Fact check: Will Biden’s COVID stimulus really buy weed for San Francisco homeless?
No Republicans voted for the $1.9 trillion bill COVID-19 stimulus bill signed last week by President Joe Biden, while all but one Democrat voted for it.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, has sought to point out — in floor speeches, on social media and in Fox News interviews — some of the problems he said made the law more of a Democratic “slush fund” than responsible government spending.
Here’s one of the issues he raised, and our analysis:
Claim: “Your money also is being sent to San Francisco city where your money will be spent giving alcohol and marijuana to the homeless.”
Rating: False
Context: The law does give $600 million over two years to the city of San Francisco, since it gives billions to states and local jurisdictions to help cover costs of the pandemic.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health also said last year that it was providing alcohol and other substances to the homeless in quarantine who disclosed they had substance abuse problems. It said in a statement that guests staying in hotels under the city’s program were screened for substance addictions and asked if they’d like to stop or have support to reduce their use, according to SFGate.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health first said the alcohol and tobacco are funded by private donations in May 2020, and that no taxpayer dollars paid for any alcohol or illicit substances, according to ABC7 News.
That policy has changed, according to Jenna Lane, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and the Department of Health is now using city general fund dollars “for the alcohol prescribed by physicians to some COVID-19 isolation and quarantine guests with alcohol use disorder.”
But “no federal stimulus funds will be used for the managed alcohol program,” Lane said. Cannabis is not a part of the program, she added.
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Fact check: Will Biden’s COVID stimulus really buy weed for San Francisco homeless?."
CORRECTION: Update: This story has been updated to reflect that San Francisco general fund money is now being used to purchase alcohol.
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