"In 2021, the SFDPH [San Francisco Department of Public Health]/DOPE [Drug Overdose Prevention & Education] Project collaboration initiated a pilot program designed to reduce fatal overdoses in permanent supportive SROs by mobilizing and supporting tenant overdose response within these buildings. Known as the DOPE SRO Project, this program recruited, trained, and compensated tenants to serve as overdose prevention specialists (hereafter referred to as 'specialists') who help prevent overdose deaths in the building through naloxone distribution and peer-to-peer training in overdose identification and response. The program was piloted in two supportive housing sites that have experienced escalating overdose death. The first site is a large SRO (160 units) located in the Tenderloin neighborhood that has been operating for over four decades and is home to a mix of long-term and recently housed tenants. The second site is a smaller SRO (50 units) located in the South of Market Street (SoMa) that has been operational since 2018. Both buildings offer case management services and other supports (e.g. food programs, community programming) to tenants, who are referred through the city's Coordinated Entry Systems for homelessness services (Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing 2022)."
Michelle Olding, Neena Joshi, Stacy Castellanos, Emily Valadao, Lauren Hall, Laura Guzman, Kelly Knight, Saving lives in our homes: Qualitative evaluation of a tenant overdose response program in supportive, single-room occupancy (SRO) housing, International Journal of Drug Policy, Volume 118, 2023, 104084, ISSN 0955-3959, doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104084.
