{"id":201458,"date":"2026-03-03T01:57:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201458\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T01:57:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:57:07","slug":"mayor-lurie-tells-s-f-public-health-department-to-cut-another-40m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201458\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Lurie tells S.F. public health department to cut another $40M"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Daniel Lurie last week asked the San Francisco Department of Public Health to cut an additional $40 million<\/a> from its budget over the next two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lurie requested $20 million come from staff reductions, and another $20 million in cuts from community-based organizations. \u201cThis may result in service reductions given the magnitude of reductions required to close the deficit,\u201d a memo<\/a> from the mayor\u2019s office to the department read.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Community groups are already facing cuts. Over 100 people flooded last month\u2019s health commission meeting to protest $17 million in contracts<\/a> with such groups that were already on the chopping block. Several returned Monday evening for another round of lobbying amid the new demands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Community-based organizations help the public health department provide everything from HIV testing to substance-use treatment. Healthcare workers have described them as essential to the safety and well-being<\/a> of both clients and medical staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Department of Public Health Director Daniel Tsai said in February that the cuts, which come as San Francisco faces an almost $300 million deficit in the upcoming year, are painful for everyone. \u201cThere is really no joy in any of the decisions that we\u2019ve been trying to make,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd sometimes it\u2019s a question of what is the least difficult or least harmful decision to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the memo<\/a> from the mayor\u2019s office read, \u201cthe City\u2019s fiscal situation requires more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The $40 million in ongoing reduction and $5 million in contingency proposals the mayor has requested must come from both programs staffed by city employees and contractors, the memo said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Department of Public Health plans to meet the city\u2019s required budget reductions, a spokesperson wrote in a statement. \u201cWe will approach these difficult decisions with transparency, prioritizing the needs of patients, communities and staff while also mitigating the effects of significant federal funding cuts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office directed the public health department to both eliminate vacant positions and consider layoffs for duplicative roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it comes to contracts with community-based organizations, the department was told to focus on programs\u2019 \u201cmeasurable impact\u201d and look for numbers on overdoses prevented, health disparities reduced, people placed into treatment, and minimizing use of the city\u2019s emergency response system by repeat clients. <\/p>\n

On Monday, the Department of Public Health said it received additional instructions from the mayor\u2019s office to protect \u201csafety net\u201d services for low-income San Franciscans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Access to substance-use medication treatments and crisis stabilization services are a priority for the mayor\u2019s office. Programs whose contributions, like \u201chanding out pamphlets,\u201d are less quantifiable are to be \u201cdeprioritized,\u201d along with are harm reduction services that \u201chave negative collateral impacts on our communities,\u201d like exposing children to public drug use<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About a third of the department\u2019s first round of proposed cuts were to come from training and workforce development for contractors<\/a> at community-based organizations to avoid axing direct services. This time around, the mayor\u2019s office noted in its memo that any department of public health budget cuts should not compromise providers\u2019 safety training.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city has been enhancing security measures<\/a> by installing more metal detectors and clarifying safety protocols in the wake of the Dec. 4 stabbing of a social worker on the general hospital campus. The mayor\u2019s office will still find funding to cover $7.5 million for half of these enhanced measures, the memo said, with the department of public health covering the other half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All cuts, the memo added, must be \u201cconsistent with the Mayor\u2019s priorities to deliver clean and safe streets, economic revitalization and effective common-sense government.\u201d The mayor\u2019s office declined to comment further when asked about the memo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The department will propose its plan for the additional $40 million in cuts to the health commission at the end of April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Daniel Lurie last week asked the San Francisco Department of Public Health to cut an additional $40…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2076,636,4735,4720,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-201458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-daniel-lurie","10":"tag-department-of-public-health","11":"tag-public-health","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","14":"tag-san-francisco-news","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-headlines","17":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}