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Hundreds urge more spending on homelessness, senior services, childcare and arts during budget hearing
Summary
At a public hearing on the mayor's proposed budget, scores of residents, nonprofit leaders and coalitions urged supervisors to add funding for housing subsidies and shelters, expand senior and disability services, preserve arts grants, and fund childcare and early education.
Hundreds of San Franciscans took the podium during the Budget & Finance Committee's public-comment period to press supervisors for additional spending in several social-service areas, with repeated calls for more housing subsidies and full-service shelters, expanded senior supports, no cuts to arts grants and greater early-childhood education funding.
Homelessness and housing subsidies dominated testimony. Speakers representing the Coalition on Homelessness, the Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association (HESPA), and numerous service providers urged the board to fund additional permanent subsidies and shelter capacity. Testimony varied on exact dollar totals—the transcript records speakers citing both $8.4 million and $9.5 million as outstanding asks—and on the number of vouchers requested (commonly 400 or 500). Refuge and shelter deficiencies in the Bayview were highlighted repeatedly; witnesses described mats on shelter floors, lack of showers, and a newborn released from a hospital with nowhere to go.
Senior and disability advocates—including the Dignity Fund Coalition and multiple senior-center leaders—asked that the board prioritize home-delivered meals, group-van transportation, adult-day health centers and housing subsidies for seniors and people with disabilities. Speakers noted that the Dignity Fund's first-year allocation was $6 million and that the approved administrative set-aside for cost-of-doing-business was 2.5 percent; they thanked the mayor's proposed add-backs (including a $500,000 increase for home-delivered meals) but warned that many needs remain unmet.
Arts organizations and cultural districts delivered a unified message: preserve Grants for the Arts and the Arts Commission budget. Multiple arts leaders cited a November ballot measure that they said showed voter support for arts funding and warned that cuts would accelerate the loss of artists and cultural organizations.
Childcare, early childhood education and nonprofit operations were also frequent topics. Parent groups and early-care providers asked for roughly $6—$10 million in new ECE/childcare investments and a cost-of-doing-business adjustment to help nonprofit providers recruit and retain staff. Several nonprofit coalitions and unions backed a modest additional 1 percent cost-of-doing-business increase for city contractors on top of the mayor's 2.5 percent bridge.
Quotes from the hearing capture the tone: "When you have keys to a house, you're able to succeed in life," said Reyna Cruz, a formerly homeless mother who urged funding for 500 housing subsidies and full-service family shelters. "The dignity fund was a great down payment on our future," said Fiona Hensley of the Dignity Fund Coalition, "but there are other asks." Numerous providers urged the board to fund HESPA and the Budget Justice Coalition requests in full.
What was not decided: The committee did not vote on budget adoption at this hearing. After the public-comment block, the committee voted to continue items 1 and 2 to June 21. That postponement preserves opportunities for supervisors to request or approve add-backs informed by the testimony.
Next steps: Supervisors will reconvene to continue deliberations and consider amendments; the items will appear on the full Board docket if advanced.
