How city wants to distribute its surplus
San Francisco leaders want to use the city’s $125 million surplus to provide rent relief, create housing, help small businesses, support the arts, fund free summer programming for students, give to undocumented families and combat overdose deaths.
The mayor and the board’s budget chair agreed on the spending plan for this fiscal year, most of which passed unanimously during committee Wednesday. A couple pieces will be voted on in a special meeting on Tuesday, then the full package will go to the board for a final vote later that day, where it’s likely to pass.
“These are urgent priorities that can’t wait and this supplemental package will help our city recover and help keep small businesses open, support kids and keep tenants in their home,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, the budget chair. “The funds are going directly and overwhelmingly to the people who are most impacted during this crisis.”
Mayor London Breed said the plan aligns with her priorities.
“While we are working towards our longterm recovery, we know we need this immediate
support that will help get our City back on its feet,” Breed said in a statement. “Our goal now is to get this funding approved and out the door and into the hands of those who need it as fast as possible.”
Helping small businesses ($53 million)
$15 million (already approved by supervisors) to waive business and license fees this fiscal year for certain struggling restaurants, food service businesses and entertainment venues earning up to $25 million in gross receipts.
$13.2 million to extend the deadline for businesses earning up to $25 million in gross receipts to pay registration fees from May 31 to Nov. 1, bumping city revenue from this year to next fiscal year.
$11 million in grants and $7.6 million in loans to small businesses. The intent is to help 1,000 small lowincome businesses, with a focus on those owned by women and people of color that were most hurt by shelterinplace and haven’t accessed state or federal relief. Grants will vary from $5,000 to $25,000, based on how many fulltime employees the business has. Loans will supplement an existing state lending program, but with a lower interest rate.
$3 million to help small legacy music and entertainment venues recover.
$2.25 million in equity grants to help businesses pay to create Shared Spaces, which city leaders want to make permanent.
$1 million for small businesses impacted by property crime.
Supporting the arts ($24.1 million)
$11.2 million to grants for the arts, $4.4 million to the Arts Commission’s cultural equity endowment, $1.1 million for cultural districts, nearly $787,900 for the arts impact endowment and roughly $604,000 for the Arts Commis
sion’s cultural centers.
$6 million to a contingency reserve to make up for lost hotel tax, which plummeted in the past year and some of which supports arts organizations. $1 million is allocated this fiscal year and $5 million next year.
Rent relief and housing ($20.1 million)
The city will set aside $20.1 million for rent relief and affordable housing. This is the amount of revenue expected this year from Proposition I, a ballot measure passed in November that doubled San Francisco’s property transfer tax rate on commercial and resi
dential properties valued more than $10 million.
$10 million to rent relief. The city expects program rules to be finalized in late April or May.
$10 million to acquire, rehab and develop affordable housing. Supervisor Dean Preston wants to see the money used for “social housing” — governmentrun mixedincome housing.
Student summer programs ($17.7 million)
$15 million to fund a mix of free summer camp, inperson learning and virtual programs for San Francisco public school students.
$2.7 million to paid internships for high schoolers working in the summer programs paired with courses for credit at City College.
Helping undocumented families ($2 million)
$2 million to the Family Relief Fund, to give between $500 to $1,000 monthly to families that weren’t eligible for state and federal relief, most of whom are undocumented. Last year, the program supported nearly 5,000 families.
Combating overdose deaths ($1.6 million)
Last year, overdose deaths
killed more people in San Francisco than COVID19, and city leaders want to stem the lethal tide.
$1 million to expand a program to train SRO staff and residents and provide Narcan to reverse overdoses.
$600,000 to fund a street outreach and prevention team focused on fentanyl, a powerful opioid largely responsible for the rise in overdose deaths.