Committed to District 6 Leadership That Brings Solutions to Our City

By Supervisor Matt Dorsey–

I was appointed to serve as District 6 Supervisor in May of this year. I’m committed to leadership that brings solutions to our City that are as big as our problems, which include crisis-level challenges from drug overdose deaths, open-air drug dealing, and the need for affordable housing.

I’m the first self-identified member of the substance use recovery community to serve on the Board of Supervisors in a generation. As the only current member of the Board to acknowledge a history with substance use disorder, I’m committed to providing paths to recovery for those struggling with addiction. As an out gay man who is openly HIV positive, I proudly join Supervisor Rafael Mandelman as the board’s second current LGBTQ+ member.

My 14 years of experience in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office have prepared me extraordinarily well for the role of Supervisor that I now hold, and am proud to have served as one of two LGBTQ+ members of City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s executive staff for the entirety of that time, serving first alongside Terry Stewart and then Ron Flynn. Our work together in that office included more than just history-making litigation—it was the nine-year, nationwide communications strategy the City Attorney and I both led to win the hearts and minds necessary to strike down Prop 8 once and for all in 2013.

I’m a City government veteran, most recently serving on the command staff of the SFPD as the department’s Communications Director. Under the leadership of San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott, I worked with the SFPD in partnership with the California Department of Justice since 2018 to implement some 272 recommendations that aspire to make SFPD a national model of 21st Century policing. 

Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Catherine Stefani joined me to introduce San Francisco Recovers, an ambitious, new public health and criminal justice approach to the deadly drug crisis facing our City: https://tinyurl.com/46za2ea7

The comprehensive citywide strategy aims to reduce drug overdose deaths, incentivize recovery for those struggling with addiction, end street-level drug dealing, and open-air drug scenes. The approach is based on successful drug market interventions found in the U.S. and Europe, and identifies needed seed funding from City Attorney David Chiu’s $100+ million settlement with opioid manufacturers.

I’m a strong and early supporter of Proposition D, the Affordable Homes Now charter amendment on the November ballot to streamline desperately-needed affordable housing, teacher housing, and mixed-income housing. Prop D is the most efficient pathway towards achieving more affordable housing in our City for low- and middle-income San Franciscans and public school teachers. The work San Francisco is currently undertaking on its Housing Element for the next eight years may be the most important racial and social justice work I’ll do in my career. We can make real progress to address economic inequality and housing unaffordability, and to ensure that we fulfill the promise of a truly progressive housing production plan.

Learn more about my work and policies at https://www.mattdorsey.org/

Supervisor Matt Dorsey represents District 6, consisting of SoMa, Mission Bay, East Cut, and Treasure Island. Previously he served for 14 years in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and was the Head of Communications for the San Francisco Police Department.

Election 2022 State and Local Voter Guide
Published on October 20, 2022