Mayor Daniel Lurie last week asked the San Francisco Department of Public Health to cut an additional $40 million from its budget over the next two years.
Lurie requested $20 million come from staff reductions, and another $20 million in cuts from community-based organizations. “This may result in service reductions given the magnitude of reductions required to close the deficit,” a memo from the mayor’s office to the department read.
Community groups are already facing cuts. Over 100 people flooded last month’s health commission meeting to protest $17 million in contracts with such groups that were already on the chopping block. Several returned Monday evening for another round of lobbying amid the new demands.
Community-based organizations help the public health department provide everything from HIV testing to substance-use treatment. Healthcare workers have described them as essential to the safety and well-being of both clients and medical staff.
Department of Public Health Director Daniel Tsai said in February that the cuts, which come as San Francisco faces an almost $300 million deficit in the upcoming year, are painful for everyone. “There is really no joy in any of the decisions that we’ve been trying to make,” he said. “And sometimes it’s a question of what is the least difficult or least harmful decision to make.”
Now, the memo from the mayor’s office read, “the City’s fiscal situation requires more.”
The $40 million in ongoing reduction and $5 million in contingency proposals the mayor has requested must come from both programs staffed by city employees and contractors, the memo said.
The Department of Public Health plans to meet the city’s required budget reductions, a spokesperson wrote in a statement. “We will approach these difficult decisions with transparency, prioritizing the needs of patients, communities and staff while also mitigating the effects of significant federal funding cuts.”
The mayor’s office directed the public health department to both eliminate vacant positions and consider layoffs for duplicative roles.
When it comes to contracts with community-based organizations, the department was told to focus on programs’ “measurable impact” and look for numbers on overdoses prevented, health disparities reduced, people placed into treatment, and minimizing use of the city’s emergency response system by repeat clients.
On Monday, the Department of Public Health said it received additional instructions from the mayor’s office to protect “safety net” services for low-income San Franciscans.
Access to substance-use medication treatments and crisis stabilization services are a priority for the mayor’s office. Programs whose contributions, like “handing out pamphlets,” are less quantifiable are to be “deprioritized,” along with are harm reduction services that “have negative collateral impacts on our communities,” like exposing children to public drug use.
About a third of the department’s first round of proposed cuts were to come from training and workforce development for contractors at community-based organizations to avoid axing direct services. This time around, the mayor’s office noted in its memo that any department of public health budget cuts should not compromise providers’ safety training.
The city has been enhancing security measures by installing more metal detectors and clarifying safety protocols in the wake of the Dec. 4 stabbing of a social worker on the general hospital campus. The mayor’s office will still find funding to cover $7.5 million for half of these enhanced measures, the memo said, with the department of public health covering the other half.
All cuts, the memo added, must be “consistent with the Mayor’s priorities to deliver clean and safe streets, economic revitalization and effective common-sense government.” The mayor’s office declined to comment further when asked about the memo.
The department will propose its plan for the additional $40 million in cuts to the health commission at the end of April.
This is what happens when we elect a millionaire who has no clue about the working class and the poor needs. It really brakes my heart to see how easy is to still from us, the workers and the poor.
Rosa, I see it differently. Lurie is focused on fiscal probity and has recognized the financial problems that the city/county has. Throw in Trump’s cuts in funding to cities like ours and it is imperative that our spending is cut to match our revenues.
We will see cuts to healthcare, Muni, education and more over the next year or three. We have been living beyond our means.
This city has the wealth/means to do whatever it wants. Its not like the population is growing.
Up to us.
The population is not growing but the wealth is leaving
Just because billionaires CAN pay for these programs without feeling it, never meant billionaires WANTED to do a damn thing about inequality. They benefit from your desperation. Epstein told his victims, “I have the banks. I have the governments”. It is time to tax the morbidly rich Epstein Class. They need our intervention.
How many billionaires just moved assets out of state, after getting how many tax breaks, grants & other considerations over the years? No more billionaire bandits. Every loan, grant, deduction, etc. should come due as a lean on their estate, etc. just like programs for the poor (e.g. BMR DALP). Pay back that money before leaving SF. Stop the handouts to companies in other states too ffs.
Meanwhile PermitSF is moving forward. Cutting health finding well spending dollars for a not so well thought out bureaucratic regime change is not in the best interests of the public — rather it favors a new class under the Oligarchy.
As crime is at an all time low, how about when SFPD comes asking for more overtime money, as they are right now, say “No.” That money is better spent on public health.
$40 million seems like a lot, but the city already spends ~$1 billion ($1000 million) on DPH. Their total budget is $3.2 billion, so a $40 million cut still leaves 98.8% of their total budget, or 96% of what the city budgets for the city’s health programs. Would have been nice to have this context included in the article.
Sorry 2.8 billion is their current budget. So the mayor is asking for a 1.4% cut to their total budget and the city stands to save $40 million but still spend $960 million on DPH.
The answer to ending the deficit in SF is simple. Recoup funds via taxes on the rich that fund-ed Trump, putting him in a position to do this. When they throw their weight around at the state level to instead shifts these cuts to counties that voted Trump we can explore tax breaks.
Angry, I sense your passion but SF has no real way to “tax the rich”. The city cannot levy an income tax, a capital gains tax, an estate tax, a wealth tax and so on, due to state law. And Prop 13 limits property tax and new taxes.
Sorry.
https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2026/03/newsom-threatens-counties-care-court/
I saw that. Honestly, services are so bad here cuts might actually improve things. For instance, I won’t call 988 from my local number any more since the operators are poorly trained/skilled compared to 988 centers in other states & the 15 minute limit makes calling there when I’m losing the battle self defeating. The 988 centers in Omaha & Minneapolis are way better. Shutting down the call center here would mean local crisis calls get forwarded to someone likely much better & who has time to even have a chance to help. Also, for some reason the SF Access line would rather make ppl flounder on a waitlist for a therapist under supervision still than refer residents to much more experienced & qualified therapists around the state via telehealth. Putting anyone with suicidal thoughts on a months waitlist for a therapist is beyond the pale. Especially a therapist I was told wasn’t qualified to handle my case by providers in another state.
The DPH budget was on the order $3,200 million last year according to ML’s infographic from last May. I think they can manage to find savings of 40.
It should be more like 400, or 1,400 in cuts. In 2011 the DPH budget was only 966 million.
“$3,200 million” is $3.2B. We should probably try and compare apples to apples, rather than make numbers seem larger than they are. The 2011 $966M budget equals roughly $1.4B in today’s dollars.
Your comparison also assumes the department in 2011 was performing the same functions it performs now. It was not.
Since then, DPH has absorbed expanded behavioral health operations, street crisis response, homeless health services, Whole Person Care/CalAIM programs, Medi-Cal expansion administration, COVID infrastructure, and Laguna Honda’s federal compliance overhaul.
If the goal is a 2011 budget, which of those functions should cease?
Budget numbers are easy to compare. Program responsibilities are harder.
Agreed. Chop Chop chop.
First please cut the Gubbio project in the Mission, it creates the mess around 16/Mission, and residents are sick & tired of it.
TY Mayor Laurie for balancing the budget. I would love a tax refund from the cuts. Just keep the streets clean, & safe, and be business friendly so we can all have jobs.
CUT THE FLUFFY STUFF – SF has far too much of that.