The longtime head of a San Francisco nonprofit – who ran a city-sponsored homeless encampment in the midst of the pandemic – now faces nine embezzlement related charges, including multiple counts related to the alleged misappropriation of more than $2.5 million in public funds.

Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, had been a longtime CEO of Unity Council of Human Services. She is expected to be arraigned Tuesday on the charges after posting bail over the weekend, said District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. At a news conference Monday, Jenkins said much of the money intended to help homeless is now unaccounted for.

“You’re talking about millions of dollars being lost to that effort, that our taxpayer dollars while every day we sit and deal with people who are still struggling on our streets,” Jenkins said.

Westbrook did not respond to a request for comment, but she talked previously to the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit about the 120-trailer shelter she ran at Pier 94 in Hunters Point. “This is giving them a fighting chance at a better life,” she said.

That shelter later closed, amid concerns about dust exposure to residents from a nearby concrete recycling facility that has also closed down. Westbrook has long been questioned about her handling of her non-profit, Jenkins says, noting that questions first surfaced as early as 2009.

Since the pandemic, an audit by the city controller found poorly documented expenditures by the non-profit, long financed with millions of dollars in state and federal funds.

The city’s controller and city attorney later wrote to the FBI and Jenkins urging a criminal investigation into the non-profit’s financial dealings. The state Attorney General suspended the tax-exempt status of Westbrook’s non-profit.

Westbrook is currently charged with one count of misappropriation of public finds, three grand theft counts, one charge of filing a fraudulent invoice and four charges of filing false state tax returns. The allegation is that Westbrook diverted money from her non-profit’s accounts into her own, for personal use. So far, prosecutors say $1.2 million has been tracked to Westbrook accounts, but the rest of the money is “missing” and unaccounted for.

Investigators said in court documents that a review of her bank accounts found “repeated payments towards luxury vehicles, jewelry and other high-end purchases at Louis Vuitton and Neiman
Marcus.”
“Most prominent was over $100,000 over approximately 3 years paid to St. Andrew Jewelers, a jewelry store owned by two members of UCHS’s board, including its Treasurer,” according to the affidavit lodged in support of the charges.
“The spending far exceeded her salary under the work order agreements and other legitimate sources of income and is consistent with Westbrook simply spending some of the ‘missing’ UCHS money on her personal lifestyle.”