who passed away in December 2017.

Breed, who grew up in San Francisco public housing, said that there are a number of factors contributing to the homeless problem, everything from a lack of affordable housing to drugs to mental illness.

San Francisco mayor London Breed speaks during her inauguration at San Francisco City Hall, July 11, 2018. /VCG Photo

Breed has made affordable public housing, homelessness and cleaning up the streets top priorities.

In fact, she recently signed a budget that ensured 60 million US dollars in new funding for critical homelessness service programs over the next two years.

The budget also includes an additional 13 million US dollars for comprehensive street cleaning and an additional 725,000 dollars to expand and strengthen the City's Fix-It team, which helps cleanup the streets.

That's extremely important because in many pockets of the city, the streets are littered with discarded needles left by opioid addicts.

Scooters sit parked in front of a building in San Francisco, April 17, 2018. /VCG Photo

In an impoverished neighborhood known as the Tenderloin, I found Mario Reynolds walking down the street, picking up trash and carefully disposing of needles.

He said he was picking up around 40 or 50 needles a day.

On the bright side, he said a few months ago it was about 100 a day.

Mario has used heroin for 50 years.

He told me he was trying to cut down as much as possible, but that he at least took pride in knowing that he's making the streets safer for children.

53-year-old Ronnie Goodman, whose youth was wasted on drugs and alcohol, runs along the Embarcadero in San Francisco, April 18, 2014. /VCG Photo

"I'm kind of proud of myself today. Just a couple of months ago I could have given less than a damn if needles were on the streets or not. I feel like I'm helping," Mario said.

While San Francisco is not alone in facing the opioid crisis, it could stand alone in the way it attacks the problem.

On Aug. 21, with the support of Mayor Breed, the California State Senate passed a bill that would allow San Francisco to open safe injection sites under a three-year pilot program. The State Assembly now needs to vote on final approval before it's sent to California Governor Jerry Brown for his signature.

The idea is to make sure opioid use is controlled and not swept under the rug.

Proponents believe it will help prevent overdoses, connect people to life-saving services and reduce discarded needles on the streets.