David Sjostedt

David is a writer based in California.

Named best ongoing coverage in Northern California.
(Society of Professional Journalists, 2024)

Swipe below to see some of the hundreds of stories he’s told.

Stories

A dying mother. A lost daughter. And a city pushed to its limit
California’s homeless ‘purgatory’ leaves thousands on a waitlist to nowhere
SF is losing a generation of Black men to overdoses. It’s worse here than anywhere
The killer of a skateboarding legend went unnamed for years. Could deaths have been prevented?
Bodies in streets, parks, buses: The everyday horror of stumbling on an overdose victim
The party is over in the Tenderloin
Paralyzed from the neck down, a patient smoked fentanyl and died. His family wants answers
SF’s most arrested homeless man sleeps outside his childhood home
Street vigilantes are wielding Narcan ‘like a weapon’
A mother, an officer, a heartbreaking death: How a program for addicts stumbled on the streets of the Tenderloin
Fentanyl is their drug, sugar is their vice. Users explain their desperate need for candy
300 health department employees with secret side gigs come forward after scandal
The Mission is the new Tenderloin
The new rules of SF's drug markets
Kids are selling drugs and stolen goods in the Tenderloin. It’s an open secret on the city’s roughest blocks
Activist behind ‘Downtown is for drug users’ campaign dies of overdose
San Francisco drug users forced by dealers to hold narcotics, cash and guns
Dead people are on probation in San Francisco as agency’s budget soared
After 50K homeless camp complaints, SF’s response time depends on where you live
SF paid a hotel millions to fix homeless damage. It’s still closed
Fatal overdoses raise new questions about scandalized drug rehab nonprofit
Black families disproportionately displaced by SF homeless housing program
SF housing nonprofit spends big on politics. Tenants deal with infestations, overdoses
SF public health official resigns from unauthorized nonprofit gig
Why is fentanyl drastically cheaper in San Francisco than in LA, NYC and Philly?
‘It’s not fun anymore’: Fentanyl users rush for treatment as drug deaths drop
Life on the Bay Bridge’s ‘Trash Beach,’ where rent is free and the view is worth millions
San Francisco sent hundreds of homeless people away. To where, the city doesn’t know