this is cbs news bay area with elizabeth cook. drug addicts in san francisco could be forced to get screened and enter into treatment in order to get cash from the city. >> right now, people who are addicted are making life decisions that are not good for them. >> would it help combat the drug crisis or make it worse? >> the drug training is not the right approach. >> we are talking one-on-one with people on both sides as we dive deep into prop f. thank you for joining us this afternoon. a week from today, voters across california will be making big decisions at

the polls. over the past few days, we have been taking a closer look at some of the key local races in this year's primary. this afternoon, we are focusing on prop f in san francisco. we will he -- be hearing direct from both sides. first, let's get news headlines. >> macy's is planning to close its flagship massive store in union square. it will not happen immediately. it has been a union square landmark since opening in 1947. it is one of 150 stores nationwide that macy's plans to close through 2026. this is a major blow to the city's downtown shopping hub. mayor london breed says the decision has nothing to do with crime. >> just to be clear, macy's made a business decision to close 150 stores all over the country and they are selling the property at union square. it will remain open until

whatever -- >> there are possibilities here . we are leaving. we are exiting. this is a completely different situation and i look at it as an opportunity. >> this comes a year after nordstrom's closed its doors at the westfield mall. the city also lost dozens of small retail stores during the pandemic. daniel lori releasing a statement on the closure saying that failure to challenge the system is exactly what has destroyed our vibrant downtown and will hold us back from rebuilding. candidate and former mayor mark farrell calling it a gut punch and scary news. plain and simple, we cannot afford another four years of field leadership from city hall. this afternoon, a murder investigation after a uc santa cruz student was strangled to death at the beach. 20-year-old samuel stone was the one to call 911. when they got there,

they found him standing over his unconscious girlfriend. the future of raging waters in the san jose up for a vote today. a new operator will take over the park. it plans to pump $6 million into the park which includes new features like a wine bar and food trucks. the nearly 40-year-old attraction closed abruptly last summer. if this plan is approved, the park is expected to reopen this summer. turning now to our weather. first alert meteorologist darren peck is tracking the return of rain this week. >> i will show you the rain arriving. the question is, when will it end? this system will be around for a while. it is not overwhelming rain but it is

significant snow for the sierra. here is tomorrow morning. we have another frost advisory for northbay valleys. we will see temperatures back into the mid-30s for many of those coldest locations. just a heads up on that, it will be cold again for thursday morning. let's look ahead now to the rest of the forecast and start timing out the rain. the numbers are low enough to cause the temperatures tomorrow are trapping in cold air. we are about to import much colder air from up north end as we watch how this comes together, the one coming in from late thursday comes down directly from the gulf of alaska. we could start getting more specific on timing at the beginning. that is thursday afternoon in the northbay. thursday, by commute time -- that is the commute home . on thursday, that rain arrives through the heart of the bay. from then on, it will be

on-again and off-again the scattered showers from thursday all the way through sunday. there will be plenty of time where you get some breaks but you do have to plan on the chance of showers and even the occasional thunderstorm. by the time we get into saturday, sunday, we will get back in toward the middle of the system where the instability resides and you could get isolated thunderstorms from saturday into sunday. it looks real busy on the long-range forecast models because the storm has a lot to work with in terms of duration and how we will get through it. it won't look that impressive when it plays out because there will be plenty of rakes on this system from a rainfall standpoint. if we look at rainfall totals, there is some divergence. from thursday through sunday, anywhere from 2 inches or when we look at the other model, maybe an inch and a half. either of those scenarios still is not enough to raise the flooding concerns here at home. it does not look like anything we can't handle. the snow in the sierra will be

extreme. in fact, we don't get many of these but the national weather service has issued a blizzard warning for the sierra and the timeframe on that goes from thursday until sunday. some of the headlines there, travel will be an impossibility because the amount of snow coming to the sierra will be enough that they will have to close i-80 and highway 54 a time. you can see what it looks like thursday but by friday, the cold air starts to settle in and the real accumulation begins. friday and saturday are going to be the very difficult days in the sierra from a snowfall standpoint. here at home, it is busy. we know we have four days of rain. some of the more widespread rain comes thursday and then hit and miss will be possible saturday into sunday. that is where the forecast stands for now.

it is clear that something needs to be done about the drug crisis in the san francisco. should people be forced to undergo drug screenings or to receive cash assistance from the city? that is the idea behind proposition f . mayor london breed put prop f on the ballot. while those receiving benefits would not have to prove sobriety, they would have to enroll in treatment if the city thinks it is necessary. if they refuse, they don't get the cash. the mayor says this is about reducing drug overdose deaths. record 813 people died just last year alone. our wilson walker has more on this latest flashpoint in the city's drug crisis. >> i live right here in this yellow building right here. this smaller place. single rooms. >> you got a place. >> for andrew, it has been 10 years of homelessness

punctuated with occasional housing arrangements and he has one now that sro gives him. an escape from the elements and eligibility. for $712 a month in cash , through the county adult assistance program, people who were unhoused, living in the streets, they are eligible for $109. >> i don't take it for granted. i appreciate every aspect of it. >> on this day, he has stepped outside of that housing to join friends who gather partly for safety in numbers because of the legality of the drugs they are using. andrew says he is currently making a push for treatment and proposition f could force him to make some decisions in that regard. f would require anyone receiving and if it's to be screened for substance use disorder. if that appears to be the case, they would be required to participate in a treatment program or lose those cash payments. >> honestly, that would disqualify people who need help. the drug screening is not

the right approach for me, personally. >> that is what will help us move this city forward out of what was a very challenging time. >> proposition f is the mayor's ballot measure. another proposal for responding to the ongoing opioid crisis. reaction to the plan runs right along some very well-establishe d faultlines in that discussion. >> f is a cynical and unserious waste of resources that will materially harm very vulnerable people. >> lining up in opposition are many of the care providers san francisco contracts with the city's response to the drug crisis. it could hurt those already in trouble. >> in addition, many people who are on the streets now and using drugs will simply not apply for assistance and, therefore, not have any access to treatment through the services system.

>> when folks are addicted to this poison and it is the worst addiction that i have ever seen, it is literally killing people. over 800 people last year. when we are giving them up to $700 a month and they are addicted and using that to purchase fentanyl, that is not improving people's lives. >> trend to roar heads the san francisco human services agency and he says f would not cost anyone there housing or other benefits but the cash, he argues, deserves more scrutiny. the city estimates one third of those receiving cash assistance have substance abuse disorder in the city has been looking for those recipients during the past year's crackdown on sidewalk drug use. >> 21% of the people that they arrested were getting public assistance from the city and of those, 42% of them, almost half of the people who are receiving locally funded public assistance said they lived in

another city when they were arrested. >> so, it is the continuation of the debate over how to move people toward treatment, something san francisco has struggled with and argued over for years now. here is gary mccoy of health right 360. >> it always seems to be the default on we will take care of this and make a difference. it is always some sort of punitive approach that punishes people. >> people will say this punitive. i would argue it is. right now, people who are addicted are making life decisions that are not good for them. >> those receiving the money have their own questions about how f might work and andrew, while skeptical of the drug screening plan, says he would like to see a different kind of drug crisis triage. >> i think what would help people would be, instead of a drug screening, to profile

screen. get a better way to organize the people who are actually living here. there are a lot of people here who don't even live here and just come here to buy fentanyl and just get stuck here or are taking up space. they should find a way to screen and find out who those people are and drug screen them and then send them back to where they came from. >> that is a conversation we will pickup another day but f does raise the question of how much treatment is readily available for all of those in san francisco who might need it. this proposition would pass with a simple majority vote. coming up next, we are hearing directly - [narrator] at kpix, we're taking weather to the next level. - we can show not just what's happening at ground level, but we can show what's happening in the upper levels of the atmosphere. let's lift the clouds off of ground level and talk... - it really spotlights how unique the geography is here. - it's dynamic. it's different. as i lift this, you can actually see it in real-time. this is shaking it up for me as an meteorologist.

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to republican control of the senate. stop garvey. adam schiff for senate. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message. we are continuing our conversation on prop f in san francisco. the measure would require drug screenings for anyone receiving cash assistance from the city. joining me now is jennifer freedom bach from the san francisco coalition on homelessness. why is prop f not a good idea? if prop f is not the answer, what is? >> san franciscans are rightly concerned about overdoses. it has been really tragic. we deserve a serious response. what prop f is going to do is it is going to drive up

homelessness. they will profile whether someone is a drug user or not and then they will require them to go to a set of appointments. if they miss those appointments, they lose their assistance, their housing and their shelter. it will seriously drive up homelessness which also drives up substance use and overdose rates. >> san francisco was being pressured to take a harder line on drug use and many folks were living on the streets are refusing to get help. what is your response to that? >> we have an overdose plan in the san francisco that is really well thought out and it is sitting on a shelf gathering dust . right now, we have over half of people seeking treatment getting turned away. what we need to do is prioritize making sure that people have the kind of treatment that will work well for them, whether that is trauma treatment, dual diagnosis because they have a mental health treatment -- we need a variety of treatment modalities that are not in place. prop f will not bring us that increased capacity. it

will actually drive up we times by wasting clinician time. >> you mention that prop f, if passed, would possibly lead to more overdose deaths. can you explain how that would work? it is intended to do the opposite. >> when you have increased rates of homelessness, substance use goes way up. the second piece of it is , one of the reason we have big waits for treatment is we have beds sitting empty and licensed facilities because we have a commission change. with this initiative, it will use the money they saved by cutting people off of assistance and use that money to pay for the commissions and that will pull clinicians away from the

treatment programs and that will mean longer waits. longer waits means higher overdose rates. this is just not a well-thought-out measure and that is the reason why a variety of people are opposing it. really, anyone who has done an analysis on it from the san francisco chronicle to stir to the democratic party to healthcare professionals, addiction researchers, treatment providers. all of them are coming out really hard against basic necessities. if they are housed, it is just over $700 but the overwhelming majority of that goes to pay rent. half of the people on public assistance are renting from a landlord. they are not even getting any kind of subsidies. there is very little

left over money. that access to money actually does not have any - lift the clouds off of... - virtual weather, only on kpix and pix+.

we are continuing our conversation on proposition f in san francisco. joining me now is the senior vice president of public policy from the bay area council. why is prop f important? why should voters vote for it? >> at the end of the day, san franciscans have been in shock over the increase of overdose deaths. by the end of today, literally, there will be another three dead san franciscans due to overdose deaths . most of it is fentanyl. we are on track for having about 1000 deaths this year. that is a 300% over the past five years. the status quo is not working. we need to give the city more tools to compel

people into treatment to save their own lives. >> what do you say to folks who say this is criminalizing addicts? they are suffering from an addiction, a disease. this could deny them services and lead to more homelessness, more drug addiction? >> there is no criminalization happening here. just that off the bat. the criminal justice system is not involved in this at all. this is about giving the city's public health department discretion to identify when someone is being screened homeless services whether or not they are a good candidate, whether or not they have a substance use disorder that will threaten their lives and to provide them a customized treatment plan as a condition for accessing city, shelter, employment . >> criminalization is not the right word but punishing people who are suffering from that addiction. there are people who say these folks need help. >> the biggest punishment is an untreated addiction resulting

in death. over 800 deaths on the streets of san francisco every year because of fentanyl. this is a new, more powerful drug, 50 times more powerful than standard heroin. traditional recreation use is not in the use -- in the cards. if people are suffering a substance use disorder with it, we have a moral obligation to get them treatment. we have the tools with proposition f, additional tools to help try to compel them into it. >> what you say to critics who say this money could be better spent on treatment programs, other services then taking necessary money away from people? >> not everybody wants to have a treatment program. not everyone is ready. what we are trying to balance is compassion and accountability for the ultimate goal of saving lives. we need to focus on saving lives. we cannot be a great city with 1000 people dying on our streets and in our

supportive housing projects every year. something has got to change. this measure would give the city tools to help compel people into service. >> there is a concern that some people will go into treatment before they are ready and then relapse and then possibly go out and, unfortunately, pass away because they started using again. what is your response to that? >> that could be a risk but you have to lay that risk against the risk of the status quo, which we know is 800 people dying every day -- a year and three people dying every day. that is the status quo. it is hard to imagine action greater than that. >> as we develop this program, there will be lessons learned along the way but you have to start somewhere. >> this is such a complicated issue. do you think this will be the magic puzzle piece to solve everything?

>> on a public policy challenge this complicated, there was no silver bullet. you solve it with a series of measures that compound upon one another to get to a better outcome. this is not a

- it's so fun to watch jessica in this space. - this is a look at those clouds right now in real-time, but let's head underneath this cloud layer and take a look at our rainfall... - [narrator] the virtual view studio, part of "morning edition." weekday mornings starting at 5 on kpix. tonight, we will have more on macy's closing up its flagship store in union square. what this means for the city's

prime shopping hub. that story and much more with ryan yamamoto and myself coming up tonight at 5:00. thank you so much for joining us for a closer look at both sides of prop f. we will be taking a much deeper dive with other key ballot measures over the next few days right here 3:00. you can always find all of our political stories anytime on our website, www.kpix.com. i will see you at 5:00. >> norah: tonight, the shut down on. tensions over government funding, the southern border and russia's war in ukraine. >> the riding is literally on the ball here. we are not asking too much. we just need artillery shells and aviation. the rest weil