San Francisco officials approved the reallocation of $3.75 million from the city’s police funds and place it into financial support for Black businesses and entrepreneurs.
On Wednesday, San Francisco City Mayor London Breed announced the funding of more than a dozen local organizations. She also announced the city’s “Dream Keeper Initiative” will reinvest $120 million from the police budget to support the Black community.
Black Community Funding
“Across the country, and in our city, we’ve seen how the Black community’s economic growth and prosperity has historically been disrupted and marginalized. This funding is part [of] our efforts to undo the harm of generations of disinvestment and economic inequities,” Breed said.
In June 2020, Breed announced the city’s broader plan to transfer funding from law enforcement over the next two years to support Black people in the region. The newly allocated resource will support 17 community organizations, including the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce, SF Black Wall Street, Mercy Housing, and Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates, HuffPost reported.
Officials hope the funding will help Black entrepreneurs and small businesses grow and will provide legal support to tenants who struggled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The money would also pay for training and financial management and digital literacy support to entrepreneurs.
The initiative had a starting fund of $120 million which was increased by the reallocated $80 from law enforcement for the next two years. The San Francisco Police Department has an annual budget of about $700 million with the sheriff’s department providing an additional $40 million.
