Equity and Community Investment

San Francisco is a world-renowned city of inclusivity for its rich history of activism and diversity. Throughout her tenure, Mayor London Breed fiercely supported marginalized communities through sweeping legislation and funding commitments. Her support for San Francisco’s diverse communities and her dedication to supporting the next generation through programs like Opportunities for All will leave a lasting impact on San Francisco for decades to come.

Taking office during the first Trump administration, Mayor Breed ardently affirmed San Francisco values and ethos as the Federal Administration attempted to deny federal funding, which was later ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. District Court. Mayor Breed stood by the City’s immigrant community in reiterating support for San Francisco’s Sanctuary City ordinance as this vulnerable group faced targeted efforts by the Trump Administration through raids planned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Mayor Breed vigorously defended the City and its peoples through public denouncements and fighting unlawful actions in court against his harmful rhetoric and machinations.

In 2021, Following President Joe Biden’s resolution declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday, Mayor Breed signed an order declaring June 19 an official holiday in San Francisco. This act honored over 70 years of San Francisco’s Black community celebrating the holiday informally throughout the City, and now gathering all to celebrate officially through City-sponsored events. In 2023, the City’s first official Juneteenth marched down Market Street towards Civic Center Plaza. During her time, she launched an unprecedented level of financial support through the Dreamkeeper Initiative, created in the wake of the death of George Floyd and the call for justice.

Her work continued and expanded San Francisco’s long history of standing with the LGBTQ community, including a new commitment to supporting trans people as their rights came under attack all across the country. She launched an effort to end trans homelessness, expanded HIV care, launched the country’s first Drag Laureate Program, and secured the first permanent home for the GLBT History Museum.

Mayor Breed has championed San Francisco’s diverse communities across her time in office. Her lived experiences as a Black woman raised in the projects of the Western Addition/Fillmore neighborhood, often during dangerous periods and poor living conditions, guided her relentless work to elevate the City’s most underserved and under-represented peoples through community empowerment, economic mobility, and safer neighborhoods.

Ensuring Housing

Through a diverse portfolio of asset acquisitions, broadening housing programming with increased funding and refined partnerships with local nonprofits and service providers, San Francisco charged forward in delivering critical support for historically underserved and marginalized communities under Mayor Breed’s administration. Such as:

Neighborhood Preference

Mayor London Breed has championed the Neighborhood Preference program since she sat on the Board of Supervisors and consistently utilized it to ensure either 25% or 40% or units in new affordable housing developments be reserved for people living in the district where the development is built or within a half-mile of the project.

HIV/AIDS Rent Subsidy Program

Launched in December 2019, the HIV/AIDS Rent Subsidy Program became San Francisco’s first rental subsidy program for people living with HIV/AIDS in 12 years. In the first seven months of this program, over 10,000 nights of stable housing helped over 100 households.

Support for SRO Families

Under Mayor Breed’s leadership and with the partnership of the San Francisco Housing Authority and community partners, San Francisco has made the largest decrease in the number of families living in SRO’s that under any other Mayor. Since 2019, 270 families living in crowded SRO conditions have moved into stable housing (a 55% decrease). San Francisco estimates more will move by the end of the fiscal year 2023–2024. The vast majority of these families are Chinese and API.

Dream Keeper Initiative: Down Payment and Housing Assistance

The Dream Keeper Initiative has provided funding for over 60 families seeking to become first-time homeowners, with 40 more families in the pipeline. By the end of 2023, the average down payment assistance support across all recipients amounted to $401,042, with the average home price being $950,293. While DKI’s down payment assistance program primarily supported Black community members, its resources also supported people of Burmese, Chinese, Filipino, Indigenous, Japanese, and Latino descendants purchase homes as well.

The Dream Keeper Initiative supported over 10 Black seniors and/or people with disabilities repair their home through the Senior Home Repair Program, is a property rehabilitation program. The Senior Home Repair Program provided assistance up to $50,000 in the form of a forgivable loan, to low-to-moderate-income senior/disabled homeowners residing in historically distressed and underserved neighborhoods in San Francisco, with roof and HVAC repairs as well as accessibility improvements.

Public Safety

Community support programs are critical to expanding public safety beyond solely relying on law enforcement. Mayor Breed made investments in violence prevention programs targeting communities most likely to experience violent and dedicated resources to protect vulnerable populations.

Safety Measures for LGBTQ+ Youth Nonprofit Organizations:

• Provided financial support to LGBTQ youth serving nonprofit in wake of extreme threats to trans youth and the organizations that serve them.
• Invested in transgender violence prevention and community services for Black, Latino, and transgender communities of color.

Street Violence Intervention Program

The Street Violence Intervention Program aimed to reduce street violence and homicides through street-level prevention and intervention, with a particular focus on young people. SVIP outreach workers engage in street outreach, crisis response, and community mobilization. SVIP works in several neighborhoods with high concentrations of African Americans, including Western Addition and Bayview.

Senior Escort Program

Mayor Breed funded and enhanced the senior escort program, which provides escorts to elderly individuals to assist them with shopping, attending medical appointments, and other daily tasks. This was especially important to the community as many Asian seniors were afraid to leave their homes due to violence against the API community. In 2023, the program helped nearly 1,400 residents.

Violence Against Women Prevention and Intervention:

Under Mayor Breed’s leadership, the City invests significantly in core services to end gender-based violence in San Francisco. The City provides nearly $9 million in funding annually to support 39 programs that provide crisis lines, counseling and case management, prevention and education services, legal services, emergency shelter and transitional housing to those impacted by gender-based violence.

Public Health

Equity has been at the core of San Francisco’s approach to public health under Mayor Breed. Major facilities like Zuckerberg SF General Hospital and Laguna Honda as well as community clinics across the city are the primary provider of support and healthcare for communities across San Francisco. Mayor Breed has directed funding to these facilities and to programs that address disparities in healthcare.

Examples of Successful programs include:

Getting to Zero

$3 million Increased funding to support the City’s goal of getting to zero new HIV infections, HIV related deaths, and eliminating stigma by ensuring that all San Franciscans have equitable access to high-quality prevention, care, and treatment service. This kind of focused funding has resulted in a steep 46% decline of HIV diagnoses among Latino individuals in 2024.

LGBTQ Senior Tele-Mental Health Program

Expanded digital access services to LGBTQ seniors who have experienced increased isolation, depression and anxiety in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Selected service providers included the Curry Senior Center, OpenHouse and Shanti to provide mental health services.

Abundant Birth Project

Launched in 2021 as a partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health and Expecting Justice, the Abundant Birth Project was the first program of its kind in the country to provide a monthly income of $600-$1,000 to high-risk (mostly African American and Pacific Islander) expecting mothers with a focus on reducing economic stress that leads to racial birth disparities.

COVID-19

When COVID-19 hit and disproportionately impacted San Francisco’s Latino community, Mayor Breed did not wait for federal or state assistance. Instead, she announced direct investments and prioritized the City’s COVID-19 resources in neighborhoods with significant percentages of Latino residents, specifically the Mission District. Mayor Breed’s investments and initiatives include $28.5 Million in Expanded COVID-19 Support for San Francisco’s Latino Community. This support came after working with the community, particularly the Latino Parity and Equity Coalition. The funding was used to support the health, housing, food access, workforce, and small business needs of the Latino community. These investments included:

Bay Area Abortion Rights Coalition:

Following the US Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, Mayor Breed, along with regional partners, launched the Bay Area Abortion Rights Coalition. As part of this effort, San Francisco is leading the way in providing staff and funding to support a coordinated blueprint mapping of the Bay Area’s abortion services, analyze capacity, and monitor developments and impacts that restrictive abortion laws from around the country are having in our region.

In 2023, the City, through DPH, provided a grant to Planned Parenthood to fund security personnel at their San Francisco clinic to ensure clients have safe access to family planning and other sexual and reproductive healthcare services. New legislation has been proposed to provide Planned Parenthood with another two-year grant starting in 2025 to fund security personnel.

Workforce Development and Antipoverty

Ensuring employment opportunities and hyper-focused funding relief programs assisted in progressing historically underserved communities during the height of the pandemic and in the wake of its devastating effects on San Francisco’s economy.

Opportunities for All

Launching Opportunities For All, which has placed more than 10,000 youth in paid internships. In October 2018, Mayor Breed launched Opportunities for All, a program to address economic inequality by ensuring that young people (13–24) can be a part of the City’s economy.

The program places young people into internships, training, and employment opportunities. It has helped thousands of young San Franciscans start careers and is especially important for low-income youth in the City. More than 3,000 youth apply for placements each year, and the program has successfully placed more than 10,000 young people in internships since its launch. 95% of the program’s applicants are young people of color.

Trans Support

• Trans Guaranteed Income Pilot Program: Mayor Breed launched the first ever guaranteed income programs that prioritized Black and Latina transgender women impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and disconnected from other benefits.
• Employment Services and Leadership Development for LGBTQ People: Support for trans and LGBTQ employment services and leadership development programming in the SOMA and Tenderloin.

Re-entry Services for Transgender Community Members:

Women and Families First Initiative

In 2021, Mayor Breed launched the Women and Families First Initiative, a focused effort to provide job training for women and support their children with childcare tuition. The job training targeted industries that we expected to grow in San Francisco’s post-COVID-19 pandemic economic recovery, such as healthcare, technology, construction, and hospitality. Through this Initiative and City funding, San Francisco was able to support 483 successful women graduates and their children.

Women’s Construction Academy

In 2021, Mayor Breed also spearheaded focused academy classes geared specifically to women to introduce them to the construction industry. These five-week training courses provided participants with stipends and support for childcare while they were trained in a wide variety of construction activities. As a result, we were able to increase the participation of women construction apprentices on key development projects such as the development of Mission Rock, a large mixed-use development project next to the Giant’s Ballpark.

Small Business Support

African American Revolving Loan Fund:

In response to the disparate impact the COVID-19 pandemic was having on many Black-owned and serving businesses, in 2020, Mayor Breed launched the African American Revolving Loan Fund with support from a private donor and city resources. This fund provided zero-interest loans of up to $50,000 for businesses to cover the cost of rent, payroll, equipment, marketing, and other needs. Mayor Breed went further in 2022 and ensured the loans made to 51 of these businesses were forgiven.

African American Arts and Cultural District Small Business Hub:

Mayor Breed helped fund and open a new small business hub centered in the City’s African American Arts and Cultural District. This hub provides technical assistance to entrepreneurs and support in areas such as business plans, licenses, permits, marketing, and communications. Its primary goal is to offer invaluable guidance and support to grassroots organizations, microbusinesses, and community leaders with limited funding, particularly those in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, one of San Francisco’s historically African American communities.

San Francisco Latino Small Business Fund

Mayor Breed launched the San Francisco Latino Small Business Fund, which expanded the San Francisco Hardship and Emergency Loan Program (SF HELP) that provided zero-interest loans of up to $50,000. The funds were used to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on Latino-owned businesses and small businesses in neighborhoods that serve the Latino community.

Street Vending

In November 2023, Mayor Breed and Supervisor Hillary Ronen announced implementing a street vending moratorium along Mission Street in the Mission neighborhood. The legislation was part of Mayor Breed’s efforts to disincentivize the resale of stolen goods and support legitimate street vending as a means of economic opportunity. To mitigate the impacts with the permitted vendors who have followed the rules, the City worked with the community to support permitted street vendors with various initiatives such as setting up temporary market spaces, launching a marketing campaign to promote those venues, and offering wraparound support services, including emergency relief funds for vendors for low-income households.

In June 2024, Mayor Breed and Sen. Wiener announced SB 925, legislation that would allow San Francisco to create permitting requirements to regulate the sale of items commonly obtained through retail theft and impose criminal penalties for those who engage in this practice. Under the legislation, San Francisco can require vendors to obtain a permit to be able to sell items deemed as frequently stolen by asking for documentation that the merchandise was obtained legitimately, such as showing proof of purchase.

Homelessness Support

Ending Trans Homelessness

San Francisco became the first city in the United States to commit to ending homelessness for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) people as announced by Mayor London Breed in 2022. The principle of ending trans homelessness by 2027 means that the existing trans homeless community would be stabilized and housed over the next five years, and any future trans people that become homeless would have the resources and support to get them housed quickly, making any instance of homelessness brief and rare. The implementation of this plan will address the homelessness crisis within TGNC communities, in particular as it affects Black, Indigenous, Latina, and other trans women of color.

The plan to end trans homelessness became a collaborative effort between the Mayor’s Office on Housing and Community Development (MOHCD), the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH), the Department of Public Health (DPH), the Office of Transgender Initiatives (OTI), and nonprofit organizations serving TGNC experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness.

The plan includes:

• Funding hundreds of housing vouchers to end trans homelessness in the next five years.
• Acquisition of new permanent supportive housing site for LGBTQ transitional age youth.
• At least 150 long-term housing subsidies through the City’s Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool (FHSP) program.
• Continuing housing navigation services and flexible rental subsidies through the Our Trans Home SF program.
• Funding behavioral health services for TGNC individuals experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness.

Taimon Booton Navigation Center (TBNC)

The Taimon Booton Navigation Center (TBNC) is a shelter and service center for transgender, gender non-conforming & intersex people, as well as cisgender women, to find sanctuary, community, and a pathway to housing. They offer beds, meals, showers, laundry facilities, medical services, case management, recreational activities and community.

Housing Services for LGBTQ Youth

Provided funding to support LGBTQ youth, inlcuding education enhancement, career training, health promotion, and leadership development with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, their families, and allies of all races, classes, genders, and abilities.

Unhoused Immigrant Families

Mayor Breed has always been a strong advocate and supporter of San Francisco’s immigrant communities in San Francisco. Throughout her administration, Mayor Breed supported San Francisco’s sanctuary policies and made it clear that San Francisco is a place that will continue to support and invest in services that support our immigrant communities, including helping them obtain a path to citizenship.

As part of this work, Mayor Breed directed key city departments to proactively reach out to immigrant communities with educational resources about their rights and resources to counteract any plans by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct secret raids designed to inflict fear and pain.

Additionally, Mayor Breed worked with Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Myrna Melgar to introduce Safer Families, a plan to provide emergency shelter and re-housing support for the growing number of homeless families in San Francisco, driven both by post-COVID economic hardships and by new immigrant families arriving in San Francisco. These unsheltered families, most of them living in vehicles across San Francisco, will be moved into more stable shelters and housing so they can get on a path to safer, healthier situations that will create stronger communities.

Community Development

Dream Keeper Initiative: In the wake of national outcry and upheaval from the murder of George Floyd, Mayor London Breed announced the Dream Keeper Initiative in 2020, launched subsequently in 2021. Through Dream Keeper Initiative, the City has been able to fund:

• Training, incubation, startup capital, and retail space to help entrepreneurs and small businesses launch and grow their operations.
• Employment pipelines through workforce training programs that prepare participants to be immediately competitive in the job market.
• Food security initiatives, preventative care, case management, culturally competent mental health services, and holistic wellness programming.
• Wraparound services for families, taking a holistic and multigenerational approach to ensuring their well-being and success.
• Technical assistance for community-based organizations that serve Black San Franciscans, ensuring that these organizations are properly resourced to continually improve their programming and operations.
• Academic and extracurricular supports that augment classroom-based learning for youth through a Black cultural lens.
• Storytelling and media that highlight the breadth and depth of San Francisco’s diverse Black communities.
• Community-generated programming that fosters hope, power, and healing for Black San Franciscans and is implemented by community members who normally wouldn’t be able to apply for City funding.
• Events, performances, and projects from Black artists and Black-serving arts organizations.

Community Project Support

Mayor Breed ensured her budget consistently included investments into community projects led by culturally-competent service providers. This included funding to support neighborhood events and activities focusing on Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Latino arts and culture in 2022.

The investments included funding for:

• Creation of a historical exhibition featuring the iconic martial artist Bruce Lee, showcasing his influence within AAPI history while drawing visitors into the Chinatown community.
• Expansion and support of arts and cultural museums and institutions in Chinatown through a series of arts, history, and culture programs and exhibitions within the neighborhood and promoting API culture.
• Development of a Community Art Space or Hub operated out of a storefront in Chinatown.
• Development of a year-round film and media festival that features and highlights a diverse array of AAPI experiences through storytelling. Showings for the public were shared in venues such as theaters, community, and outdoor spaces in Chinatown, Japantown, and SoMa.
• Support and creation of a Filipino arts, history, and culture exhibit and gathering space highlighting the experience and legacy of the Manilatown community, including the San Francisco International Hotel (I Hotel).
• Support of performing arts centered around the Japanese-American experience, including storytelling, music, dance, and other arts year-round.
• Support of an API Youth Arts Initiative called Generation Chinatown, a multidisciplinary, two-prong arts initiative that includes a Chinatown-based AAPI youth arts program and emerging artist residency. Generation Chinatown is housed at 41 Ross, a storefront alleyway space in Chinatown.
• Relaunch of the “AAPI Artists Futures Fund”, a grant program that funds 20 AAPI artists or artist collaboratives based in San Francisco.
• Production of the Chinatown Light and Arts Festival, a large-scale, community-wide contemporary arts and outdoor lighting event incorporating site-specific public art and educational programming at empty storefronts, alleyways, and key public spaces throughout Chinatown.

Historic Funding for API Council

Each year, Mayor Breed made historic budget investments in the API council, a group of community organizations advocating for investments in the API community. These investments include:

This has provided funding for a number of API Council Organizations, including:

• $4.1 million in funding for Self Help for the Elderly’s acquisition of a new residential care facility for elderly clients at 933 Clement St.
• $5 million for Kinmon Gakuen’s renovation of the historic school and auditorium in Japantown.
• $5 million for Southeast Asian Development Center’s acquisition of a new space for their expanded programming at 679 McAllister St. (at Gough)
• $4.7 million for the Chinese Culture Centers’ acquisition of a new space at 667 Grant Ave.
• $1.5 million for Bayanihan Equity Center’s acquisition of 616 Mnna as a new centralized facility providing our Filipino community with community outreach and education programming.
• $3 million for West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center’s new site at $154 7th Street as a new permanent site for youth and family programs.
• $5 million for API Cultural Center and Kulintang Arts’ acquisition of 262 7th Street to open a new multidisciplinary performance space centered on Asian-and-Filipino-American diaspora arts.

Richmond Community Hub

The City provided $700,000 to CYC to acquire a building on Clement Street in the Richmond neighborhood. They also received state money and raised private funds. When they informed Mayor Breed that they were short of their goal, Mayor Breed allocated an additional $2 million in general fund support to help them complete the financing of this asset, which primarily serves Chinese residents and young people.

Expanded Support for the Lunar New Year Parade

The City has been a consistent funder of the annual Lunar New Year Parade. However, recognizing that corporate sponsorship declined in the post COVID-era, Mayor Breed prioritized increasing the City’s support for the 2024 parade. Specifically the City doubled its annual contribution from $250,000 to $500,000 under Mayor Breed.

Drag Laureate Program

Launched in May 2023, San Francisco’s new Drag Laureate program provides a drag performer with a platform and stipend to participate and host community events, and serve as an ambassador for San Francisco to the LGBTQ, arts, nightlife, and entertainment communities.

Mayor Breed understands that Drag Queens helped start our modern day LGBTQ movement including participating in and leading the Compton’s Cafeteria and Stonewall Riots. While other municipalities throughout the US aim to ban drag as an art form, Mayor Breed created the first ever drag laureate program in the world.

LGBTQ History Museum

As part of the budget announced in 2021, Mayor Breed invested $12 million for the creation of the first in the nation full scale LGTBQ History Museum. The Museum will share and protect the rich cultural impact and history of the LGTBQ community. In 2024, Mayor Breed secured the permanent site for the Museum on Market Street.

Tenderloin Community Action Plan

In June 2022, Mayor London Breed allocated $4 million towards community-driven projects in the Tenderloin neighborhood. Known as the Tenderloin Community Action Plan (TCAP), it is a collaboration between City departments, residents, community organizations, merchants, and non-profit service providers to provide funding and financial support for programs and services improving public spaces, support youth and small businesses, and promote cultural events to benefit residents.

The Tenderloin community deeply participated in the selection process of TCAP’s budgetary investments to meet neighborhood by enhancing quality of life and increasing safety through Youth enrichment and support, Public space improvements, Economic mobility, Community celebrations, Addressing basic life needs and challenges in the neighborhood, Improving access to neighborhood wellness through community-based services

Investments in Nonprofit Space Acquisition

Under Mayor Breed’s leadership, the San Francisco Community Investment Fund (SFCIF) has been awarded $205M in New Markets Tax Credit authority from the CDFI Fund.

During the Breed Administration, SFCIF has deployed $158M in NMTCs across 10 projects:

• $12.1 million to Geneva Car Barn project at 2301 San Jose Ave. in the Outer Mission neighborhood for the rehabilitation of a historic property to provide educational space focused in the arts.
• $18 million to the Meals on Wheels project at 2230 Jerrold Ave. in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood for the construction of a new food distribution facility.
• $8 million to the Community Arts Stabilization Trust project at 447 Minna St. in the SoMa neighborhood for the rehabilitation of the Dempster Building for arts and cultural non-profit tenants.
• $16.7 million to the Mission Neighborhood Center project at 1240 Valencia St. in the Mission District for the rehabilitation of an old police station into an Early Head Start/Head Start educational facility.
• $12 million to the Community Music Center of SF project at 552–554 Capp St. in the Mission District for working capital to support program expenses and expansion.
• $28 million to the HOPE SF Sunnydale Community Center at 1550 Sunnydale Avenue in the Sunnydale neighborhood for the construction of a multi-use community center within the housing development.
• $11.5 million to the West Bay project at 150 7th Street in the SoMa neighborhood for the acquisition and renovation of a new organizational headquarters and service hub.
• $13.7 million to the Hamilton Families project located at 2567 Mission Street in the Mission District for the acquisition and renovation of a new organizational headquarters and service hub.
• $25 million to the United Playaz project located at 1044 Howard Street in the SoMa neighborhood for the acquisition and renovation of a new facility and service hub.
• $13 million to the Friendship House project located at 56–80 Julian Avenue in the Mission District for the operations of the Friendship House facility and construction of a second facility at 80 Julian Avenue that will act as a service hub and community center.

Through the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative Mayor Breed furthered the acquisition of 102,000 square feet of new nonprofit owned space.

• $750K to Mission Neighborhood Health Center (MNHC) project in the Excelsior district to provide support services to homeless individuals, persons at risk for HIV and at-risk youth in a brand-new clinic.
• $1m to The Chinatown Community Development Center project to purchase 615 Grant Avenue to provide modern office space for its staff to work more effectively.
• $1m to the Chinatown Media and Arts Collaborative (CMAC) project in Chinatown to offer permanent programming that will include an immersive theater space, a dynamic exhibition, multimedia open offices, and maker spaces.
• $535k to United Playaz (UP) project in SOMA, for the acquisition of 1044 Howard. The location will be home to United Playaz’ literacy program, Real Playaz Read, and the adult re-entry mentoring program.
• $1M to Bayview Hunters Point Foundation project for the acquisition of the property that the Foundation had rented for 30 year.
• $368K to Kai Ming Head Start for a permanent home at 933 Howard St. that allows Kai Ming programs to reach more underserved families with young children.
• $1M to Mission Neighborhood Centers Inc project in the mission to purchase 1240 Valencia, a former police station to become an early childcare center and home to Mission Girls.
• $647K to West Bay Pilipino Multi Service Corporation project in SOMA to acquire the building at 150 7th Street for its youth, families and seniors.
• $675k to Mission Kids project at 969 Treat Avenue to expand, doubling capacity to address the critical lack of access to quality affordable childcare for the neediest families of San Francisco.
• $1M to La Casa De Las Madres project to buy a space of its own in the South of Market neighborhood for a permanent home to help survivors of SF domestic violence.