Lon­don Breed’s bud­get pro­pos­al could put non­prof­it groups on chop­ping block

San Fran­cis­co non­prof­it groups are sound­ing the alarm after Demo­c­ra­t­ic May­or Lon­don Breed’s newest bud­get pro­pos­al threat­ens to leave many of them out in the cold. 
Breed’s plan, which was released last week, attempts to close a near­ly $800 mil­lion two-year deficit while mak­ing good on cam­paign promis­es to beef up the city’s police depart­ment, reduce home­less­ness, and spark the eco­nom­ic revi­tal­iza­tion of down­town San Fran­cis­co. 

San Fran­cis­co May­or Lon­don Breed speaks to sup­port­ers at an elec­tion night par­ty, Tues­day, March, 5, 2024, in San Fran­cis­co. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

“It is clear that the San Fran­cis­co bud­get will be bal­anced on the backs of the work­ing class res­i­dents of San Fran­cis­co,” the People’s Bud­get Coali­tion, which formed in response to last year’s bud­get process, said in a state­ment fol­low­ing Breed’s pro­pos­al.
The group has tak­en issue with the mayor’s plan to bol­ster police staffing with a 6% bud­get increase, which lifts the agency’s bud­get to a record $821.6 mil­lion. 
They warned that the mon­ey for law enforce­ment comes at the expense of oth­er city-backed ini­tia­tives includ­ing after-school pro­grams, com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens, and work­force devel­op­ment class­es, the San Fran­cis­co Exam­in­er report­ed. The pro­grams, the non­prof­it groups argue, enrich com­mu­ni­ties and in some cas­es help pre­vent some of the under­ly­ing issues of pover­ty and oth­er cat­a­lysts that could lead to crim­i­nal activ­i­ty.
“It is not pos­si­ble to claim to pri­or­i­tize eco­nom­ic recov­ery, home­less­ness and pub­lic safe­ty while cut­ting fund­ing for the orga­ni­za­tions that have a proven track record of keep­ing our com­mu­ni­ties afloat,” the PBC state­ment added.
The group cal­cu­lates that Breed’s bud­get would lead to a $39 mil­lion reduc­tion in grant fund­ing for pro­grams that help the city’s youth and fam­i­lies from the pre­vi­ous year.
Non­prof­it lead­ers say the lack of funds could force them to lay off staff who work for vio­lence inter­ven­tion pro­grams, restora­tive jus­tice pro­grams, and sum­mer learn­ing enrich­ment pro­grams. 
“Non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions are the rea­son why the home­less get food, hous­ing, and reha­bil­i­ta­tion,”  Office and Pro­fes­sion­al Employ­ees Inter­na­tion­al Union Local 29 head Althea Antoine told 48 Hills. “I feel like a dog who is thrown a bone. Take what you get and be hap­py.” 
Union rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jane Bosio told the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er on Thurs­day that it’s hard to ignore the pos­si­ble moti­va­tions behind Breed’s bud­get deci­sions.
“The moves she is mak­ing with this bud­get, that it’s over­ly under­pro­vid­ing for non­prof­its and vast­ly over­pro­vidin …