San Francisco, CA
SF mom says legal aid helped keep her family housed, but budget cuts could eliminate program
A program offering free legal representation to low-income San Franciscans could soon fall victim to looming budget cuts and the city’s sluggish post-Covid economic recovery.
Slow financial recovery post-Covid forces San Francisco to make deep cuts
As city department heads look to slash costs at the direction of Mayor Daniel Lurie, San Francisco’s General Civil Legal Services program has been flagged for potential elimination, according to a letter sent to legal aid groups from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD).
“Due to budget constraints and funding reprioritization, MOHCD made the difficult decision to discontinue funding,” the letter noted.
A program offering free legal representation to low-income San Franciscans could soon fall victim to looming budget cuts and the city’s sluggish post-Covid economic recovery. NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai spoke with Investigative Reporter Bigad Shaban to understand the details.
The program, which served more than 2,600 people last year at a cost of $4.2 million, funds pro-bono legal representation for a wide range of issues in civil court, including family law, discrimination, and habitability complaints. Advocates say, in most cases, their clients would be unlikely to prevail on their own without the help of city-funded attorneys.
The city also pays for separate legal services programs focusing on eviction defense, gender-based violence, and immigration services. But so far, there’s no indication the existence of those programs will be impacted by the recommended cuts. Funding for General Legal Services funding is designed to offer free legal help for any issues that don’t fall within those three other specific categories.
Adrian Tirtanadi is the executive director and founder of Open Door Legal, which provides free legal representation to low-income families for a wide range of non-criminal issues, such as cases involving family law, discrimination, and habitability complaints.
This isn’t just cuts — this is the elimination of the entire program category.
Adrian Tirtanadi, founder and Executive Director of Open Door Legal
“This isn’t just cuts,” said Adrian Tirtanadi, the founder and Executive Director of Open Door Legal, one of 13 San Francisco legal aid nonprofits funded by the program. “This is the elimination of the entire program category.”
Open Door Legal was among the groups who received the city’s letter announcing the proposed cuts due to “budget constraints and funding reprioritization.”
“The ramifications are catastrophic,” Tirtanadi said. “There will be nowhere for low-income people in San Francisco to get legal assistance on these matters.”
Sienna Dunn says if it wasn’t for the free legal representation she received through San Francisco’s Civil Legal Services Program, she and her two children would have been evicted from their long-time home in the city.

San Francisco native Sienna Dunn turned to Open Door Legal and the city’s Civil Legal Services program when her ex-partner stopped supporting her and her two children financially. The single mother was at risk of losing the apartment she’s lived in for more than two decades but says she “failed miserably” when she tried taking her financial fight to court by herself.
“It’s extremely challenging for somebody who doesn’t have the legal background in order to understand all the pertinent information that’s needed in order for it to actually go before a judge,” said Dunn, a supervisor in the city’s transportation department.
Once Open Door Legal intervened, however, Dunn said her attorney was able to get a judge to order monthly child support payments within just a few weeks of taking on the case.
“I would have been evicted,” Dunn said. “I had paperwork that was in the process.”
City moves forward to eliminate program, but not yet a done deal
Tirtanadi is now trying to convince city officials that cutting the Civil Legal Services program will wind up costing the city a lot more in the long run if people like Dunn lose their homes over legal struggles they can’t overcome themselves.
The decision to cut the program will ultimately come down to whether Mayor Daniel Lurie follows the advice of his department when presenting his full city budget in June.
As of now, Lurie said he hasn’t made any decisions.
“There are lots of recommendations out there right now and we are in the process of working with our department heads,” Lurie said. “This is an ongoing negotiation.”
San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman said the city’s budget predicament is forcing city leaders to make painful choices that will ultimately hurt San Franciscans.
“We’re going to see many more cuts that should not be made and that we do not want to make,” Mandelman said. “We also have to balance our budget.”
We’re going to see many more cuts that should not be made and that we do not want to make.
Rafael Mandelman, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Rafael Mandelman, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, says a sluggish financial recovery will likely force the city to make deep budget cuts that “will hurt real San Franciscans.”
What pushed the city into these dire financial conditions?
The number of tourists visiting San Francisco last year was still down by about 3 million people compared to pre-Covid. In addition, parts of downtown remain shuttered.
“You may recall there was a pandemic, and San Francisco has had among the slowest recoveries of any significant American city,” Mandelman explained.
Before the pandemic, San Francisco’s office vacancy rate was the lowest in the nation, at roughly 4 percent. Today, about 37 percent of office space remains empty.
The city is now projecting a budget shortfall in excess of $800 million over the next two years.
While city leaders have tough choices ahead, it’s residents like Dunn who could feel the impact most directly. She hopes the reduction in city services won’t force native San Franciscans like her out of the city.
“Being a native of San Francisco is like finding a needle in a haystack these days,” Dunn said. “So, for people to be able to stay and raise a family here, I think it not only does the city a benefit, but it does the family one as well.”
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San Francisco, CA
What have San Francisco police been doing at 16th and Mission?
It’s been nearly 300 days since Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a plan to clean up the 16th Street BART Plaza.
To mark the occasion, Mission Local is adding a new tool for tracking his promises: A dashboard, updated daily, that notes the arrests and citations issued by San Francisco police officers in a 300-meter radius around 16th and Mission streets.
Our dashboard uses daily incident reports filed by officers to track the enforcement of common violations, including drug-related offenses or disorderly conduct.
The San Francisco Police Department releases incident reports with a 24-hour lag. Our dashboard updates daily at noon to include the most current data: Arrests and citations issued the day before.
While the number of incident reports may form the basis of official crime statistics, it would be wrong to think of them as the “official” count, according to the SFPD. There are groups doing outreach work in the plazas, like Ahsing Solutions, that do not regularly release public data quantifying their activities, for example.
What this police data does show, over time, is where the police department is focusing resources and attention.
For example, reports show that in March 2025, after Lurie stated his intention to crack down around 16th and Mission streets, there was a massive spike in arrests and citations. This does not necessarily mean drug-related crimes increased in the vicinity, but simply that, spurred by the mayor’s statement, police officers began enforcing more proactively.
Use our interactive graphics to explore the number and reasons for arrests and citations issued, and keep tabs on trends in SFPD’s enforcement around the 16th Street BART plaza.
You can read our ongoing coverage of the crackdown on 16th Street plaza here.
Arrests and citations issued in last 6 months around 16th and Mission
You can access our archive, with arrests and citations data from 2018, here.
The calendar below shows a snapshot of the arrests and citations issued around a 300-meter radius of the 16th Street BART Plaza for the last six months.
The darker the date, the more arrests and citations took place that day.
The department continuously updates the status of incident reports as they are investigated, and it is possible that the official statistics reported by SFPD to the California Department of Justice may differ from our numbers.
The data below should be considered the most accurate moment-in-time representation of arrests and citations on the day they were filed. Hover over each date to see the reasons for each arrest or citation.
Drug incidents around 16th and Mission
Arrests and citations issued for drug-related offenses skyrocketed earlier this year, after Mayor Lurie made the plaza one of his targets to show how the city can make a difference.
Explore the number of drug-related arrests and citations issued by SFPD around 16th and Mission each month since 2018.
Data for the most recent month will always be incomplete (and consequently lower) because it includes only arrests and citations through yesterday, while previous months reflect full monthly totals.
Drug incidents at 16th and Mission vs. citywide
In most years, the area around 16th and Mission accounts for a majority of the Mission’s drug-related police enforcement.
In the spring of 2025, this area, which accounts for a mere 0.2 percent of the city’s geographical landmass, was responsible for nearly 27 percent of San Francisco’s drug incident reports that resulted in an arrest or citation.
During the pandemic, drug-related arrests and citations dropped to an all-time-low around 16th and Mission but it has recently surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Most common incidents around 16th and Mission
The table below shows the top 15 offense categories at 16th and Mission, ranked by total number of arrests and citations, over the past 12 months. The sparkline — the small line chart — shows how each category has changed month to month, and the percentage compares the current year to the year before.
We use a rolling 12-month window (365 days from yesterday’s date), rather than a calendar year, so the data stays current. Because the dashboard updates daily, the most recent month will always be incomplete, but using a full year of data minimizes the impact of any one partial month on the overall totals.
San Francisco, CA
15 injured after San Francisco cable car comes to screeching halt
More than a dozen people were injured when a cable car in San Francisco came to a screeching halt on Monday afternoon, rattling passengers inside, according to authorities.
A total of 15 people suffered minor to moderate injuries after the cable car abruptly stopped without warning and tossed around those onboard, the San Francisco Fire Department said on social media.
Two people were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries, 11 others were hospitalized with “minor aches and pains,” and two people refused assistance at the scene, authorities said.
Fire officials told ABC7 that an object might have been thrown at the cable car, causing the abrupt stop. Authorities have not officially released information on what led up to the incident.
Some of the cable car’s windows were completely shattered, according to photos of the aftermath. Video posted by fire officials also captured several ambulances crowded around the stopped cable car.
“Safety for our passengers on all Muni vehicles continues to be our top priority. We’ll be conducting a full review of incident details to ensure continued safety on the cable cars,” SFMTA said in a statement.
Cable cars first began running in San Francisco in the 1870s, and became designated as a National Historic Landmark in the 1960s.
Passengers on the famed tourist attractions do not wear seat belts and often hang off the cars, which are partially open-air.
The SFFD and the SFMTA will investigate the incident.
With Post wires
San Francisco, CA
This Week: E-Bikes, Happy Hour, Holiday Lights – Streetsblog San Francisco
Here is a list of events this week.
- Monday/tonight! Introduction to E-Bikes. This is a San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, SFMTA/SFCTA-sponsored virtual class. Monday/tonight, December 15, 6-7 p.m. Register for Zoom link.
- Tuesday Bike It Forward Community Repair Night. Join the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition as they rehabilitate donated and abandoned bicycles and get them to folks who need them. Tuesday, December 16, 5-7 p.m. San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, 1720 Market Street, S.F.
- Wednesday Car-Free Happy Hour. This event is open to everyone, whether they’re car free, car light, car-free curious, or they just want to hang out with fellow urbanists. Wednesday, December 17, 5:30-7 p.m. Cornerstone Berkeley, 2367 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley.
- Thursday Vision Zero Committee Meeting. This committee supports the work of improving street safety in San Francisco. Thursday, December 18, 1 p.m. Union Square Conference Room, Floor 7, SFMTA Headquarters, 1 South Van Ness Avenue, S.F.
- Thursday Transform Happy Hour with the New Executive Director. Come meet Transform’s new leadership, mingle with like-minded folks, and give your input for Transform’s next chapter. Thursday, December 18, 5:30-8 p.m. Line 51 Brewing Company, 303 Castro Street, Oakland.
- Friday Alameda Holiday Lights Ride and Christmas Caroling. Ride to see the holiday lights in Alameda. Friday, December 19, 6:30 p.m. meet, 7 p.m. roll out. Finishes at 10 p.m. MacArthur BART, 555 40th Street, Oakland.
Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.
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