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San Francisco budget hearing draws hours of testimony as human-services cuts threaten senior meals, on‑call care, transgender employment program
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Summary
Hundreds testified at a Budget & Finance Committee hearing on proposed Human Services Agency cuts that would reduce senior nutrition, IHSS on-call support, supportive-housing services and eliminate the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative; HSA and the mayor’s office said some items were restored and others reflect broader budget and state funding limits.
The Budget and Finance Committee heard more than four hours of public testimony on proposed cuts to the Human Services Agency (HSA) and the Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAS), with speakers warning that reductions would harm seniors, people with disabilities, the homeless and members of the transgender community.
"The Older Americans Act purpose is to end dietary inadequacy and to keep people healthy," said Vera Hale, an advisory-council member for DAS, urging restoration of a proposed $515,000 reduction to senior nutrition services. "This is the first time" the county has considered such cuts to a long‑standing program, she said.
Testimony that followed offered dozens of individual accounts. Vicki Westland, who said she lives with severe arthritis, told the panel that the loss of complementary therapies, dental care and other services had left her and her peers feeling abandoned. Roland Wong, an IHSS peer mentor, described how the on‑call emergency assistance program averts hospitalizations and said holding line‑item funding flat will cut service next year unless roughly $20,000–$23,000 is restored to draw federal matching funds.
Advocates for homeless services and supportive housing warned cuts would increase homelessness and emergency costs. Gail Gilman of the Community Housing Partnership said a proposed $73,000 reduction to the agency’s supportive‑housing contract would undercut services at sites including the Essex Hotel and could force evictions of the city’s most vulnerable tenants.
Speakers from the Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative (TEI) and partner organizations urged the board not to eliminate the program. Rebecca Rolfe with the San Francisco LGBT Community Center said the mayor’s budget proposes a $239,000 reduction that would remove a program the presenters say has placed more than 100 transgender jobseekers since it launched. "This program supports services at the center, at Jewish Vocational Services and at the Transgender Law Center," Rolfe said.
HSA representatives, including Phil Arnold and Anne Hinton, answered questions and described how some recommended cuts reflect reductions in state funding and the need to balance a major budget gap. Arnold told the committee that two homeless drop‑in centers that had been on the cut list — the United Council (Mother Brown’s) and the Mission Resource Center — were restored for the coming fiscal year; he said the City is also party to a lawsuit requiring shelter and drop‑in maintenance for a year from an anticipated settlement date (August 13), but that the settlement does not guarantee services beyond that period.
On supportive housing, HSA staff said the department is not recommending elimination of housing units and has focused reductions instead on bringing high‑cost service contracts in line with a narrower cost range; HSA also explained it suspended new enrollments in a rental‑subsidy program after the Board extended benefit timelines to five years without new funding, a decision HSA said was intended to avoid having to cut current participants next year.
Mayor’s budget director Greg Wagner briefed the committee on the citywide balancing plan and cited several revenue and savings sources the mayor’s office is counting on, including the federal FMAP Medicaid match extension (not yet final), an anticipated SB 188 hospital fee, fund‑balance carryforward, and wage/position savings. Wagner described the plan as contingent on several state and federal outcomes and acknowledged uncertainty if those external items do not materialize.
Supervisor David Campos pressed the mayor’s office and budget staff on the policy reasoning behind some specific reductions, particularly the TEI cut. "This is a community where there is no alternative," Campos said, urging the mayor’s office and the committee to restore programs that serve populations with few other resources.
Committee action: the committee granted staff authority to review position‑exception hires in the interim appropriation package and voted to forward interim budget items (1–4) to the full Board with a recommendation; it also approved a lease‑refunding bond measure for emergency‑communications assets (item 5) after a brief presentation from the Office of Public Finance.
What happens next: items forwarded by the committee will go to the full Board of Supervisors for final action; staff and members indicated they will continue to pursue restorations and additional revenues, while noting several proposed restorations are contingent on state/federal actions such as FMAP and SB 188.
Sources and attributions: This article attributes direct quotes and specific program details only to speakers who testified at the Budget & Finance Committee hearing (transcript): Supervisor John Avalos; Phil Arnold and Anne Hinton (HSA/DAS staff); Vera Hale; Vicki Westland; Donna Wilmot (Planning for Elders); Sandy Wong (Institute on Aging); Roland Wong, Kenzie Roby, and Margaret Baron (IHSS / IHSS Public Authority); Rebecca Rolfe, Rabbi Elliot Kukla, Jesse Wells, Christina Wirtz and other TEI witnesses; Gail Gilman, Megan Smith and tenant speakers from the Community Housing Partnership; Greg Wagner (Mayor’s budget director).
