City Government
Mayor London Breed Signs Balanced Budget to Support Economic Recovery, Meet City’s Top Challenges
Two-year budget funds City priorities in supporting a sustained and equitable economic recovery and addressing critical issues that include homelessness, public safety, behavioral health, and youth and family support

San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed signed into law the City and County of San Francisco’s balanced budget for Fiscal Years (FY) 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. The budget advances new investments to support San Francisco’s economic recovery; continue the COVID-19 response; ensure public safety; provide behavioral health care; prevent homelessness and transition people into services and housing; create more housing; promote nonprofit sustainability and equity initiatives; and support children, youth and their families.
Announced on July 29, the annual $13.1 billion for FY 2021-22 and $12.8 billion for FY 2022-23 budget will respond to the City’s most urgent needs as it moves forward on the road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, while preserving long-term financial sustainability.
The final adopted budget follows months of collaborative work with elected officials, City departments, non-profit organizations, neighborhood groups, merchants, residents, and other stakeholders.
Breed and her staff conducted a comprehensive public outreach process, consisting of a public meeting to obtain input on budget priorities, two town halls, and online feedback to hear from residents on their priorities and reflect them in the budget.
“I’m excited to be signing this two-year budget today after months of hard work from everyone involved. It is something that we should all be proud of,” said Breed. “With these investments, we are addressing our most pressing issues by prioritizing the residents and businesses that have been hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. This budget will lay the groundwork for our City’s economy and set San Francisco on a path to emerge from this pandemic stronger than ever.”
“This is a recovery budget that will provide critical support for our residents and small businesses who are still struggling due to the impacts of this pandemic. It will launch new innovative approaches and provide historic investments to confront the health, mental health, economic, housing, and safety challenges facing our city,” said Supervisors Matt Haney, who serves as the Board of Supervisors Budget Chair. “We are all committed to moving forward to deliver on the commitments and investments made in this budget to improve the quality of life and opportunities for everyone in our city.”
Driving a Sustained and Equitable Economic Recovery and Continuing City’s COVID-19 Response
The final adopted budget invests nearly $525 million over the two years for various initiatives to drive and accelerate the City’s economic recovery, while also supporting the City’s COVID-19 response.
Major recovery initiatives include Community Ambassadors and events and activities to enliven San Francisco’s downtown, backfilling the loss of hotel tax revenue for the arts, addressing student learning loss, the Women and Families First Initiative, incentivizing the return of conventions at the Moscone Center, a new Trans Basic Income pilot program, a Free Muni for Youth pilot program, and continuing the JobsNow workforce program and Working Families Credit.
The budget also includes $12 million to support the First Year Free program, which will waive various fees associated with starting a new business in San Francisco, and a $32 million investment to augment the over $90 million in rental relief funds received from the state and federal.
Additionally, the budget includes a $6.4 million annual investment to support the maintenance and expansion of the City’s pitstop program.
Of this total, about $378 million will be spent to continue the City’s COVID-19 shelter response, food security programs, vaccination efforts, testing operations, and the COVID-19 Command Center. Funding will also support community-based COVID-19 recovery programming, specifically targeting resources to populations disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
This funding includes targeted small business support, economic relief, workforce development funds, and various arts, cultural, and recreational programming.
Making Historic Investments in Homelessness and Housing
The final adopted budget includes significant investments to address homelessness in San Francisco and expand the work started through the Homelessness Recovery Plan to create 6,000 placements for people experiencing homelessness.
In total, the budget leverages over $1 billion over the next two years in local, state, and federal resources to add up to 4,000 new housing placements, prevent homelessness and eviction for over 7,000 households, support additional safe parking sites, and fund the continuation of a new 40-bed emergency shelter for families.
All of these investments are in addition to prior commitments. This funding will enable the City to cap all Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) rents in the City’s PSH portfolio at 30% of a tenant’s income.
Supporting Long-Term Economic Justice Strategies
The final adopted budget maintains the City’s $60 million annual investment in the Dream Keeper Initiative, which Breed launched last summer to reinvest City funds in services and programs that support San Francisco’s Black and African American community. The proposed budget also includes funding to waive additional fees and fines paid to the City by San Francisco residents.
Additionally, the budget supports the City’s efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion and ensure citywide coordination of equity work. The budget also makes a significant investment in the sustainability of the City’s nonprofit partners with $76.4 million for an ongoing cost of doing business increase.
Expanding Mental Health and Substance Use Support
Continuing on a commitment to help people with behavioral health and substance use issues, the final adopted budget contains approximately $300 million in new investments for behavioral health services. Included in the budget is funding to prevent overdoses through medication assisted treatment, a drug sobering site, and expanded naloxone distribution. The budget also includes funding to support new and existing Street Response Teams, including the Street Crisis Response Team, Street Wellness Response Team, and Street Overdose Response Team.
This investment will fund the City’s plan to add over 340 new treatment beds, provide case management and care coordination for people receiving services, and expand services at the City’s Behavioral Health Access Center. This investment will also provide targeted services for transgender and Transitional Age Youth clients and increase services for clients in shelters and Permanent Supportive Housing.
Investing in Public Safety, Victims’ Services, and Justice Innovations
The final adopted budget makes investments to prevent violence, support victims, and continues the City’s investments in alternative responses to non-criminal activity. The budget includes over $11 million to expand violence prevention programming and funding for victims’ rights, including targeted investments to support community-based violence prevention and intervention work, and to San Francisco’s Asian and Pacific Islander community.
The final budget includes funding to support police staffing levels, funding two 40-person police academies in FY 2021-22 and one 50-person academy in FY 2022-23. The final budget also includes $3.8 million over the two years to support the addition of 10 paramedics to the Fire Department’s ambulance unit.
To strengthen the City’s non-law enforcement response to non-criminal activity, the final budget includes new funding for a Street Wellness Response Team and resources to support call diversion, including a $3 million investment to support other alternative response models.
Supporting Children, Youth, and Their Families
The final budget includes over $134 million over the two years to lay the groundwork for early learning and universal preschool in San Francisco. This includes funding for childcare subsidies, workforce compensation for childcare providers, and child health and wellbeing. The budget also maintains the City’s existing investments in children and youth, invests significant new funding to address learning loss, funds mental health for SFUSD students, and supports the Mayor’s Opportunities for All initiative.
Investing in Capital Projects and Affordable Housing
The final adopted budget includes significant investments in capital and one-time projects, which will create jobs and spur economic recovery. The budget provides $50.6 million to support affordable housing developments in San Francisco. The budget also includes $208 million for projects from the City’s Capital Plan, including street and parks infrastructure improvements, an expansion of fiber to affordable housing, and community facility improvements. The budget also includes funding to replace aging equipment in the Fire and Police departments, as well as funding to purchase a site for an LGBT Cultural Museum.
Ensuring Financial Resilience
The budget makes the above significant investments in a way that is financially responsible. By utilizing funding from the American Rescue Plan and other one-time sources, the City is able to maintain its reserves. This budget preserves the City’s Rainy Day Reserve for future uncertainty and risk. To hedge against future risk and uncertainty, the budget re-allocates unappropriated funds to create two new reserves that will help to manage unforeseen costs due to potential FEMA reimbursement disallowances and to manage future budget shortfalls.
Activism
Oak Temple Hill Hosts Interfaith Leaders from Across the Bay Area
Distinguished faith leaders Rev. Ken Chambers, executive director the Interfaith Council of Alameda County (ICAC); Michael Pappas, executive director of the San Francisco Interfaith Council; and Dr. Ejaz Naqzi, president of the Contra Costa County Interfaith Council addressed the group on key issues including homelessness, food insecurity, immigration, and meaningful opportunities to care for individuals and communities in need.

Special to the Post
Interfaith leaders from the Bay Area participated in a panel discussion at the annual meeting of communication leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held on Temple Hill in Oakland on May 31. Distinguished faith leaders Rev. Ken Chambers, executive director the Interfaith Council of Alameda County (ICAC); Michael Pappas, executive director of the San Francisco Interfaith Council; and Dr. Ejaz Naqzi, president of the Contra Costa County Interfaith Council addressed the group on key issues including homelessness, food insecurity, immigration, and meaningful opportunities to care for individuals and communities in need.
Chambers, said he is thankful for the leadership and support of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints’ global ministry, which recently worked with the interfaith congregations of ICAC to help Yasjmine Oeveraas a homeless Norwegian mother and her family find shelter and access to government services.
Oeveraas told the story of how she was assisted by ICAC to the Oakland Post. “I’m a Norwegian citizen who escaped an abusive marriage with nowhere to go. We’ve been homeless in Florida since January 2024. Recently, we came to California for my son’s passport, but my plan to drive for Uber fell through, leaving us homeless again. Through 2-1-1, I was connected to Rev. Ken Chambers, pastor of the West Side Missionary Baptist Church and president of the Interfaith Council of Alameda County, and his car park program, which changed our lives. We spent about a week-and-a-half living in our car before being blessed with a trailer. After four years of uncertainty and 18 months of homelessness, this program has given us stability and hope again.
“Now, both my son and I have the opportunity to continue our education. I’m pursuing cyber analytics, something I couldn’t do while living in the car. My son can also complete his education, which is a huge relief. This program has given us the space to focus and regain our dignity. I am working harder than ever to reach my goals and give back to others in need.”
Richard Kopf, communication director for The Church of Jesus Christ in the Bay Area stated: “As followers of Jesus Christ, we embrace interfaith cooperation and are united in our efforts to show God’s love for all of his children.”
Alameda County
Council Approves Budget to Invest in Core City Services, Save Fire Stations, Invest in Economic Development
I am most proud of our ability to fund these critical city services without the use of one-time fixes. We are still suffering the consequences of last year’s budget, where a majority of the Council, myself not included, chose to incorporate anticipated proceeds from the sale of the Coliseum to fund essential services. Since the sale has still not yet been completed, the lack of funds led to drastic cuts in city services, including the temporary closure of fire stations, staff layoffs, and the cancellations of many service contracts.

By Janani Ramachandran, District 4 Oakland City Councilmember
On Wednesday, June 11, City Council took a bold step to prioritize investing in essential city services to get our beautiful Town back on track. As Chair of the Finance Committee, I am proud to have led a collaborative process, alongside Councilmembers Rowena Brown, Zac Unger, and Charlene Wang, to develop a set of amendments to the proposed FY 2025-2027 budget which passed successfully with a vote of 6 – 1. Despite facing a $265 million structural budget deficit, we were able to restore funding to ensure that all 25 fire stations remain open, fund 5 police academies, invest millions of dollars to combat illegal dumping and sideshow prevention, improve our permitting processes, fund a “business incentives” program to revitalize our commercial corridors, improve upon our homelessness prevention work, amplify the city’s anti-trafficking programs, re-instate our tree services division, staff up our Auditor’s office – all while preventing any layoffs of city staff, keeping our senior centers and after-school programs open, and crisis services like MACRO funded.
I am most proud of our ability to fund these critical city services without the use of one-time fixes. We are still suffering the consequences of last year’s budget, where a majority of the Council, myself not included, chose to incorporate anticipated proceeds from the sale of the Coliseum to fund essential services. Since the sale has still not yet been completed, the lack of funds led to drastic cuts in city services, including the temporary closure of fire stations, staff layoffs, and the cancellations of many service contracts. The budget that we passed this week proudly does not fund recurring expenses with anticipated one-time revenue – and moves our city towards being fiscally responsible with our taxpayers’ funds.
Our budget comes in response to the widespread and consistent calls from across Oakland’s diverse communities asking us to prioritize funding solutions to the issues that have most directly impacted our residents’ safety and quality of life. Our priorities are also inspired by our belief that Oakland is on the way not only to financial recovery, but also to global recognition. Oakland can attract and preserve businesses of all sizes with safer, cleaner streets. We can and will have more large-scale festivals that celebrate our culture, concerts that uplift our incredible local musicians, conferences that attract patrons from across the world, and award-winning restaurants that top national charts. We are on our way to rebuilding a thriving economy and having a cultural renaissance will create more jobs for Oaklanders while also generating more revenue for the City through sales and business taxes.
I am grateful for the close partnership with our new Mayor Barbara Lee, and know that she shares our values of ensuring we are prioritizing keeping Oakland’s residents safe, our streets clean, and our businesses prosperous in an open and fiscally responsible manner. I am also thankful to our City Administrator, Jestin Johnson, and former Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins’ efforts to produce the initial proposal that our Council budget team used as a starting point for our amendments, and for their shared commitment to transparency and ethical government. I am especially grateful for every resident that took the time to make their voice heard throughout this rigorous budget process. I have no doubt that we are on the verge of true change, and that together we will bring Oakland back to being the world-class city I know it can be.
Activism
“We Are Better Than This”: Black Caucus Denounces L.A. County ICE Raids as Multiple Protests Erupt
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), a member of the CLBC and chair of the Los Angeles County Legislative Delegation, urged protestors to show restraint and deescalate rising tensions. “Don’t take the bait. Remain peaceful. Peace is our power,” she posted on Facebook. McKinnor also blasted the feds for detaining David Huerta, a popular labor leader and president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who was documenting the raids.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media
Members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) last week condemned ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in California.
The caucus released the statement the same day multiple protests erupted in Los Angeles County, reacting to three ICE raids conducted in that area.
“For months w,e have watched the unsettling images of federal agents rampaging through our communities. We have stood in horror as masked, heavily armed men ransack neighborhoods under the color of law leaving terror and trauma in their wake,” read a June 6 statement released by the CLBC.
Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), a member of the CLBC and chair of the Los Angeles County Legislative Delegation, urged protestors to show restraint and deescalate rising tensions.
“Don’t take the bait. Remain peaceful. Peace is our power,” she posted on Facebook.
McKinnor also blasted the feds for detaining David Huerta, a popular labor leader and president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who was documenting the raids.
“The actions by this federal government are un-American,” wrote McKinnor in a statement. “We demand is immediate release and an end to the terror being inflicted on communities across L.A. County by this administration.”
According to Yasmeen Pitts, a Homeland Security Investigations division spokesperson, 44 people have been detained in arrests related to the protests.
Pitts said ICE agents targeted three locations in central Los Angeles they accuse of harboring undocumented immigrants.
The Black Caucus statement called the violent arrest of community leaders leading protests against the raids “a tool in the authoritarian playbook.”
“No person or family, regardless of origin, deserves to be the target of the terror being inflicted across the country in this moment,” the statement continued.
On June 7, Bill Essayli, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, posted on X, “federal agents arrested over a dozen agitators today who impeded agents in their ability to conduct law enforcement operations.”
“We will continue to arrest anyone who interferes with federal law enforcement,” he added.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass thanked local law enforcement for keeping the peace in the city.
This is a difficult time for our city. As we recover from an unprecedented natural disaster, many in our community are feeling fear following recent federal immigration enforcement actions across Los Angeles County. Reports of unrest outside the city, including in Paramount, are deeply concerning,” posted Bass on X.
“We’ve been in direct contact with officials in Washington, D.C. and are working closely with law enforcement to find the best path forward. Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable,” she added.
On June 9, the Trump administration said it will send 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell the anti-ICE protests.
Newsom called the decision “deranged.”
“As the federal government conducts chaotic immigration sweeps across the country, the state is deploying additional CHP to maintain safety on Los Angeles highways to keep the peace,” wrote Newsom in a statement posted on X. “It’s not their job to assist in federal immigration enforcement. The federal government is sowing chaos so they can have an excuse to escalate. That is not the way any civilized country behaves.”
-
Activism4 weeks ago
After Two Decades, Oakland Unified Will Finally Regain Local Control
-
Alameda County4 weeks ago
Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment
-
Activism4 weeks ago
New Oakland Moving Forward
-
Barbara Lee4 weeks ago
WNBA’s Golden State Valkyries Kick Off Season with Community Programs in Oakland
-
Activism4 weeks ago
East Bay Community Foundation’s New Grants Give Oakland’s Small Businesses a Boost
-
Activism4 weeks ago
Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing
-
Activism4 weeks ago
OPINION: Your Voice and Vote Impact the Quality of Your Health Care
-
Bay Area4 weeks ago
Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System