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Hundreds testify to San Francisco supervisors to preserve Children’s Fund and youth services
Summary
At a Budget & Finance Committee hearing April 29, hundreds of residents, service providers and youth urged supervisors to protect the Children's Fund and resist proposed cuts to after-school, violence-prevention and family-support programs; the committee continued departmental follow-up and asked agencies to return for more detail.
San Francisco supervisors heard hours of public testimony April 29 as providers, parents and young people urged the Budget & Finance Committee to preserve the city's Children's Fund and halt proposed cuts to youth and family programs.
Chair Supervisor John Avalos opened the hearing and prioritized public comment for those with time constraints before shifting departmental briefings to a later date. Dozens of speakers — from immigrant parents to program directors and dozens of young interns — told the panel that proposed reductions would eliminate services they said are critical for safety, mental health and employment.
Jody Schwartz, executive director of Lyric, described services for LGBTQ youth and cited data she said supported the programs' importance: "Of the over 19,000 youth in high school, 77 percent report hearing anti-gay speech in school and 48 percent report never hearing a teacher or staff person intervene," she said, adding that proposed cuts to Lyric's "Tay" services would threaten life-sustaining supports. YouthWorks staff and interns testified at length about paid internship placements in city departments and asked supervisors to restore a proposed half-million-dollar reduction.
Speakers representing family-support agencies and neighborhood centers said cuts would interrupt mental-health consultants in preschools, after-school programs, summer meal programs, and case management that connects families to food stamps, public assistance and medical care. Jenny Price of Huckleberry Youth Programs testified that a 100 percent midyear cut to a juvenile probation contract left Huckleberry House with a fiscal gap that could force closure: "If we do not have some plan in place for that money, they're not gonna approve our budget. So that would effectively mean a decision to close the shelter," she said.
Supervisor David Campos and other committee members pressed agency representatives to explain the process for reallocating funds. Committee members also asked the Department of Children, Youth & Their Families (DCYF) and the mayor's budget office about YouthWorks funding; city staff said the program is funded largely by interdepartmental work orders and that the shortfall most likely would be about $70,000 if partner departments could not contribute, while asserting the intent to fully fund YouthWorks for the coming year.
The committee did not take votes on program restorations at the hearing. Supervisor Bevan Dufty moved — and colleagues agreed without objection — to continue departmental responses and return the relevant department heads at the call of the chair so supervisors could reconcile public testimony with budget details.
The next steps: the committee will reconvene department representatives to answer specific questions about transitions, one-time funding and eligibility for federal stimulus dollars; formal budget votes were left for future meetings.
