These kinds of major efforts mark milestones in a Mayor’s time in office and present an opportunity to lead and create lasting legacies through the City. These are just a few examples of that kind of leadership.

Laguna Honda Hospital

For more than 150 years, Laguna Honda Hospital (LHH) has been a pillar of San Francisco’s healthcare system, caring for those most in need and providing critical services during pivotal moments in San Francisco’s history, including the 1906 earthquake, the 1918 flu pandemic, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, Laguna Honda represents the largest commitment by any city or county to a publicly run skilled nursing facility, serving approximately 700 (pre-decertification) residents. Laguna Honda is a safety net for residents with complex medical needs who are low or very low income and often have no other options for care. Many residents have complicated chronic medical needs along with behavioral health components (such as diagnosed mental illnesses and/or substance use disorders) and other social or behavior issues.

In April of 2022, the future of Laguna Honda was in jeopardy when the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) terminated Laguna Honda’s participation in the Medicare and Medicaid Provider Programs, effectively eliminating the only way Laguna Honda residents could pay for the care they receive at Laguna Honda.

Through Mayor Breed’s leadership, the City and County of SF responded with a coordinated and heroic fight that put the health and wellbeing of residents at the center.

CMS effectively told Laguna Honda to prepare to close, directing them to begin transferring residents to other facilities, including outside of San Francisco and even the state. The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, on behalf of the City and Laguna Honda, filed a complaint in federal court to prevent CMS from cutting off Laguna Honda’s Medicare and Medicaid funding. As a result of that lawsuit, CMS agreed to a settlement, which extended funding, paused involuntary resident transfers, and established a framework for Laguna Honda to make extensive systemic improvements that would allow the facility to recertify in Medicare and Medicaid.

Laguna Honda made extensive facility-wide improvements to meet the rigorous regulatory requirements and timelines set by CMS. All aspects of the facility were scrutinized, from resident care to security. An extensive analysis of the root causes of Laguna Honda decertification led the team to develop a facility-wide recertification plan with nearly 1,000 action items. This plan represented an immense amount of work with no stone left unturned, from a new medicine cart system to updated fire alarms and from paving projects to an expanded resident council. Every month Laguna Honda documented a detailed progress report on the improvement work and submitted it to CMS with a third party onsite to validate.

Mayor Breed’s frequent presence at Laguna Honda, visiting units, connecting with frontline staff, and providing uplifting messages at all staff events were a major boost to staff and residents and steadying force during turbulent times. Mayor Breed collaborated with local, state, and federal leaders on an aligned strategy to support Laguna Honda’s recertification, ensuring a strong and united front on behalf of the facility. Through meetings with leaders nationwide, including with the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Mayor Breed kept Laguna Honda front and center, applying pressure, showcasing urgency, and making clear the importance of Laguna Honda to vulnerable San Franciscans.

Mayor Breed hosted Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for an impactful tour of Laguna Honda, which marked the Secretary’s first time on campus. During the tour, he visited the Spanish-language unit, met with frontline staff and union partners, and saw firsthand the improvement work taking place.

The hard work paid off and in August 2022, Laguna Honda successfully recertified in Medicaid, which restored 95% of the funding for resident care, with Medicare recertification anticipated in the near future.

Laguna Honda continues to see the impacts of the improvement work in tangible ways. Over the course of three major facility-wide surveys, Laguna Honda demonstrated clear improvement. In the CMS Monitoring Survey from December 2022, Laguna Honda had 42 health inspection deficiencies. In the CMS Monitoring Survey from August 2023, the number dropped to 20, dropping again to 15 health inspection deficiencies in December 2023. Surveyors again visited in April of 2024 for a revisit survey for the December 2023 Medicare Certification Survey and preliminary findings show zero deficiencies related to the Medicare Certification Survey. This is remarkable for a facility of Laguna Honda’s size.

Through Mayor Breed’s advocacy in partnership with the dedicated staff of Laguna Honda, the City and County was able to preserve Laguna Honda for the people who call Laguna Honda home today and for generations of future San Franciscans.

In fighting for Laguna Honda, the City secured more than $200 million of annual federal funding, prevented the displacement of nearly 700 residents, 70% of whom identity as people of color, and helped ensure approximately 2,000 city workers retained their positions.

San Francisco Hosts APEC 2023

In November 2023, San Francisco proudly hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week, marking a pivotal moment for the city as a global hub for diplomacy, innovation, and economic collaboration. Bringing together leaders from 21 member economies, APEC 2023 served as a forum for advancing critical discussions on trade, sustainability, and shared prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

This was not the first time San Francisco played host to world-shaping events. From the signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945 to the Global Climate Action Summit in 2018, the city has a long history of fostering international dialogue. APEC 2023 was a continuation of that legacy, showcasing San Francisco as a city of ideas, diversity, and innovation.

San Francisco’s role in hosting APEC 2023 went beyond being a venue. Under Mayor London Breed’s leadership, the City worked tirelessly to ensure that this historic gathering not only elevated critical global issues but also benefited San Francisco residents and businesses. Months of preparation involved coordination across all levels of government, extensive public safety measures, and a robust plan to highlight local communities, businesses, and cultural landmarks to an international audience.

The City welcomed world leaders, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and leaders from Canada, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea, among others. High-level meetings and events were held at iconic San Francisco locations, including the Moscone Center and the Golden Gate Park Conservatory of Flowers, showcasing the city’s unique blend of natural beauty and urban innovation.

Mayor Breed played a central role in ensuring that APEC 2023 reflected San Francisco’s values. By spotlighting initiatives in clean energy, equity, and technology, San Francisco presented itself as a city committed to addressing global challenges. Mayor Breed also emphasized partnerships with local small businesses and community organizations to maximize economic benefits and ensure that neighborhoods across the city felt the positive impacts of hosting such a significant event.

Beyond the meetings, APEC 2023 brought direct benefits to San Francisco, including an estimated $53 million in local economic activity. Thousands of visitors stayed in hotels, dined at restaurants, and explored the city’s cultural and historical landmarks, driving business to local vendors. The event also created temporary jobs and bolstered international tourism, leaving a lasting impression of San Francisco as a premier destination for global events.

APEC 2023 was not without challenges, including ensuring security for world leaders and managing disruptions to everyday life. However, San Francisco’s preparation and collaboration across agencies ensured a seamless event that balanced global diplomacy with local impact.

Through APEC 2023, San Francisco reaffirmed its place on the world stage, demonstrating its capacity to host events of the highest caliber while fostering meaningful dialogue and collaboration. This milestone was a testament to the city’s resilience, innovation, and commitment to shaping a better future for the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

Central Subway Project

The Central Subway Project represents a transformative milestone for San Francisco’s transit system, improving connectivity, reducing congestion, and fostering equitable access across neighborhoods. Spanning years of planning, design, and construction, the project culminated in the opening of a 1.7-mile extension of the Muni Metro T Third Line in November 2022. This state-of-the-art subway line links Chinatown, Union Square, and SoMa, three vibrant areas of San Francisco that now enjoy faster, more reliable transit.

The Central Subway Project was conceived as a solution to the challenges of an ever-growing urban population, limited transit capacity, and the need for sustainable transportation options. Funded by a combination of local, state, and federal dollars, including support from the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts program, the $1.95 billion project is one of the largest public infrastructure investments in San Francisco’s history.

This bold vision sought to achieve more than just moving people — it aimed to reconnect communities historically divided by infrastructure and ensure that all residents, including those in traditionally underserved areas, have access to critical transit options.

The Central Subway includes four new stations: Chinatown-Rose Pak Station, Union Square/Market Street Station, Yerba Buena/Moscone Station, and 4th and Brannan Station. Each station reflects the unique character of its surrounding neighborhood, with public art and architectural features celebrating San Francisco’s diversity and culture.

Constructing the subway presented engineering challenges, such as tunneling beneath densely populated neighborhoods and active transit lines. Crews used cutting-edge tunneling equipment and methods, such as Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) nicknamed “Big Alma” and “Mom Chung,” to dig beneath San Francisco’s streets without disrupting daily life above ground.

The Central Subway is more than an infrastructure project — it’s a commitment to equity. By connecting Chinatown to the broader transit network, the project supports one of San Francisco’s most vibrant but historically underserved communities. For many residents, the subway offers a faster, more affordable, and accessible way to travel to jobs, healthcare, and schools.

The subway is also a significant step toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as it encourages public transit use over cars. By offering a reliable, efficient alternative to driving, the Central Subway helps advance San Francisco’s climate goals and supports a more sustainable future.

Like many large infrastructure projects, the Central Subway faced delays and budget adjustments, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions. However, under Mayor London Breed’s leadership, the City maintained a focus on delivering the project with an unwavering commitment to quality and community benefit.

The Central Subway is already driving economic growth in the neighborhoods it serves. The new stations have created opportunities for small businesses, attracted new visitors, and supported local jobs. The project’s opening also marks a key moment in revitalizing downtown San Francisco by making it easier for residents and visitors to access shopping, cultural institutions, and entertainment.

Through the Central Subway Project, San Francisco has expanded its world-class transit system and reaffirmed its commitment to connectivity, sustainability, and equity. By reducing travel times, fostering economic vitality, and promoting environmentally friendly transportation, the Central Subway will serve as a backbone for San Francisco’s transit network for decades to come.

The project exemplifies the City’s ability to tackle ambitious challenges and deliver meaningful improvements for residents, businesses, and visitors alike — leaving a legacy of connection and opportunity for future generations.

Chase Center Opening

The opening of Chase Center in September 2019 marked a transformative moment for San Francisco, elevating the city’s profile as a premier destination for sports, entertainment, and community engagement. Home to the Golden State Warriors, this state-of-the-art arena anchors the Mission Bay neighborhood and serves as a hub for world-class events, economic vitality, and local pride.

Chase Center represents years of planning and collaboration, bringing to life the vision of a modern, multipurpose arena that would serve as more than just a sports venue. Developed through a partnership between the Golden State Warriors, the City of San Francisco, and the local community, the $1.6 billion project transformed 11 acres of underutilized land into a dynamic cultural destination. The arena’s innovative design includes 18,000 seats, cutting-edge technology, and an inviting exterior that integrates seamlessly into the surrounding neighborhood. Adjacent to Chase Center is Thrive City, a bustling outdoor plaza featuring restaurants, shops, and public gathering spaces designed to make the area a year-round destination for locals and visitors.

The Chase Center officially opened its doors on September 6, 2019, with a performance by Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony, setting the tone for the arena’s future as a world-class entertainment venue. In October 2019, the Golden State Warriors played their first regular-season game in their new home, ushering in a new era for the team and its fans. Chase Center quickly established itself as a marquee destination, hosting performances by Elton John, Billie Eilish, and Lizzo, alongside iconic sports events like the NBA Finals. The arena’s schedule reflects its commitment to offering diverse programming that caters to a wide range of audiences.

The opening of Chase Center has been a significant economic catalyst for San Francisco. The project generated thousands of construction jobs and continues to provide employment opportunities through its operations. Thrive City has become a hub for small businesses, boosting local entrepreneurship and fostering a vibrant, walkable environment. In addition to its economic benefits, Chase Center plays a key role in community building. The Golden State Warriors Community Foundation, in partnership with the City, has supported initiatives in education, health, and youth sports, ensuring that the arena’s success benefits all San Franciscans. Public art installations and free programming at Thrive City further reflect Chase Center’s mission to enrich the cultural fabric of the city.

The project faced its share of challenges, including logistical complexities and community concerns about traffic and housing. Through extensive outreach and collaboration, the City and the Warriors developed a comprehensive transportation plan and invested in public transit improvements, ensuring smooth access to the arena.

Chase Center is more than just an arena — it’s a symbol of San Francisco’s ambition, innovation, and community spirit. By blending world-class design, entertainment, and public engagement, the venue has solidified its place as a cornerstone of the city’s cultural and economic landscape. With Chase Center, San Francisco has created a space that connects people through unforgettable experiences, celebrates the city’s diversity, and sets the stage for a future of shared excitement and possibility. For generations to come, Chase Center will stand as a testament to what can be achieved through vision, partnership, and a commitment to excellence.

Entertainment Zones: A First in California

In June 2024, San Francisco became the first city in California to establish official Entertainment Zones, aiming to revitalize downtown areas, support local businesses, and enhance the city’s cultural vibrancy. These zones allow bars, restaurants, wineries, and breweries to sell alcoholic beverages to-go during designated hours, enabling patrons to enjoy drinks outdoors in plazas, sidewalks, or streets while experiencing live music and other creative programming.

The inaugural Entertainment Zone debuted on Front Street between California and Sacramento streets, hosting events like “Nightmare on Front Street,” a Halloween celebration featuring live music, games, and costume contests. Building on this success, Mayor London N. Breed and Supervisor Matt Dorsey introduced legislation in September 2024 to create four additional zones in Mid-Market, Maiden Lane, Mark Lane and Harlan Place, and Thrive City, with potential launches as early as December 2024.

These initiatives, authorized under California Senate Bill 76, are designed to boost economic activity, support local businesses, and create festive neighborhood atmospheres. Both Senator Wiener and Mayor Breed played key roles in the creation of these zones, with Senator Wiener authoring California Senate Bill 76 and Mayor Breed serving as a co-sponsor. By fostering vibrant public spaces and supporting the entertainment and nightlife sectors, San Francisco’s Entertainment Zones contribute to the city’s ongoing efforts to enhance community engagement and economic vitality.

SFO Expansion

The expansion of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) represents a bold investment in its future as a global transportation hub, ensuring the airport meets growing demand while enhancing passenger experience, sustainability, and innovation. As the primary gateway to the Bay Area, SFO serves millions of travelers annually, making these upgrades essential to maintaining its world-class status.

These expansion continued under Mayor Breed’s leadership even during the pandemic. Despite challenges such as budget adjustments and maintaining operations during construction, SFO has delivered significant improvements through careful planning and phased implementation. These efforts ensure minimal disruption to passengers while creating a seamless, modern travel experience.

At the center of the expansion is the $2.4 billion redevelopment of Terminal 1, known as the Harvey Milk Terminal, which includes 25 gates, advanced security systems, and a focus on passenger comfort. Named in honor of Harvey Milk, the terminal reflects San Francisco’s values of inclusivity and civil rights leadership. Other major upgrades include the $1 billion AirTrain extension and the addition of the on-site Grand Hyatt Hotel, which together streamline connections between terminals, car rentals, and lodging.

Sustainability is a cornerstone of the project. SFO has achieved carbon-neutral operations and integrated energy-efficient systems, solar power, and water recycling into its facilities. These initiatives establish the airport as a leader in environmentally responsible aviation while supporting San Francisco’s broader climate goals.

The expansion also strengthens SFO’s role as a gateway to the Asia-Pacific region and a key driver of the local economy. Enhanced facilities, from upgraded lounges to diverse dining and retail options, reflect San Francisco’s cultural vibrancy while supporting tourism, business travel, and long-term employment opportunities.

The SFO expansion underscores San Francisco’s forward-thinking spirit, blending innovation, sustainability, and global connectivity. It positions the airport to serve generations of travelers as more than a transportation hub — SFO is a gateway to opportunity and the embodiment of the city’s ambition and resilience.

This work has taken the form of reforms to cut red tape and make government more efficient, and institute reforms to increase prevent actual or perceived conflicts of interest, pay-to-play arrangements and undue influence, and protect against corruption. By removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers, not only did the city improve how it delivers services to the public but it removed the opportunity for favoritism and corruption that can dwell in complicated city processes. By putting in place stronger administrative policies, the city has rooted out bad actors who’ve violated the public trust.

These reforms have made sure that San Francisco has high levels of transparency in government and strict ethical controls. The measures Mayor Breed has implemented include Executive Directives, legislation and department policies.

Cutting Red Tape and Improving Efficiency

Mayor Breed led major efforts across Departments and disciplines to remove barriers and inefficiencies in government to improve services for residents and ensure tax dollars were being spent more effectively. This work included hiring reforms, contracting reforms, housing approvals, and permitting for construction and small businesses.

In response to the pandemic, Mayor Breed funded a new Government Operations Recovery Team. This government efficiency team, led by the Office of the City Administrator, Controller, and Department of Human Resources (DHR) has led to significant improvements in hiring times over the last year and a half. In addition, this operation has improved contracting and financial operations, making City government more efficient and effective in delivering services for residents.

Expediting and Modernizing Hiring: The Gov Ops team led efforts to remove barriers to hiring, align rules with advancements in technology, make the examination and hiring processes faster, provide flexibility for specific recruitment needs, and provide clarity and consistency of language. These hiring initiatives by Gov Ops have led to:

• Nearly 50% increase in applicants for vacant City positions.
• More than 25% increase in hires made.
• 25% decrease in time to fill vacant positions.
• Nearly 30% decrease in the vacancy rate.

Contracting Reform: Mayor Breed issued an Executive Directive to standardize contracting practices to avoid complex and time-consuming efficiencies that may exist.

• Developed a single standardized online portal for contracting waivers and contract review/approval requests. The new portal and business process changes have reduced OCA’s approval time by 50%.
• Allow departments to split contracting staff time to increase efficiency through the Contract and Procurement Support (CAPS) team.
• Alert businesses to upcoming opportunities so they can plan ahead. In partnership with the Contract Monitoring Division, Gov Ops developed a consolidated one-stop-shop on SF.gov that links possible vendors to procurement forecasts developed by major purchasing departments.
• Sped up approvals and decreased burdens on employees in the City’s financial operations, which yields faster results for City services.

Small Business Permitting: Mayor Breed undertook permitting reform for small businesses immediately upon entering office. Her first attempt to pass legislation at the Board of Supervisors was watered down to the point of ineffectiveness. Instead of taking that defeat, Mayor Breed put together an even stronger measure then went straight to the voters to pass Prop H, which was the City’s most ambitious change to small business approvals in years. She followed this with two more major legislative efforts in City Hall, both passing to extend these landmark policies more broadly across the City.

Permit Center: The City opened the Permit Center in 2021, which offers 23 distinct service areas through the Planning Department, Department of Building Inspection, Department of Public Health, Department of Public Works, among others. By centralizing services in one place, customers can move between permitting departments efficiently, resulting in a better experience and improved government function. Since the start of 2024, the Permit Center has served an average of 191 customers per day and provides on average 531 services daily.

Increasing Transparency and Accountability

In 2020, upon learning of the disturbing allegations in the indictment of the Director of Public Works, Mayor Breed immediately issued an Executive Directive calling on the City Attorney and Controller to design and conduct a thorough and independent review of any implicated City contract or other decisions, investigate any suspected violations of the law or City guidelines, and develop recommendations on how to protect the integrity of City processes and decisions.

This review resulted in 14 comprehensive reports to address issues concerning increasing oversight and accountability in contracting practices and services at the Department of Public Works, the Department of Building Inspection, the Airport, PUC and other departments. To address the concerns raised in these reports and that stemmed from these investigations, Mayor Breed:

• Implemented 60 good government reforms to improve accountability, oversight, fairness and transparency in City services and contracting recommended by the City Controller and City Attorney as part of their multi-year Public Integrity Review.
• Issued 6 Executive Directives to prevent misconduct and ensure transparency at the Department of Building Inspection, formalize department relationships with outside supporting organizations, compliance with department gift reporting requirements, and certifying such gifts were approved by BOS as appropriate.
• Appointed good government leaders like Carmen Chu to serve as City Administrator and former City Attorney Dennis Herrera to serve as General Manager of the Public Utilities Commission, to bring leadership to our departments.
• Supported and signed seven laws to ensure fairness and transparency in city contracting and non-profit compliance, and to prevent undue influence and favoritism.
• Reformed San Francisco’s Waste Management Rate setting process by authoring and passing a ballot measure to be more transparent and better serve the public.

As a result of this investigation, the City Attorney’s Office also suspended or debarred 14 contractors from doing further business with the City (including the contractors who conspired with the indicated DPW head to defraud the City) after we uncovered that they were abusing City resources or otherwise defrauding the public. The City Attorney’s Office and Controller also made sure that contractors that acted fraudulently or negligently paid back to the City their ill-gotten gains.

Comprehensive Contracting Reform

These reforms include both new Contract Reform legislation and an Executive Directive to city departments to strengthen internal contracting processes. The legislation is co-sponsored by Supervisor Catherine Stefani.

The Comprehensive Contract Reform proposal provides additional oversight, accountability, transparency and controls on City contractors and grantees, ensures that public funds are awarded fairly and managed effectively, and protects public funds from being misused for improper purposes such as political activity or lobbying City officials.

In response to the struggles of some of the City’s nonprofit providers in maintaining compliance with the State Attorney General’s registration and reporting requirements for tax and financial information, Mayor Breed directed the Controller to implement a policy to suspend additional contracts to delinquent nonprofits and work to assist nonprofits trying to come into compliance through outreach and education.

These changes were born out of long-term planning and creative responses to the COVID pandemic.

Mayor Breed has led efforts to modernize and improve parks across the city. These investments total over $1 billion, divided into $394 million in transformative park projects completed or initiated between 2018–2024 and $635 million allocated to major future projects currently underway. Together, these investments are reshaping San Francisco’s parks, prioritizing safety, accessibility, and sustainability, and transforming beloved landmarks like India Basin Shoreline Park, Herz Playground, and the Gene Friend Recreation Center into state-of-the-art facilities that serve diverse community needs.

As the pandemic revealed the critical need for open spaces, Mayor Breed championed initiatives like Shared Spaces and the JFK Promenade, which transformed streets and public areas into vibrant places for recreation and community gathering. The permanent conversion of JFK Drive and the Great Highway into car-free spaces has significantly expanded access to safe, welcoming outdoor areas.

Mayor Breed brought a vision for dynamic public spaces to Downtown’s evolution into a 24/7 neighborhood. The crowning piece of this is the ongoing transformation of Embarcadero Plaza into a dynamic waterfront destination that will serve as the gateway to Downtown and a gathering place for residents, workers and visitors.

Impact

Under Mayor Breed’s leadership, San Francisco has invested $1 billion in parks and open space improvements, broken down into the following:

• $394 million invested in projects from 2018 to 2024, including landmark renovations, accessibility upgrades, and climate resilience initiatives.
• $635 million allocated for future transformative projects, ensuring continued sustainability, access, and cultural preservation.

These investments have resulted in over 20 major projects completed or underway, building a healthier, more connected, and equitable city where every resident has access to safe and welcoming outdoor spaces.

Park Transformations

• India Basin Shoreline Park: $78.7 million investment to restore and expand one of San Francisco’s most iconic waterfront spaces with a focus on recreation, ecology, and climate resilience.
• China Basin Park: Opened in April 2024, this five-acre park near Oracle Park features a sloping lawn, pedestrian paths, and a sandy beach, serving as a key public space in the Mission Rock development.
• Bayfront Park (Mission Bay): Opened in October ll 2024, this 5.4-acre park near Chase Center includes grassy hills, benches, and bioretention gardens, connecting several green spaces along the Central Waterfront.
• Panorama Park (Yerba Buena Island): Opened in 2022, this park offers panoramic views of the Bay Area, includes a world-glass public art feature, and features walking trails and picnic areas for visitors.
• Buena Vista Park: $3 million investment in erosion control, trail upgrades, and historic preservation of the city’s oldest park.
• Crocker Amazon Ballfield Improvements: $44 million project updating ballfields in partnership with the SF Giants to support youth sports and community engagement.
• Francisco Park: Opened in 2022, Francisco Park transformed a former reservoir into a vibrant space with Bay views, walking paths, and a playground.
• Presidio Tunnel Tops: Completed in 2022, this 14-acre park created by the National Park Service connects Crissy Field to the Presidio with scenic views, play areas, and native gardens.
• Crane Cove Park: Opened in 2020, this 7-acre waterfront park in Dogpatch features a beach, picnic areas, and exhibits celebrating San Francisco’s maritime history.
• Goldman Tennis Center: Reopened in 2021, this $27 million Golden Gate Park facility offers 21 courts, a clubhouse, and youth programs for all skill levels.

Community-Centric Enhancements

• Japantown Peace Plaza: $34.3 million renovation to preserve cultural heritage and improve usability in this central community space.
• Buchanan Street Mall: $34.3 million revitalization of a vital green space in the Western Addition, fostering community connection and recreation.
• Fillmore Turk Mini Park: Revitalized in 2021, this small park in the Western Addition features new playground equipment, seating areas, and landscaping for local residents.
• Union Square: $2 million initiative to enliven the Union Square area with outdoor dining and event spaces.
• Let’sPlaySF! Initiative: A joint effort between the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department and the San Francisco Parks Alliance, funded through the 2012 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond, which allocated $15.5 million for playground renovations. The initiative focuses on equity, ensuring every child has access to safe and inspiring play spaces. Key Let’sPlaySF! Projects include:
• Panhandle Playground: Renovated and reopened in November 2019 with $3.2 million in upgrades, featuring new play structures designed to spark creativity and inclusive play.
• Juri Commons Park: Transformed with $1.8 million in improvements, including a children’s play area, fitness equipment, and enhanced seating for families.
• Merced Heights Playground: Completed in May 2023 with $4.2 million in renovations, adding new play structures, basketball and tennis courts, and a dog play area to serve the growing community.

Equity and Accessibility

• Portsmouth Square Elevator Modernization: $3 million project ensuring ADA compliance and improved access to Chinatown’s central park.
• Improved 9th & Lincoln Gateway (Golden Gate Park): Completed in 2023, this project enhanced signage, pathways, and landscaping to improve visitor experience.
• Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse: Renovated in 2022, this project upgraded accessibility and modernized the clubhouse for improved community use.

Golden Gate Park Improvements:

• $1 million outdoor fitness court for seniors.
• $2.3 million in ADA and shuttle upgrades for enhanced visitor access.
• $1.3 million in Stanyan entrance ADA enhancements.

Climate Resilience and Sustainability

• Ocean Beach Climate Adaptation: $8 million initiative addressing coastal erosion and sea-level rise.
• Embarcadero Park Renovation Funding: Secured in 2023, this funding supports infrastructure improvements and landscaping updates to enhance accessibility and functionality.
• SF Marina Improvement and Remediation: $130 million investment to modernize waterfront facilities with an emphasis on environmental sustainability.

Programs and Policies

• Shared Spaces: Created during the pandemic, this program transformed sidewalks and streets into vibrant spaces for outdoor dining, events, and cultural activities. These spaces remain a vital part of the city’s recovery and vibrancy.
• Slow Streets: Mayor Breed expanded the program to include permanent car-free spaces like Shelley Drive in McLaren Park and Twin Peaks Boulevard, creating over 30 miles of safer streets for walking, biking, and community use.
• Park Activation: Introduced innovative programming to activate parks and plazas, including events, fitness courts, and partnerships with local organizations.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of San Francisco’s neighborhoods and a major contributor to our economic livelihood. Mayor Breed delivered change to make it easier and less costly to open and operate a small business in San Francisco. She focused in three main areas: cutting red tape, making government services for permitting more efficient, and investing direct support in small businesses to help them thrive.

When Mayor Breed first came into office, it could take between nine months and a year (and in some cases even more) to get City permits to open a small business in San Francisco. Thanks to reforms she made at the ballot and in City Hall, many of these permits are now delivered over the counter on the same day, or only in a matter of weeks. She has also cut red tape and burdensome rules that limited business owners from being able to be flexible to try new things to make their businesses successful to allow businesses to adapt without having to go through costly processes.

To make government more efficient, responsive, and customer friendly, the City opened the Permit Center in 2021, which offers 23 distinct service areas through the Planning Department, Department of Building Inspection, Department of Public Health, Department of Public Works, among others. By centralizing services in one place, customers can move between permitting departments efficiently, resulting in a better experience and improved government function. Since the start of this year, the Permit Center has served an average of 191 customers per day and provides on average 531 services daily.

Mayor Breed also led by reforming taxes for small businesses and providing direct support of over $115 million through more than 6,800 grants and loan awards to local small businesses since the pandemic. Tax reforms including cutting taxes by increasing the small business exemption so thousands more more businesses qualify for this benefit. Direct support for small businesses and filling vacancies Downtown include a range of new programs as part of Mayor Breed’s larger economic revitalization efforts that will help entrepreneurs launch new businesses and support existing business, while expanding on initiatives to fill storefronts.

Cutting Bureaucracy

Mayor Breed undertook permitting reform for small businesses immediately upon entering office. Her first attempt to pass legislation at the Board of Supervisors was watered down to the point of ineffectiveness. Instead of taking that defeat, Mayor Breed put together an even stronger measure then went straight to the voters to pass Prop H, which was the City’s most ambitious change to small business approvals in years. She followed this with two more major legislative efforts in City Hall, both passing to extend these landmark policies more broadly across the city.

• Prop H / Save Our Small Businesses Ballot Measure (Nov 2020): Authored by Mayor Breed and approved by voters in the November 2020 election, Prop H made many improvements to the small business permitting process. The initiative shifts the approval action for most small businesses to an over-the-counter administrative approval, streamlined the review and approval processes for more complex projects to within 30-days, eliminated neighborhood notification for most storefront land use changes and provided existing businesses with greater flexibility to adapt their operations. As of January 1, 2024, over 3,500 businesses have benefited from the program, which was implemented in January 2021.
• Small Business Recovery Act (April 2021): Mayor Breed authored the Small Business Recovery Act to build on Prop H and further reduce bureaucracy in the business permitting process, increase flexibility for small businesses, and support arts and culture in San Francisco. The Small Business Recovery Act expanded the measures included in Proposition H, including a 30-day turn around for City departments to sign off on an application, to apply to businesses citywide. Most notably, this expansion applied to businesses in Union Square, downtown, and SoMa, all of which were deeply impacted by COVID-19. The legislation made several other Planning Code changes to simplify processes for businesses throughout San Francisco, saving businesses time and money.
• 100 Small Business Planning Reforms Legislation (Dec 2023): In December 2023, the Board of Supervisors approved Mayor Breed’s small business reforms that moved forward 100 changes to Planning Code to improve the small business permitting process and will result in filling commercial vacancies faster.

In short, the core components of the legislation will ease restrictions across five main categories:

• Allow more business uses on the ground floor
• Lift restrictions on bars and restaurants
• Incorporate new liquor license for music venues
• Remove certain public notice requirements
• Enable priority processing for nighttime entertainment, bars, and restaurants

A New Centralized Permit Center

The City opened the Permit Center in 2021, which offers 23 distinct service areas through the Planning Department, Department of Building Inspection, Department of Public Health, Department of Public Works, among others. By centralizing services in one place, customers can move between permitting departments efficiently, resulting in a better experience and improved government function.

Since the start of 2024, the Permit Center has served an average of 191 customers per day and provides on average 531 services daily.

Tax Reform

In 2023, Mayor Breed launched a collaborative, comprehensive effort to reform the City’s business taxes. This broader reform included a major win for small businesses, while also focusing on a range of business areas, including attracting and retaining large business and supporting the hospitality industry.

In November 2024, the voters approved Prop M, a comprehensive tax reform measure that exempts more than 2,500 small businesses from the city’s business tax by expanding the Small Business Exemption to $5 million dollars. This key provision will help more small businesses be able to stay in San Francisco and thrive.

Landmark Investments and Support for Small Business

Prior to the pandemic, small businesses needed more support, which is why Mayor Breed began work to reform permitting processes prior to COVID. But the pandemic brought many small businesses into crisis mode to survive, and Mayor Breed responded by creating new opportunities for businesses to earn revenue and defray costs:

Shared Spaces: New Solutions to a New Challenge

Public Parklets began to transform public space since its inception in 2009, but when the pandemic required businesses to cease indoor operations, Mayor Breed quickly moved to expand the program. Due to widespread success throughout San Francisco’s neighborhoods, Mayor Breed announced legislation to transition Shared Spaces from an emergency response into a permanent program through and after the pandemic. Today there are over 500 parklets in San Francisco.

First Year Free Program

Mayor Breed launched “First Year Free” an innovative, new citywide program that waived the following costs to make it easier for small businesses in San Francisco to operate — (1) first-year permit fees, (2) initial license fees, (3) initial business registration fees. The program applies to new ground floor commercial locations, and has $2 million in gross receipts.

• Nearly 9,000 businesses enrolled in FYF in the first three years. In total, the City has waived more than $4.49 million in fees since the program’s inception.

Grants and Loans

Mayor Breed directed over $115 million in investment resulting in nearly 7,000 grants and loans to local small businesses in commercial corridors across San Francisco. These funds have contributed to a wide range of the Mayor’s recovery initiatives that have made it easier to open and run a business in San Francisco. Examples include:

• Storefront Opportunity Grant Program: This program helps San Francisco fill empty storefronts by providing entrepreneurs technical assistance and funding to secure new commercial leases. Small businesses that are eligible can apply to receive up to $25,000 for a first storefront location or up to $50,000 to expand to an additional location. Small businesses in neighborhoods that have experienced slower economic recovery or serve low to moderate income neighborhoods can receive training and assistance on how to secure leases with favorable terms.
• Business Training Grant Program: This program supports an equitable economic recovery by instituting programs and services to advance racial and economic justice. New and existing entrepreneurs who complete 14 hours of training and counseling under a pre-qualified program may be eligible to apply. Providing the training prior to the funding incentivizes businesses to devise ways to remain successful and profitable. The training topics include financial management, marketing, licensing and permitting, human resources, as well as business development. Small businesses that are eligible and apply could receive $5,000 to $50,000 in grants. The City is collaborating with funded nonprofit partners who provide culturally accessible programming. Since the launch of the Business Training Grant in June 2022, $4.7 million have been distributed among approximately 409 small businesses so far citywide. Approximately 90% of the awards went to women and minority-owned businesses.
• SF Shines Design Services and Construction (expansion) Provides design services from a licensed designer or architect worth up to $5,000 to include minor tenant improvements or logo design. Minor construction/equipment grants of up to $5,000. This adds $1 M to the existing program budget for a total of $2.6 M. This program is expected to support about 400 small businesses with this expansion.
• Vandalism Relief Grant
  This grant provides $1,000 or $2,000 grants for small business storefront damages related to vandalism. Examples of damages include broken windows, broken doors, broken locks, etching on windows, graffiti, and more. This program is expected to support about 300 small businesses.
• Low Interest Loans
  Due to rising interest rates this funding buys down interest to benefit our San Francisco small businesses while leveraging private loan capital. Loans provided generally range from $50,000-$100,000. This program is expected to support at least 85 small businesses at an average loan award of $75,000.
• Shared Spaces Equity Grant
  Awards to existing Shared Spaces permit holders for compliance-related expenses. Grants of up to $2,500 to reimburse for the cost of bringing their Shared Spaces into compliance.
• Entrepreneurship Training Grants
  This program provides grants for business expenses after the business owner attends a pre-qualified training. Grant awards will range from $5,000 to $50,000 to pay for startup, expansion and operating costs like: inventory, hiring, equipment, rent, and utilities.
• Shared Spaces Activation Grants
  Family programming and Arts and Culture Activation are essential ingredients for a lively, safe, and inviting public realm for local businesses and neighborhood residents. 2023 activation grants brought San Francisco artists out to Shared Spaces pop up plazas and lots.
• Outdoor Entertainment Permit Fee Waiver
  This program supports ongoing music and entertainment programming in shared spaces and one year of permit renewal for limited live performance permits for retailers, bars and restaurants.

Pandemic Recovery & Investment

During COVID, Mayor Breed provided direct assistance to struggling small businesses to help them navigate challenges around closures, reopening, and direct relief. These included:

• Resiliency Fund: Emergency grants of up to $10,000 for businesses with 5 or fewer employees. Funded by donations to the Give2SF COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund.
• Neighborhood Mini Grants: Provided financial support of $1,000-$10,000 to family-run businesses, owner-operated businesses, entrepreneurs of color, women-owned businesses, and other enterprises in historically underserved communities who may not have qualified for other government aid programs.
• Women’s Entrepreneurship Mini Grants: Mini-grants of up to $5,000 to San Francisco women-owned small businesses for projects and upgrades that will have a transformative impact on the business’ ability to grow.
• SF Shines for Reopening: The program provides grants, design services, and project management for property improvements. The goal of the program is to help small businesses thrive and create vibrant and safe neighborhood commercial corridors.
• SF Relief Fund: Mayor Breed created the Small Business Relief Fund ($10.6M), which provides grants of $5,000, $10,000, or $25,000 to businesses that are “anchor” small business that uniquely contribute to the cultural and vibrancy of a neighborhood, or businesses that have been in business in San Francisco for many years.
• Venue Fund: This fund supports small, independent music and entertainment venues. Mayor Breed allocated $3M to the Venue fund, which supported 74 venues with costs like rent, mortgage payments, payroll, insurance and utility costs.
• Shared Spaces. During the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, San Francisco made it faster and cheaper to open parklets for commercial use to allow businesses to serve more individuals while indoor dining was limited by the health order. Fees for Shared Spaces permits have been waived through June 2022, and you allocated $2.3M to help businesses build Shared Spaces parklets.. $12 M partnership with the State to leverage City dollars to provide zero percent interest loans to small businesses. These loans provide up to $100K to new and existing businesses. Applications still open for this.
• African American Revolving Loan Fund — Launched to address the perilous position of many Black-owned and Black-serving San Francisco businesses resulting from the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic. The loan program served Black-owned and Black-serving businesses, especially those most impacted by COVID-19, including hair salons, barbershops, restaurants, gyms, performing artists, and other personal services.

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.

Mayor Breed’s Roadmap to San Francisco’s Future created the vision to transform Downtown into “everyone’s neighborhood.” It is and will continue to be a thriving and economically diverse urban center that is active at all hours, connected by a world-class transportation network and supported by a safe, clean, and welcoming public environment. In Union Square and Yerba Buena, the focus is on adding new experiences, strengthening destination retail, bolstering tourist activity, and expanding uses on upper floors to ensure a vibrant neighborhood for San Franciscans and visitors alike. It means creating more homes and new higher education institutions under Mayor Breed’s 30x30 Plan, a bold vision to bring 30,000 new residents and students to Downtown by 2030.

However, revitalizing Downtown also requires attracting new talent and businesses to support economic growth and ensuring that the City continues to be the innovative hub that San Francisco is known as across the world. Under Mayor Breed’s leadership, the City has already made progress in meeting the goals laid out in the Roadmap to San Francisco’s Future. Mayor Breed has amended zoning and changed laws to streamline the conversion of underutilized office space into housing to help increase the City’s overall housing supply. Mayor Breed has established office tax credits and implemented business tax reforms, attracting new and existing businesses Downtown.

San Francisco continues to lead as a global innovation and investment hub. In 2023, Mayor Breed declared San Francisco the AI Capital of the World. The City is home to 20% of all AI jobs in the United States, with 8 of the top 20 generative AI firms located within city limits. Since 2023, nearly 5 million square feet of new office space in the City was leased by AI companies — 70% of the companies that have signed leases are NEW to SF. San Francisco represents the largest VC market in the world, with firms raising $34.3 billion in 2023. Companies headquartered in the City received more VC investment than any U.S. state.

The City has worked to bolster the tourism industry that is a major driver of our economic engine. Mayor Breed’s investments and her travel to tourism destinations across the country, in Europe and in China has yielded new connections and helped to bolster San Francisco’s reputation as an iconic city. As of September 2024, international travel at SFO is 103% of 2019 level.

Tourism generated $609.6 million in tax revenue for the city, an increase of more than $87 million compared to 2022. The visitor economy also helped support nearly 63,000 jobs in San Francisco, up 18%. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the leisure & hospitality industry was the second-largest source of employment in San Francisco in Q3 2023.

International visitation continued to be a key driver in San Francisco’s tourism recovery, growing by 26% in 2023. Over two million international visitors contributed $4.64 billion in visitor spending. San Francisco attracted 23.1 million visitors in 2023, a 5.2% year-over-year increase. Visitor spending grew by 18% to $8.8 billion. Total 2023 visitor-related spending, including $494.6 million in meeting planner and exhibitor spending, increased by 20% to $9.3 billion.

Downtown San Francisco has so many advantages: a beautiful waterfront location; robust transit; a dense, walkable neighborhood; restaurants, bars, and entertainment; access to iconic venues like Chase Center and Oracle Park; more deployable capital than anywhere in the United States; unparalleled talent; and a culture where we dream the next great idea that will change the world. That said, reimagining Downtown does not mean doubling down on the mistakes of the past. It means investing in a vision that meets the workforce, housing, educational, travel, and creative needs of all those who live and visit San Francisco.

ROADMAP TO SAN FRANCISCO’S FUTURE

In response to the profound economic changes brought on by the pandemic, Mayor Breed launched a Roadmap to San Francisco’s Future, a comprehensive plan to reinvigorate downtown and reaffirm San Francisco as a thriving global destination and the Bay Area’s economic center. The Roadmap’s nine core strategies respond to emerging economic trends and capitalize on the City’s strengths by investing in key priority areas such as public safety, clean streets, workforce and business development, arts and culture and transportation.

DELIVERING TAX REFORMS

Mayor Breed has delivered major tax reforms to help San Francisco become a more competitive city for innovation and investment, while still continuing to have the revenue necessary to deliver critical services. Under Mayor Breed, San Francisco has cut administrative processes and burdensome taxes that created barriers and disincentives for small, retail, hospitality and several other businesses to operate Downtown.

In 2023, Mayor Breed launched a collaborative, comprehensive effort to reform the City’s business taxes. In November 2024, the voters approved Prop M, a comprehensive tax reform measure that:

• Exempts more than 2,500 small businesses from the tax by expanding the Small Business Exemption to $5 million dollars.
• Lowers taxes for hotels, arts, entertainment, and recreation.
• Reduces volatility by ensuring taxes are not over concentrated.
• Reduces disincentives for bringing workers back or locating in San Francisco.
• Simplifies the overall tax structure to be more predictable.

These reforms followed on other key tax measures Mayor Breed has taken during her time in office, including:

• Delaying scheduled tax increases during the post-pandemic recovery to protect existing businesses.
• Offering incentives to new businesses locating in San Francisco for up to three years to recruit new businesses.

OFFICE TO HOUSING

Creating more housing Downtown supports making the neighborhood more active and vibrant, as well as helping San Francisco to meet its housing goals. But working with building owners and developers, City staff learned that there were significant costs and legal barriers, even in buildings where these projects were physically feasible. To convert more empty office space to housing, Mayor Breed led an effort to remove barriers and eliminate fees to make these projects more feasible. This includes:

• Removing Barriers: Passed laws to remove unnecessary Planning Code requirements that apply to housing that got in the way of conversion projects.
• Waiving Fees for Conversions: Mayor Breed proposed the elimination of inclusionary housing fees and impact fees from office to housing conversions.
• Eliminating Transfer Tax: Mayor Breed authored a ballot measure approved by the voters in March 2024 to waive the real estate transfer tax for office to housing conversions.

ATTRACTING NEW BUSINESS DOWNTOWN

New Leases: San Francisco continues to see more companies investing in Downtown’s future by signing new office leases or renewing existing ones, led by the Artificial Intelligence industry, which is projected to add 12 million square feet of office space by 2030. Additionally, tenant demand for office space reached 6 million square feet in the first quarter of 2024, a significant increase from the 4.2 million square feet of demand at the end of last year.

AI-related office leases:

• OpenAI, 792,000 square feet in Mission Bay
• Anthropic, 230,000 square feet in the Financial District
• ScaleAI, 178,000 square feet in Mission Bay

Of the Forbes 2024 Top 50 Artificial Intelligence List, 21 of the top 50 firms are located in San Francisco. Those 21 firms have raised an estimated $22.4 billion in funding.

• In 2023, San Francisco companies received $34.3 billion in funding, which is approximately 20% of total U.S. Venture Capital (VC) investment.
• San Francisco received more VC investment than any state in the country, excluding California.
• In 2023, generative AI companies headquartered in San Francisco captured over 70 percent of global VC funding for the industry that year. This strength is driven by firms like OpenAI and Anthropic, which closed major rounds of funding last year.

Maintaining and Growing San Francisco Businesses

Under Mayor Breed’s tenure, Visa committed long-term to San Francisco at its new office in Mission Bay, Autodesk moved their headquarters to San Francisco, and VIR biotechnology located here. Mayor Breed recruited Ingka to buy the Ikea building and open Ikea and she recruited Hmart to SF. She also worked to maintain long-time tech leaders to stay like Airbnb to stay.

RETAIL

The pandemic heightened and accelerated many pre-pandemic trends, including the changing nature of retail and a shift to online shopping. These ongoing changes, combined with hybrid work, suburban competition, and a protracted recovery in tourism, impacted the number of workers and visitors Downtown, leading to storefront vacancies and declining foot traffic. Mayor Breed’s policies focused on creating more flexibility for local retailers, promoting a safe and vibrant experience, and welcoming people to Downtown.

• More Flexibility: To help fill vacant ground floor spaces and underutilized buildings in the Downtown and Union Square areas, Mayor Breed changed zoning laws to diversify the mix of businesses and activities and simplified the approval process and requirements for converting existing commercial buildings into housing.
• HEART Plan: Mayor Breed funded an action plan in the Union Square and Yerba Buena Districts as part of her plan to revitalize the hospitality, entertainment, arts and culture, retail, and tourism areas (HEART) of Downtown. The comprehensive plan reimagines Powell Street, creates more Entertainment Zones, invests in public spaces like Union Square Park, expands small business and vacant storefront support, provides more support for safety programs, and expands efforts to fill empty space with flexible uses.
• Safe Shopper: Under this program, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) deployed additional police and community ambassadors to the Union Square areas during the holiday seasons to enhance public safety and maintain a safe shopping experience for visitors, workers, and residents. This strategy helped lead to significant reductions in crime in the Union Square area after a series of high-profile incidents in 2021.
• Ambassador Expansion: To support Police Officers in their work and to make people feel more welcomed, Mayor Breed led the largest expansion of street ambassadors and attendants in recent history. These included Mid-Market/Tenderloin Safety Ambassadors, orange jacketed SF Welcome Ambassadors, BART service attendants, and SFPD Community Ambassadors, which are retired police officers that serve in a supportive role to offer an added layer of safety.

Vacant to Vibrant: To drive interest and recruit more businesses, Mayor Breed launched the Vacant to Vibrant Programs, a partnership with OEWD and SF New Deal designed to help small businesses, entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural organizations activate vacant storefronts Downtown.

• The initiative provides awardees with free rent and support to open and operate a pop-up business in a location Downtown. This includes permit navigation support, outreach, matchmaking, lease negotiations, insurance, and marketing services.
• Each recipient is awarded grants to help with set-up and operating costs, while property owners are awarded grants to cover utilities and tenant improvements.
• The program was a major success: 89% of initial businesses were granted lease extensions, proving that an initial investment can help create long-term benefit for the City.

ECONOMIC RECRUITMENT TRIPS: EUROPE AND CHINA

The pandemic prevents Mayor Breed from conducting significant travel during a large portion of her time as Mayor. She took two major international trips to bolster tourism and strengthen economic and diplomatic ties.

In the spring of 2022, she flew to Europe to support bringing international travel back to San Francisco. The Mayor visited London, Brussels, Frankfurt, and Paris, where she met with airlines, airports, and local leaders to both continue and expand partnerships to reestablish San Francisco International Airport as the international gateway to California and a hub for European markets, and to bring tourists back to San Francisco. These meetings yielded major benefits, including new airlines and flights coming to San Francisco, which provides millions of dollars in economic activity and creates hundreds of jobs at the airport and regionally.

In April 2024, Mayor Breed led a delegation of business and community partners and API leaders to China on the invitation of President Xi following the success of APEC in San Francisco in 2023. More than 20 heads of state from Asia and Europe, global leaders and thousands of global CEOs convened in San Francisco.

The Mayor visited Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai where she met with Mayors of each city, as well as business and tourism leaders. Tourism and economic development were key objectives for the Mayor’s trip, including bringing more Chinese airlines and routes to/from China and SFO and building on China’s people to people exchange which includes academic exchanges and expanding universities in both countries. Additionally, the marquee of the trip was Mayor Breed’s commitment to secure Giant Pandas from China to be leased for the San Francisco Zoo. The SF Zoo has never officially hosted Giant Pandas to date.

30X30

Mayor Breed set a bold goal to bring at least 30,000 new residents and students downtown by 2030. This vision sees downtown as a diverse, mixed-use, 24/7 destination and neighborhood. This plan was set on four strategies:

• Convert at least 5 million square feet of office space to approximately 5,000 units of housing. These units would welcome some 10,000 new residents to downtown’s historic office core.
• Build 5,000 new units of housing to welcome another 10,000 residents across downtown neighborhoods. Steps towards this goal include:
• Bring 10,000 students, teachers, and staff by attracting universities and colleges to locate or grow their presence downtown.
• Transform Downtown’s public realm to serve its future as a mixed-use neighborhood, with outdoor spaces that serve all of its future users.

Making Downtown and SF Fun

Downtown San Francisco has historically been a lot of things, but fun was not necessarily one of them. To bring more people to San Francisco and to bring joy to the city and its residents, Mayor Breed launched an effort to transform Downtown not just a place where people come to work, but where they come to play. This includes changing state and local laws to allow for more entertainment uses, investing in festivals and street fairs, and creating more exciting and vibrant public spaces.

• Entertainment Zones: Mayor Breed worked with State Senator Scott Wiener to change state laws to allow for the creation of “Entertainment Zones,” where restaurants and bars can sell alcoholic beverages during outdoor events and activations. After successfully passing state law, Mayor Breed quickly passed local legislation to create the first Entertainment Zones in the state of California, right in the heart of Downtown. Building on the success of this first Entertainment Zone, Mayor Breed expanded it to more areas of the City, including by Chase Center, Mid-Market, and Union Square.
• Entertainment & Nightlife Revitalization Grant: Mayor Breed worked with OEWD and SF New Deal to launch the Downtown ENRG (Entertainment & Nightlife Revitalization Grant) Program, a program that provided up to $50,000 to fund new economic revitalization projects to support new activities, events, and campaigns to attract patrons and increase Downtown activity.
• SF Live Concert Series: In April 2024, Mayor Breed announced the City’s new SF Live Concert Series, which activates the Golden Gate Park Bandshell, Fulton Plaza, Union Square, and the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater for live concert series through November.
• Public Spaces: Mayor Breed has made direct investments in public spaces like the Landing at Leidesdorff, Mechanics Monument Plaza, Union Square, Hallidie Plaza, Powell Street, and a new skate park at UN Plaza to create new and inviting experiences Downtown.

Mayor Breed, addressed the urgent threat of climate change by moving forward ambitious environmental goals through her Climate Action Plan. Mayor Breed’s agenda addressed climate change from all angles: housing, transportation and land use, energy, buildings, zero waste, and healthy ecosystems. This includes transitioning to 100% renewable electricity by 2025 and setting in action plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2040, five years ahead of the state of California’s goals. In addition to reducing emissions and harmful pollution, policies in the Climate Action Plan promote economic recovery, workforce development, racial and social equity, public health, and resilience.

Access to clean, affordable electricity is at the heart of San Francisco’s strategy for reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions and improving the health and well-being of communities across the city. Under Mayor Breed, San Francisco has advanced programs that reduce carbon emissions and promote equitable access to clean energy in San Francisco, including discounts for 100% renewable energy for low-income customers, rebates to replace fossil fuel powered appliances, and incentives for installing electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Mayor Breed declared that housing policy is climate policy, declaring the need to address both the affordability crisis and the climate crisis at the same time. When we don’t build housing, we push working people into longer and longer commutes, which creates pollution and gridlock across the entire Bay Area. When we build housing near transit and in walkable neighborhoods, we create opportunities for people to walk, bike, and commute short distances by train and bus.

To reduce pollution from transportation, Mayor Breed has committed to increasing low-carbon trips to at least 80% and electrifying all vehicles that remain on the road by 2040. To accelerate the adoption of zero emission vehicles and expand public charging infrastructure, she passed new laws requiring parking garages and lots to install charging infrastructure, and to make it easier to open standalone charging locations.

Thanks to Mayor Breed’s leadership, San Francisco has a clear, actionable roadmap to become an all-electric, carbon-neutral City.

Climate Action Plan — The landmark policy framework of Mayor Breed’s Environmental agenda was the creation of the Climate Action Plan, a comprehensive approach to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions in the City by identifying strategies and actions in six key areas: energy supply, building operations, transportation and land use, housing, responsible production and consumption, and healthy ecosystems.

In total, the Plan identified 31 strategies and 159 supporting actions to help achieve the new environmental commitments to reduce emissions 61% below 1990 levels by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2040. In San Francisco, net-zero emissions is defined as reducing emissions 90% below 1990 levels and sequestering the rest in natural solutions like trees and green spaces.

Housing & Building:

Mayor Breed’s commitment to building more housing and making that housing as green as possible is driven by making our cities more sustainable. Buildings are responsible for 41% of San Francisco’s emissions.

• That’s why as of 2021, all new constructed buildings in San Francisco must have all-electric infrastructure that doesn’t use fossil-fuels like natural gas.
• Mayor Breed advanced efforts to require that large commercial buildings make the switch to 100% renewable electricity, with all large commercial buildings of 500,000 square feet or more having to be on 100% renewable electricity by the end of 2022.

Electric Vehicles & Clean Transportation

Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in San Francisco, with private cars and trucks producing the majority of those emissions. Successfully shifting trips to transit, walking, and biking can be done by redesigning streets to make our Muni buses and light rail travel more efficient and reimagining streets as places for people of all ages and abilities.

• Our Muni fleet is the greenest in North America, and Mayor Breed initiated the addition of new electric buses to improve the sustainability of our vehicles.
• Under Mayor Breed’s San Francisco has added over 20 miles of bike lanes in just two years, making it safer and easier for people to travel by bike throughout the City.
• FERRIES

To welcome the new era of electric vehicles, Mayor Breed initiated a series of programs and law changes, including:

• Passed legislation mandating EV charging in commercial parking garages.
• Authored legislation updating the City’s highly-technical Planning Code to include the definitions and codes necessary to enable EV charging infrastructure citywide.
• Launched the City’s first EV Roadmap convening stakeholders to promote sustainable mobility in San Francisco and reduce air pollution. The actions developed in the Roadmap are helping ensure the electrification of the transportation sector and enable the City to meet its ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals.
• These successful EV initiatives have helped the City’s new EV car registrations increase by over 37%.

Zero Waste

• As Supervisor, passed legislation creating the City’s first drug take-back program, still in effect today. Since then, San Francisco has diverted about 140,000 pounds of prescription drugs from being dumped improperly into landfills, the Bay and ocean.
• As Supervisor, passed the strongest Styrofoam ban in the nation.
• Was the only Supervisor to support the City’s roll-out of the new refuse bins which reduced the black bin by 50% and doubled the size of the blue bin.
• Co-sponsored legislation banning plastic straws and PFAS in compostable take-out foodware.
• The City has implemented several new zero-waste programs, including the Refuse Separation Compliance Ordinance and the Single-Use Plastics, Toxics and Litter Reduction Ordinance.

Clean Energy

As Supervisor, Mayor Breed was successful in leading the effort to launch San Francisco’s clean electrical energy program, Clean Power SF, which is a community choice aggregation program in which SF purchases renewable, greenhouse gas free energy and makes it available to SF ratepayers. Today, CleanPowerSF serves 385,000 customers with renewable, accessible, and affordable energy and is credited with much of San Francisco’s success reducing overall carbon emissions.

Air Quality, Green Spaces, & Healthy Ecosystems

• In partnership with the State of California, San Francisco launched the City’s first owned-and-operated Street Tree Nursery. The nursery enables the City to propagate its own trees, that are not only adaptable to the City’s various microclimates, but are more cost-effective and sustainable than outsourcing from across the Bay.
• Helped secure a $2 million grant enabling the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department to plant over 1,500 trees in parks in the last year alone.

Environmental Justice

• Launched the City’s first Climate Action Community Grants, totaling over $900k to CBOs. The grants support building electrification, emissions reduction, urban greening, composting, waste and toxics reduction, environmental justice, and youth engagement in community.
• Increased investments in the City’s integrated pest management program, a nuanced but highly critical service that has helped reduce toxics and pests in over 2,000 affordable housing units in the City since the start of Mayor Breed’s term.

Water Management & Conservation: San Francisco and the state of California are always either facing drought conditions or preparing for their return by advancing innovative programs to reuse water. The City is also upgrading our storm water systems and adding more green infrastructure to ensure that our combined sewer and stormwater system does not become overwhelmed during storms. This is all in addition to the continued protection of Hetch Hetchy, where SFPUC generates clean hydro-electric power to provide reliable, affordable, and clean electricity.

The City’s public health response had to meet both the pandemic and the overdose crisis at the same time, which took an unprecedented focus. Many of the tools the City now relies on to meet the fentanyl crisis were already in place prior to 2020, resulting from early work in the Breed Administration to confront the use of methamphetamines. This includes the launch of the Street Crisis Response Team, a rapid expansion of mental health and treatment beds, and reforms to state conservatorship laws to better compel people into treatment.

San Francisco added over 400 new treatment beds under Mayor Breed’s direction, including investing in new abstinence-based and recovery programs. The City launched innovative programs like pharmacy on demand, bringing people prescriptions medication on the streets and in their homes. And Mayor Breed led one of the most significant changes to state mental health laws in decades by pushing year after year for conservatorship reform. Despite numerous setbacks, this work ultimately proved successful and under Mayor Breed San Francisco became the first county in the nation to implement these conservatorship laws which helped increase the number of people entering into conservatorship in San Francisco by 30% just in the first year.

These efforts began to yield progress after many hard years with more people accessing treatment and overdose rates declining in 2024 back below 2020 levels. But much work remains to be done to expand access to treatment, including adding more treatment beds with new state funding under SB 1. To ensure the City was ready, Mayor Breed directed Departments to coordinate and prepare applications when those funds became available, which the City has done.

San Francisco also navigated other public health challenges, including the rise of Mpox and the continued fight against HIV. Thanks to the lessons learned during the HIV crisis and COVID, the City rapidly responded to Mpox to ensure the community was informed, connected to vaccines, and aware of any spread of the disease, which limited its impacts. The City also continued to make progress fighting HIV through its Getting to Zero efforts, bringing new HIV infections down under 200 annually for the first time since the virus first emerged.

Under Mayor’s leadership, the City demonstrated what a diverse and aggressive response to public health looks like even in the face of some of the most daunting challenges San Francisco has ever seen. She also led major efforts to save Laguna Honda Hospital and to invest in public health infrastructure at the ballot through bonds. Hundreds of millions of dollars went into infrastructure, ensuring that the long-term health of the City, whether in hospitals or community clinics, was secure. San Francisco, despite the twin crises it faced, will be a healthier and stronger city in the long-term.

Fentanyl and Overdose Crisis Response

Mayor Breed led the significant expansions of treatment facilities and programs, as well as bold changes to local and state laws to give the city more tools to compel people into treatment. These were multi-year efforts that have been designed during a rising crisis to meet the severe challenge brought on by the rise of fentanyl.

San Francisco saw record overdoses in 2023. But with the launch and execution of the City’s strategy to combat fentanyl and bring down overdose deaths, 2024 saw a significant decline of over 20%. By the end of 2024, the City’s overdose rate was back below 2020 levels when the crisis first spiked. With new programs coming online in 2025, including Prop F and the deployment of new treatment bed funding from the state, San Francisco is poised to continue this progress in its fight against fentanyl.

Treatment Bed Expansion

Since 2020, San Francisco has added over 400 treatment beds to its existing capacity, an expansion of more than 20% to total about 2,600 overnight treatment spaces or beds. This impact has helped the City bring more people into treatment and care than ever before. In the fiscal year 2023–2024, 6,000 patients were cared for in behavioral health beds.

These beds cover a range of intervention levels, from immediate crisis care to long-term recovery beds. The list of bed needs were based on data-driven analysis, including the 2020 DPH Behavioral Bed Optimization Report called for by Mayor Breed to better understand the system’s needs. A full list of residential care and treatment beds is available on this page.

Office of Coordinated Care & Street Team Expansion

The SFDPH Office of Coordinated Care works to help priority populations, including people experiencing homelessness, people exiting hospital care, and justice-involved individuals, get in and stay in care. The department has street care teams in the community every day and night to invite people experiencing homelessness into mental health and substance use treatment.

• In fiscal year 2023–2024, approximately 25,000 people received behavioral health care in SFDPH primary health clinics and more than 4,600 people received substance use treatment and care through a specialty clinic. 15,500 patients, including 4,500 people experiencing homelessness, received specialized outpatient treatment.
• The City expanded evening and weekend hours at the Behavioral Health Access Center, the BHS Pharmacy and at clinics providing buprenorphine and methadone treatment to people addicted to fentanyl and other types of opioids. The BHS Pharmacy also delivers buprenorphine in permanent supportive housing facilities and helps people start and manage the medication.
• The City expanded the Street Medicine program to serve every neighborhood in San Francisco from 8 a.m. — 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

A critical piece of Mayor Breed’s agenda was meeting people on the streets where they are with treatment and medical services. The overhaul and expansion of the City’s street outreach teams started in 2020 with the launch of the Street Crisis Response Team, and continued with the creation of new teams.

• The Street Crisis Response Team takes all behavioral health 911 calls. This team provides a more effective response to people in crisis and frees up police officers to focus on public safety and criminal issues. Data available on this page.
• The Street Overdose Team responds to people immediately after an overdose, and again within 72-hours, to connect people to care and treatment.
• The Post Overdose Engagement Team (POET) connects people who have experienced an overdose to substance use treatment.
• The Night Navigation Team provides people using fentanyl outdoors at night with immediate telehealth visits with a physician who can prescribe them with buprenorphine or refer them to a methadone program on the spot.
• From March through November 24th 2024 , the team encountered 2,269 people of which 912 or 40% started outpatient or residential medication.
• BEST (Bridge and Engagement Services Neighborhoods Team is a neighborhood-based group of behavioral health clinicians and peer specialists that focus on the most disruptive individuals living on our streets, with some of the toughest challenges.
• In just the first year, BEST has made more than 1,100 direct connections to services for their clients, helping hundreds access mental health services, substance use treatment, medical care, and shelter.

These teams helped deliver critical health results, including:

• In 2023, approximately 5,000 people received medication treatment for opioid addiction, either buprenorphine or methadone.
• Directly and through community partners, SFDPH distributes naloxone, medication that reverses an opioid overdose, and trains people on how to recognize an overdose and save a life. SFPDH distributed approximately 158,000 naloxone kits in fiscal year 2023–2024.

Recovery-based Treatment

Mayor Breed increased investment and support for people in recovery whose goal is to maintain abstinence from substance use. These services include transitional “step-down” housing services for people who have completed residential treatment and live in a supportive environment while attending outpatient treatment and transitional housing and wrap-around clinical support for people who are justice-involved with substance use and/or mental health diagnoses. The City also offers transitional housing and long-term housing through other departments, such as the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) and Adult Probation, which are services that are not reflected in the SFDPH budget.

During Mayor Breed’s tenure, she added more than programs dedicated to recovery through abstinence, which total more than $22 million annually. These projects include:

• Minna Project (South of Market): The 75-bed facility provides wraparound services designed to aid the transition to independent living after involvement with the justice system.
• Salvation Army Harbor Lights (South of Market): The program provides care for people who are suffering from drug addiction and alcoholism. It is a six month — two-year long term residential treatment abstinence based program.
• Transitional “step-down” housing (Treasure Island): Transitional housing for individuals that have completed a minimum of 30 days residential substance use disorder treatment. Residential step-down programs are sub-acute, short-term residential facilities that provide coaching and support in a 24-hour staffed, open home-like environment. RSD provides a temporary drug and alcohol-free environment to residents that are actively engaged in outpatient services for medically necessary SUD treatment provided to the client off-site.
• Women’s Treatment Recovery Prevention Program (WTRP) (South of Market), is an expansion of the Healthy Evolving Radiant (H.E.R.) House, a women’s gender responsive alternative sentencing transitional housing program, and is designed as an expansion due to high demand and successful outcomes.
• TRP Academy (Tenderloin): The pilot program serves as an alternative sentencing strategy for justice-involved males seeking a highly structured environment that includes substance use counseling, career and leadership development, and transitional housing for 86 formerly incarcerated individuals.
• Billie Holiday Center (South of Market): This transitional housing site offers expanded opportunities for justice-involved adults through the launch of a 30-bed center.

Major Law Changes

One of Mayor Breed’s legacies is pushing for substantial change to mental health and treatment laws. She worked locally and with state legislators to make significant changes to laws with a goal of increasing access to treatment and removing barriers from compelling those most in need into care.

Conservatorship Reform and Implementation

When Mayor Breed took office, one of her top priorities was delivering changes to state mental health laws to strengthen conservatorship laws. She partnered with State Senator Scott Wiener and State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman to push these laws, overcoming years of obstruction to successfully pass Senate Bill 43.

• SB 43 modernized the definition of “gravely disabled” and expanded the qualifying conditions for conservatorship from either a mental health disorder or chronic alcoholism, to add substance use disorder as a stand-alone basis.
• Immediately after SB 43 was signed into law by Governor Newsom in October 2023, Mayor Breed issued an Executive Directive to City Departments to ensure that San Francisco was ready to implement this new policy on day one.
• San Francisco became the first county in California to implement Senate Bill 43 on the day the bill took effect.

The most immediate impact felt by SB 43 was a 30% increase in temporary 30 day conservatorships granted in 2024, a major step in getting people connected to treatment while under involuntary holds. Mayor Breed continued to push for further strengthening mental health laws at the state level to further improve the ability to help people.

Proposition F: Treatment Pathway Initiative

Mayor Breed placed Prop F on the ballot in March 2024 to allow the City to require single adults with substance use disorder to participate in some form of treatment in order to continue receiving cash assistance. The law went into effect in January 2025, when it was launched by Mayor Breed and the Human Services Agency as the Treatment Pathway Initiative.

The Treatment Pathway Initiative requires people with a substance use disorder who want to access county-funded cash assistance to participate in some form of treatment to maintain their CAAP benefits. Individuals who refuse to engage in treatment will be discontinued from receiving county-funded cash assistance.

State Funding for Treatment Beds

Mayor Breed supported Proposition 1 on the March 2024 ballot, which is a $6.8 billion state-wide bond measure that will help fund the expansion and modernization of the State’s mental health system and provide housing for those on our streets. Most critically, during the legislative process for the measure, Mayor Breed pushed for locked facilities to be added in as an eligible use. Without that inclusion, the City and the State would have lost the opportunity to fund critical treatment for some of the sickest people in the state.

Upon the passage of Prop 1, Mayor Breed immediately issued an Executive Directive to City Departments to prepare for the implementation of SB 1 so the city was first in line when funding became available. The City met this goal by submitting funds by December 2024, including a proposal to double the city’s locked bed facilities.

CARE Court Implementation

On October 1st, 2023 San Francisco added CARE Court to its voluntary treatment options, which is a state-mandated court process designed to get people with mental health and substance abuse disorders the support and care they need. CARE Court is intended to support people who have been diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders. It is a voluntary process that is narrow in scope and is a less restrictive alternative to state hospitalization or LPS conservatorship. SFDPH has conducted more than 60 pre-filing consultations to government agencies and private individuals interested in making a filing.

SAN FRANCISCO AS A PUBLIC HEALTH LEADER

HIV Progress

Mayor Breed prioritized San Francisco’s continued leadership in our fight against HIV. This includes the implementation of initiatives as part of Getting to Zero, a consortium of over 300 individual community members, community-based organizations, educational institutions, industry partners, government agencies, and providers who work together to achieve the vision to make the City the first jurisdiction with zero new HIV infections, zero HIV stigma, and zero preventable deaths among people living with HIV.

Mayor Breed invested directly in HIV funding, including $3 million increased funding to support the City’s goal of achieving these goals by ensuring that all San Franciscans have equitable access to high-quality prevention, care, and treatment services.

The City continued its major progress in the fight against HIV:

• Since 2014, the number of new HIV diagnoses in San Francisco has declined by 59%, while nationally, new HIV diagnoses have only declined by 3% in the past decade.
• In 2023, there were 133 new HIV diagnoses, a 20% decrease from 2022 when 167 diagnoses were reported.
• In 2024, the City saw a steep 46% decline of HIV diagnoses among Latino individuals.

Mpox

In June 2022, SFDPH announced that the first probable case of Mpox had been identified in a San Francisco resident. In July 2022, the City became the first U.S. jurisdiction to announce a public health emergency for Mpox (formerly known as Monkeypox) in response to a global outbreak of the disease, which was disproportionately impacting men who have sex or close contact with men and other LGBTQ + individuals. San Francisco’s effective response drew from lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and was a collective effort of teams from across SFDPH and community-based organizations. City leaders worked to ensure equitable distribution of the vaccines by working with organizations like the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Rafiki Coalition. San Francisco has one of the highest rates of vaccination coverage in the United States. San Francisco City Clinic has been important to promote equity in vaccine access.

• Over 55,000 Mpox vaccines were administered between May 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.
• 75% of all vaccines were administered in San Francisco.
• 38% of people vaccinated for Mpox at SFCC were Black or Latino, compared to 24% citywide.

Critical Public Health Infrastructure Investments

Mayor Breed authored and led two major successful bond efforts to strengthen the City’s public health infrastructure. These include funding to support major hospitals like SF General and Laguna Honda, as well as community clinics like the Chinatown Health Clinic and City Clinic.

• 2020: A $487.5 million bond to fund essential City infrastructure and support San Franciscan’s mental and physical health with new investments in parks, open spaces, behavioral health facilities, and housing and shelter for vulnerable individuals.
• 2024: $360 million bond to deliver key health infrastructure, expand family shelter, support street safety and road repaving, and improve public spaces in San Francisco.

Tenderloin Emergency Initiative

In December 2021, under Mayor Breed’s direction, the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) developed the Tenderloin Emergency Initiative (TEI), a multi-agency plan to improve crisis conditions in the area and tackle the drug overdose crisis. The mayor directed DEM to focus on the issues of drug dealing and violent crime, public substance abuse, safe passage and accessibility, neighborhood cleanliness, housing resources, emergency medical calls and illegal vending. As a result, the area saw:

• Increased law enforcement presence
• Expansion of community ambassadors programs to provide on-the-ground support throughout the neighborhood,
• The City conducted joint departmental operations to offer people services and move individuals living on the street into shelter
• Creation of the Tenderloin Community Action Plan, $4 million in funding for programs and services to improve public safety in public spaces, support youth and small businesses, and promote cultural events to benefit residents

Methamphetamine Task Force

Beginning in 2019, San Francisco experienced a significant rise in the number of individuals using methamphetamine, an increase that occurred alongside serious fentanyl concerns. Seeing the clear and urgent need for a focused effort to identify services, treatment, and prevention efforts to address the evolving trend, Mayor Breed and Supervisor Raphael Mandelman convened a Methamphetamine Task Force that included medical and public health professionals, researchers, substance use disorder treatment providers, emergency responders, criminal justice and law enforcement officials, drug policy experts, and current and/or former substance users.

The Task Force was charged with identifying harm reduction strategies to decrease and manage methamphetamine use, identify best practices for treatment and service options for current users, and develop policy recommendations to reduce the medical and social impacts of methamphetamine use on San Franciscans. Policies developed by the Task Force informed treatment and outreach models the City developed over the next five years.

Mayor Breed has demonstrated unwavering commitment to children and families across San Francisco. Providing and expanding affordable childcare and early education is a cornerstone of making cities more affordable for all residents. Mayor Breed spearheaded the expansion of our City’s early education system and efforts to support early education centers in retaining existing educators and attracting new ones. Under her leadership, San Francisco has become a national leader in the early education and childcare movement, launching programs to expand child care centers, increase access for more families, and grow the employee pipeline.

Mayor Breed also led the development of a robust after school and summer programming network, and provided continuous support to the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). She led efforts to expand availability of mental health supports for students, increase educator pay in both the public school system, and launched a Citywide paid internship program to provide comprehensive professional development opportunities to young people. .

Born and raised in San Francisco and a product of SFUSD, Mayor Breed understands exactly what kids and families in San Francisco need to thrive. She has been a champion for youth and families, and left a lasting legacy in this arena.

Early Education

In 2022, Mayor Breed and Supervisor Melgar announced the creation of the Department of Early Childhood (DEC) to serve children under age six and their families. Through DEC, San Francisco has implemented a historic expansion of its early education network, a feat that has been nationally recognized for its success. During Mayor Breed’s tenure, a number of accomplishments include:

• Helped More Children into Care and Education: Doubled the number of children receiving early care and education subsidies annually (from 6,000 to 12,000)
• Increased Access to Care for Families: Cut the waitlist for subsidized early care and education by over 70%
• Expanded Early Education Centers Citywide: The City has built or renovated more than 40 early care and education facilities, creating space for 550 more children
• Supported a More Effective Workforce: Improved retention and recruitment by increasing salaries for over 1,600 educators, including a nearly 50% increase in salary for educators at highest need centers

COVID Response

While the pandemic was felt across the globe, COVID-19 took a particularly hard toll on school-aged children. The difficulties of distance learning were tangible, and had an impact on student learning, mental health, and socioemotional development. Locally and nationally during the pandemic, children, young people, and their families experienced unprecedented grief, isolation, trauma, financial and housing instability, learning loss, increased anxiety and depression, and delays in social and emotional mastery. Mayor Breed led our entire City through COVID with clear communication, tenacity, and courage. Her leadership had a positive impact on youth and families, when they needed her most.

• Learning Hubs: By the summer of 2020, to address the challenges associated with learning loss and support children and young people’s social-emotional wellbeing, Mayor Breed worked with the Department of Children, Youth, and their Families and the Department of Recreation and Parks and community organizations to establish 78 learning hubs across the city. The hubs supported the academic and social needs of over 2,500 young people.
• Early Education Recovery Programs: In January 2021, Mayor Breed announced an investment in the amount of $25 million for SF’s early care and education programs, to care for approximately 10,000 children across the city. These child care and education programs provide essential services for San Francisco families, and threw a lifeline to many early educators who were struggling financially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Children and Family Recovery Plan (February 2022): Activating stakeholders and communities across the City, Mayor Breed led efforts to leverage resources and partnerships across multiple city agencies through her Children and Family Recovery Plan, which outlines how the City will work together to support children and families in recovering from the impacts of the pandemic. The Plan coordinates resources across the City, amplifies community voices, advances advocacy efforts, and creates a multi-year roadmap aimed at pandemic recovery. Mayor Breed’s plan uplifts the voices of youth and families, and fosters collaboration among city agencies in service of children, young people and their families who call San Francisco their home.

Programs to Support Youth and Families

Mayor Breed’s support for students and their families has been persistent and significant. Through the Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, the City provides after school programming to more than 10,000 young people, and summer programming to more than 30,000. The City funds community-based organizations across San Francisco to provide a diverse array of enriched programming options. In addition, Mayor Breed has launched a number of programs to provide further, targeted support, including:

• Opportunities for All: In 2018, Mayor Breed launched Opportunities For All 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.
• Bridge to Excellence Scholarship: In 2019, Mayor Breed launched the Bridge to Excellence Scholarship to inspire and encourage graduating seniors in San Francisco to pursue four-year, higher education degrees, and to give back to their community. In its sixth year, the City has awarded over $300,000 to students. Through this opportunity, Mayor Breed has helped 76 highly motivated, low-income, and first generation students to attend four-year colleges to jumpstart their future.
• Repaid Student Debt: Mayor Breed paid student debt for almost 11,000 City College students with the goal of removing the financial barriers students face and increasing access to educational opportunities.
• Housing for Transition Aged Youth: During her tenure, Mayor Breed created more than 200 new housing units for transition aged youth at risk of homelessness, with more than 60 more homes in the pipeline.
• Support for special education: Through unprecedented early childhood investments, Mayor Breed’s administration has implemented early screening for developmental delays or special needs for over 4,600 children before they enter the grade-school system so that they can access the individualized supports starting on their first day of school.

Support for San Francisco’s Public Schools

As a proud graduate of San Francisco’s public school system, Mayor Breed understands firsthand the opportunities that our schools create for the next generation to grow and thrive. This includes direct support for programs that support students. Almost one-third of SFUSD’s revenue comes from the Mayor’s budget, which accounts for an unprecedented amount of local funding compared to any school district in California. In addition to these funds, Mayor Breed has launched programs to expand

• Career Prep: Wanting to ensure that all students are set up for post-secondary success, Mayor Breed funded career preparation and early college programs at SFUSD. The initiative provides SFUSD students with free tuition and textbooks to rigorous early college programs starting in the 10th grade, college prep and internship opportunities, and enables students to earn college credits while fulfilling high school graduation requirements.
• Increasing Teacher Pay: In 2019, in efforts to address the statewide and national teachers shortage head on, Mayor Breed provided $10 million in teacher stipends to attract high-quality educators to teach at SF’s highest need schools and retain talent in SF public schools classrooms. Additionally, when previous approved parcel tax funds were being held due to ongoing litigation, Mayor Breed placed Proposition J on the ballot in 2020 to reaffirm the public and city’s support for funding key SFUSD priorities including academic programs, increased educator and paraeducator salaries, professional development for staff, and other programming.
• Educator Housing: To further support public educators in San Francisco, Mayor Breed helped bring to fruition educator housing projects like Shirley Chisholm Village. Shirley Chisholm Village prioritizes SFUSD educators and employees for the 135 affordable housing units for families and individuals.
• Graduations for All: Since 2021, Mayor Breed has prioritized and sponsored all SFUSD high school graduations. To ensure every graduating high school senior has an equitable and memorable experience, the City supports these events so that almost 4,000 high school students every year can celebrate their milestone at Kezar Stadium and Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in McLaren Park.
• Student Success Fund: Mayor Breed supported the Student Success Fund, which infuses an additional $60 million per year for community schools. Through the DCYF, the City partners with SFUSD to provide additional resources that support students in achieving grade-level academic success and enhance social-emotional well-being of all SFUSD students.
• Mental Health and Well-Being: Mayor Breed invested in student wellness and mental health support. She spearheaded the creation of wellness centers at SFUSD schools across the city to address the social-emotional needs of SFUSD students as they transitioned back to school and recover from the pandemic.

On February 25th, 2020, before San Francisco even had one case of COVID, Mayor Breed declared a state of emergency, allowing San Francisco to allocate resources around coronavirus mitigation efforts such as: staffing, the coordination of agencies throughout the city, the allowance of future reimbursement by the state and federal governments and increased awareness throughout the city on coronavirus preparation methods. These proactive steps helped the city be prepared for what was to come.

Then, on March 17th, 2020, Mayor Breed took the unprecedented step of shutting the city down. San Francisco took this dramatic step in partnership with other counties across the Bay Area, making San Francisco the first major city in the country to shut down. Cities across the country followed shortly thereafter. The City turned Moscone Convention Center into its COVID Command Center where it incorporated community operations, transportation, law enforcement and public safety, planning, logistics, finance, and joint information, as well as liaisons to health and human services. This was the hub of the City’s response where all the leaders and city workers aligned to meet the continually evolving needs of residents, businesses, and the workforce of San Francisco.

Despite not knowing how long the shutdown would last, San Francisco’s early action was credited with preventing the spread, especially among the most vulnerable communities. While nursing homes across the country saw devastating waves of the virus kill thousands, Laguna Honda Hospital, the largest skilled nursing facility west of the Mississippi, saw no deaths for months and very few overall.

In the early days of the pandemic, the city worked to pop up testing sites across the city, secure millions of piece of PPE to be handed out for workers and in community, popped up community hubs with foods and resources, opened over two thousand hotel rooms for homeless individuals who were out on the streets after shelters had been emptied out, and created financial support programs for small businesses and vulnerable residents who couldn’t work. The City created innovative programs like the Right to Recover, which provided financial support targeted towards Latino residents who were hit hardest by COVID. Through strong community partnerships, the city prevented the spread of misinformation about COVID and helped connect uncertain residents with resources.

When the vaccine became available at the end of 2020, San Francisco once again sprung into action to be a national leader, opening both mass vaccine sites and targeted community efforts. San Francisco became the first major city to hit 80% vaccination by the summer of 2021, a key metric that allowed for a safer reopening of San Francisco.

The pandemic also became an opportunity for San Francisco to show what was possible when it could act with clarity and urgency of purpose. Thanks to the emergency powers, San Francisco demonstrated the effectiveness of cutting hiring times to quickly add health workers, launch creative programs like Shared Spaces which allowed for outdoor dining, and open up facilities for the most vulnerable to provide immediate care and support without going through months of bureaucracy. During COVID, Mayor Breed issued XXX Mayoral Executive Orders that delivered unprecedented support and drove life-saving actions. Many of the city’s successful programs like Shared Spaces, JFK Promenade and Slow Streets came out of the pandemic.

COVID was one of the most difficult times in the history of San Francisco, and the scars of the pandemic were still being felt years after the first case arrived. But the quick and unified action by the City, under the leadership of Mayor Breed, demonstrated what San Francisco is capable of in a crisis when lives are on the line.

Health Operations

San Francisco launched a COVID health response that provided critical testing and vaccination services and bridged gaps with communities that didn’t have traditional connection to those resources. By utilizing the city’s emergency declaration to quickly pop up medical facilities in weeks, San Francisco was able to provide robust large testing sites at places like the Alemany Flea Market and Pier 30–32, while also sending helping to fund targeted community testing efforts. When the vaccine became available, San Francisco partnered with health and community organizations to ramp up distribution, reaching 80% vaccination in just six months.

Successes include:

• Managed outbreaks and mitigated COVID transmission in the highest risk settings that house the most vulnerable populations of San Francisco, including Laguna Honda Hospital.
• Expanded the City’s testing capacity to over 4,500 tests/day, including 2 high-volume fixed testing sites, 4 testing sites at Primary Care centers and over 750 pop-up testing sites
• Opened 3 mass vaccination sites and many clinic and community sites that vaccinated 81% of San Franciscans in just 6 months
• Launched a Contact Tracing program where cases contacts received daily texts or phone calls to monitor health and symptoms

Human Services Operations

San Francisco prioritized providing resources for the most vulnerable residents who could not shelter in place due to housing insecurity and homelessness. Through emergency alternative housing programs, the city was able to fill the gap left by the need to empty out shelters due to social distancing needs and keep people indoors where they could be safe and connected to services.

Successes include:

• Set up 30 hotels, 8 congregate shelters, 7 Safe Sleep sites, and 1 trailer site to make the alternative housing program
• Served approximately 9,000 people in the Alternative Shelter Program including 4,300 in Isolation & Quarantine
• Helped 1,868 people sleeping in tents access shelter, hotels and safe sleeping villages
• Served over 20K individuals since the beginning of the pandemic, distributing more than 110K meals and 35K grocery bags

Community Operations

One of San Francisco’s great assets during the pandemic was the connection with community. Leaning on the lessons learned during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s, San Francisco developed a model that relied on known community leaders and organizations bridging the gaps where access and trust of services often failed. This was particularly critical with monolingual and immigrant communities, including both the Latino and API communities. Early data showed the Latino community being hit particularly hard, which led to programs designed to do outreach and support into the Mission, Excelsior and other targeted areas. The City also developed programs and outreach targeting the African-American community where vaccine hesitancy prevented an initial uptake of life-saving vaccines. Without these strong community connections, San Francisco’s response would not have been the success it was.

Success include:

• Launched Community Learning Hubs, to provide thousands of SF Public School students with a safe place to learn and socialize while schools were closed
• Supported school reopenings by assessing and inspecting 102 SFUSD and 122 private/charter schools for safe reopening
• Created Right to Recover, a program that provided wage replacement for those who contracted COVID but did not have access to sick pay through their work, ensuring people from low-income and immigrant communities would come forward to test and then stay home if necessary
• Residential Eviction Moratorium: Under this Mayoral order, renters who informed their landlord within 30 days of a missed rent payment that they’ve suffered outbreak-related hardships like loss of work or extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses were shielded from eviction.
• Provided prevention technical assistance to respond to over 5,500 COVID-19 exposures at businesses
• Trained >400 vaccine ambassadors to increase vaccine confidence throughout SF
• Provided over 500,000 meals monthly through both the Aging and Food Disability Network and the Great Plates program, which partnered with local restaurants

Support Services Operations:

San Francisco’s government operations provided emergency support citywide, including having to launch expedited hiring, secure protective equipment at a time there was an international shortage of face masks and gloves, and support essential workers who were still need to keep the city moving forward.

Successes include:

• City’s Emergency Hiring Unit expedited 1,100 positions including 264 nurses
• Completed over 100 site visits to support the City’s priorities related to testing, medical surge, shelter-in-place, safe sleeping, weather relief and cooling centers
• Coordinated among many city departments to ensure essential services were properly resourced with last-minute supplies, equipment and staff
• Provided emergency child and youth care and Recreation and Park centers to support essential workers
• Procured 67 million pieces of PPE, including face masks and gloves, and then coordinated the distribution of this equipment to essential workers, community organizations, and facilities all across the city.

Economic and Small Business Support

The public health measures necessary to stop the spread of COVID had a tremendous impact on local businesses. Both requirements to close as well as a slow reopening created the need for direct financial support and creative solutions to support neighborhood corridors. San Francisco provided grants and loans, waived fees and rents, and launched new programs like Shared Spaces, which created new space for restaurants and bars to operate outdoors.

Successes include:

• Deferred business taxes and business registration fees, delayed collection of license fees — 11,000 businesses who pay $14MM, and suspended delinquent collection practices.
• Put in place a commercial eviction moratorium to protect small businesses that could not afford to pay rent while being forced to close
• Launched small business relief funds that provided loans and grants to small businesses across San Francisco, and provided emergency small business and nonprofit utility rate discounts
• Deferred & waived rents for hundreds of small business tenants on city-owned properties at the SFPUC, Airport, Port, and Rec and Park, and provided emergency loans to support tenants on Port properties.
• Created an arts and artists relief fund to support 700 individual artists and 5 organizations
• Launched Give2SF, a city operated site to collect philanthropic support for for small business, basic needs
• Continued to fund of city-funded nonprofit contracts
• Capped third-party delivery fees to protect restaurants
• Launched the Venue Fund, which provided financial support to entertainment and nightlife venues

Public Spaces

While COVID protections required people to shelter in place, it was still critical that opportunities for recreation and safe socializing were fostered. San Francisco brought creativity to the use of its public spaces by opening up streets for people to be together safely to walk, dine and listen to music.

Success include:

• Closed JFK Promenade to car traffic, allowing people to walk, bike and exercise safely in Golden Gate Park.
• Launched Shared Spaces to provide outdoor space for restaurants, bars and retail shops to set up in parking spaces out front their businesses.
• Created the Just Add Music (JAM) program, which offered a free and streamlined opportunity for businesses to bring local musicians to play in Shared Spaces
• Started the Slow Streets program which created the opportunity for people to walk safely on neighborhood streets and gather at a distance with neighbors.