San Francisco's street safety program, Urban Alchemy, which provides jobs to previously incarcerated individuals, is facing a significant threat to its workforce due to a citywide budget crisis. The organization's potential reduction would affect 311 employees, with layoffs potentially commencing as early as January 17. Urban Alchemy, known for its black-and-green-vested ambassadors patrolling the Tenderloin, mid-Market, and SoMa neighborhoods, may lose about half of its ground staff, according to a letter sent by its general counsel Sharon Hang, to the mayor's office, as per The SF Standard.
The potential layoff comes when the city grapples with budget deficits, with Mayor London Breed resolving an $800 million shortfall this year but facing further cuts. Despite securing funding until June 2025, The SF Standard quotes that Hang has indicated an impending financial gap of $7.7 million unless action is taken. The Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation, responsible for the Urban Alchemy contract, needs the consent of the budget and finance committee, which has raised questions about the program's operational efficiency.
Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors' budget chair, Connie Chan, is holding up the additional funding request from Urban Alchemy, which has asked the Board to authorize $7.7 million in spending to avert the layoffs; Chan has called for an audit to assess the organization's finances and performance outcomes. "Killing this funding is a catastrophe for the neighborhood, and it's awful for the hard-working Urban Alchemy employees," Mayor Breed said in a statement per the SF Chronicle. The dispute over funding emerges in the shadow of a nearly $1 billion two-year shortfall for the city, with costs climbing and revenues diminishing.
The urgency is compounded by the fact that unless the Budget and Finance Committee, chaired by Supervisor Chan, decides to meet and approve the additional funds by December 4, the layoffs are set to proceed. Urban Alchemy CEO Lena Miller has underscored the ramifications, asserting that a reduction in their core services "would jeopardize the lives and livelihoods of over 300 community ambassadors who are primarily people of color who were formerly incarcerated and homeless," as relayed to the SF Chronicle.
