Community Leaders Discuss Impact of Budget Cuts

Massive cuts to staff and services in this year’s budget -- estimated at $26.5 million -- could put low-income seniors and others on the brink of homelessness and hunger.

“It’s absolutely devastating,” said Tessie Guillermo, President and CEO of ZeroDivide, a city nonprofit focused on economic inequality and technology. Guillermo noted the cuts are almost entirely to “services, which disproportionately serve poor, immigrants and working uninsured.”

The report released by City Controller Ben Rosenfield provided details of the reductions, chiefly to health and human services programs — including AIDS treatment, In-Home Support Services, senior services, Medi-Cal coverage, employment services, welfare-to-work programs and child-care funding — that will take a big bite out of programs aiding poor and low-income San Franciscans.?

Already reeling from a deep recession and massive cuts to staff and services in this year’s budget, San Francisco is being hammered by a new tidal wave of state cuts.

An article in The Public Press by Christopher D. Cook reports on the impact on communities as part of the City Budget Watchdog project.