Budget battle status report: Millions still to be cut from TL organizations

The fight over San Francisco budget cuts is ongoing, and organizers are pressing legislators to restore funding for critical services and programs. Read on for the latest update on what’s endangered and how you can get involved.

Some organizations serving Tenderloin residents have been spared the knife in recent weeks, but many are still facing budget reductions as part of legislators’ efforts to balance San Francisco’s deficit. 

A significant portion of the $3.8 million in cuts that would affect the neighborhood are being made to job-placement and -readiness programs, as well as a broad category of assistance called “service navigation.” This is when people receive help figuring out how to clear bureaucratic hurdles so that they can actually access the services that are available on paper. It can include things like establishing eligibility and making sure people can get to appointments.

Keep in mind that these are the cuts that the People’s Budget Coalition has catalogued; there could be others that affect the Tenderloin in ways that we don’t yet know about. Also, advocates’ and legislators’ understanding of what is being funded and cut is changing constantly.

San Francisco supervisors have the rest of June to strike deals and move money around in Mayor Daniel Lurie’s proposed budget, though they need to make moves that the mayor will agree with. And they might be able to carve out some dollars to backfill programs now under threat — this becomes more likely if the public applies pressure.

What’s being cut in the Tenderloin

Here are the anticipated cuts that remain in Lurie’s budget, according to organization leaders and the People’s Budget Coalition cuts tracker:

• The Michael Baxter Clinic at Larkin Street Youth Services, which offers medical and mental health services to vulnerable young people, is slated for closure. Though this isn’t simply a complete elimination of the clinic’s budget, and though some staff will be transferred to other locations rather than laid off, the decision to close the clinic was presented in the context of budget cuts. The city is reducing staff costs in part by consolidating sites with relatively low patient volumes. Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, said at a meeting with activists on June 10 that he had pushed the mayor’s office to extend the clinic’s operation by a few months. The long-term future of the clinic remains unclear.
• The Southeast Asian Development Center’s service navigation program — it helps immigrants, refugees, and elders get housing, jobs, and other support — is still slated for funding elimination. Overall, the center faces some $625,000 in cuts. 

• The Southeast Asian Community Center would see a $158,000 cut to its ESL classes, computer training, and referral programs.
• The Arab Resource and Organizing Center’s funding would be cut by nearly $83,000, affecting service navigation for immigrants and refugees.
• Cuts to various initiatives of the Transgender District would add up to $525,000. Three economic mobility and civic leadership programs for trans people would have their funding eliminated, and support for events and visual installations would be reduced.
• The Community Youth Center, which is based in the Sunset District but has a location in the Tenderloin, is slated to be hit with a $400,000 cut.
• The entire budget for the Substance Use Disorder Navigators program — nearly a million dollars — is planned for elimination. This would lay off eight people, who administer the program across a handful of nonprofits. Their hundreds of clients would no longer get help finding, establishing eligibility for, and following up on care plans for substance-use disorder treatment. 
• Sunday Streets, which takes place in neighborhoods across the city but is especially loved in the Tenderloin, will lose $215,000, which is the entirety of its city funding. Livable Cities, which organizes Sunday Streets, is working hard to secure funding from other sources.
• Curry Senior Center’s Adult Day Health Center Pilot, Digital Navigators Pilot, and LGBTQ+ Telehealth Pilot would see a 100% reduction in city funds, totaling more than $450,000.
• Hospitality House, which is based in the Tenderloin but has locations in SoMa as well, faces a quarter-million-dollar cut to its Sixth Street Self-Help Center, which provides drop-in assistance with problem-solving and service navigation for people experiencing homelessness.
• PRC’s job readiness, digital literacy, and computer skills programs would see a total of nearly $173,000 in cuts.
• About $84,000 would be cut from Episcopal Community Services’ skill development, barrier removal, and service navigation programs for people who struggle to get jobs, especially the unhoused and those at risk of homelessness.
• The GLIDE Foundation stands to lose $75,000. That would force it to lay off its Workforce Navigator, who provides one-on-one and group support to people participating in workforce readiness, job placement, and career development programs.
• Goodwill’s job readiness, life skills, career counseling, and ESL classes will see a $75,000 reduction in city funding.
• The Northeast Community Federal Credit Union in the Tenderloin will see $75,000 cut from its educational and economic self-sufficiency programs.

This list includes cuts to organizations flagged as being Tenderloin-based by the Coalition or which we at the Tenderloin Voice know have a strong presence or a headquarters here. It also includes a few cuts that we know people here care deeply about even if the affected organizations aren’t based here.

The Coalition’s Anya Worley-Ziegmann noted in a town hall style meeting on June 5 that the mayor’s budget makes virtually no restorations at all to services for seniors and people with disabilities. 

Citywide, the mayor’s budget proposal eliminates some 500 city staff positions, most of which are unfilled, therefore resulting in the layoffs of only around 120 city workers. Up to 1,000 nonprofit workers on staff at organizations that provide services to vulnerable residents stand to be laid off as a result of the mayor’s plan.

Restorations affecting the Tenderloin

Leading up to this month, the People’s Budget Coalition had access to a limited and preliminary version of the proposed budget, in which the Coalition identified approximately $6.8 million in cuts affecting the Tenderloin. Then, on June 1, the mayor published his official, full proposal, which reduced cuts to some community programs that serve Tenderloin residents:

• The Niomi Jenkins Community Care Freedom School, providing leadership development and employment services for transgender and gender-diverse people of color, no longer faces a $348,000 cut. 
• More than $100,000 is expected to be reallocated to the SF Community Health Center for their case management services for trans and gender nonconforming people. 
• The TAJA Coalition got back $200,000 for its program helping trans and gender-expansive people navigate mental health and other services. 
• Legal aid clinics that help residents of all neighborhoods with issues like housing disputes and elder abuse also avoided $1.8 million in cuts.

This list is based on a previous version of the People’s Budget Coalition’s tracking document.