Oakland officials are exploring building a safe injection site for illicit-drug users in hopes of lowering open-air drug use on city streets.

Mayor Libby Schaaf and Councilwoman Nikki Fortunato Bas introduced a resolution to the City Council Thursday to support AB362, a state bill that would allow the city and county of San Francisco to operate a supervised center for drug users. The resolution also requests that the state bill be amended to include Oakland.

“Oakland is a very compassionate and progressive city,” Schaaf said. “Anything new would be met with skepticism, which is healthy, but I always say the biggest risk is to do nothing at all. We need to try new strategies to do better.”

If the bill is amended, it would give Oakland approval to pursue building a safe injection site in the city. The bill was written by Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, and co-written by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.

A similar bill, also co-written by Eggman and Wiener, was vetoed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in October. But Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he is receptive to the idea of a safe injection site, even though opening one would remain illegal under federal law.

“Clearly, it’s a controversial issue. We respect that,” Schaaf said. “We are hopeful it can survive the legislative process and are encouraged by this governor’s at least initial support conceptually for signing such a law.”

The bill passed in the state Assembly’s health and public safety committees, and it will next be heard on the Assembly floor. If passed by the Assembly, it will go to the state Senate. There, it could be amended to include Oakland if there is strong support from the City Council and mayor’s office, said Laura Thomas, the deputy state director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a co-sponsor of the bill.

In 2017, 373 people in California died from fentanyl overdoses, the highest number of fentanyl-related deaths the state has seen since health officials began tracking the deaths in 2008, according to the California Department of Public Health. In Alameda County, 37 deaths from opioid-related overdoses were reported in 2017.

Andrew Herring, an emergency room physician at Highland Hospital, said patients come in regularly with complications from injecting drugs in unsanitary conditions. Many struggle with infections that can result in paralysis, HIV and hepatitis C, or death.

“I would say that a day doesn’t go by that I don’t treat someone with a complication from injected-drug use at the ER in Highland,” said Herring, who is also the director of the hospital’s Substance Use Disorder Treatment Program. “We do see young and old. People who have been shooting for a while, people who are just starting.”

The city’s housing crisis has exacerbated the use of illicit drugs in public, said Loris Mattox, executive director of the HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County.

“There is literally no space for someone to set up their encampment — they’re doing it on a sidewalk,” Mattox said. “That equates to increased litter. There is increased food waste, increased human waste and then there are increased syringes.”

A 2017 survey of 98 people in Oakland by the Harm Reduction Coalition and Drug Policy Alliance found that 54% reported illicit-drug use in public. Homeless people were 28% more likely to engage in frequent street drug use, according to the report.

Not only would a safe injection site take the use of open-air drugs off the streets, but it would also save the city millions of dollars in litter abatement, Bas said.

“That could be of interest to the city, given how stretched our budget is and how we are looking for ways to be proactive about the ways we continue to fund the services our residents need,” Bas said. “The first step is passing this bill so that at least our two cities and the county of San Francisco would have an opportunity to design and pilot these programs.”

Other council members have already expressed their support for the resolution. At Thursday’s Rules and Legislation Committee meeting, council President Rebecca Kaplan said it is important for the city to “fight for actions like this.”

“This is a really great way to reduce dramatically... the problem of syringes in parks and other places where it creates a public health problem,” Kaplan said. “I’m happy to support it.”

The City Council is expected to vote on the resolution on May 21.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani