A nonprofit that was referred to the FBI for allegedly mismanaging housing and shelters for homeless people in San Francisco gave a significant chunk

SF Homeless Nonprofit Gave Housing to CEO’s Family, Friends

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2023-05-24 18:30:15

A nonprofit that was referred to the FBI for allegedly mismanaging housing and shelters for homeless people in San Francisco gave a significant chunk of its spaces to house family, friends and employees of the group’s CEO, The Standard has learned.

While the City Controller’s Office released an audit Thursday that found a pattern of mismanagement and financial misconduct at the United Council of Human Services (UCHS), sources said the issues at the Bayview-based nonprofit—which received $28 million in city and federal grants—go much deeper.

City officials were so alarmed with the situation at UCHS that they stopped requesting federal reimbursements in the spring. This left San Francisco taxpayers to essentially pick up the multi-million dollar tab as UCHS provided housing to around 20 of its own workers—some of whom are relatives and longtime friends of the nonprofit’s CEO, Gwendolyn Westbrook.

In an exclusive interview Friday, Westbrook confirmed that many of her employees—longtime friends more often than blood relatives—are taking up housing that was designed to go to San Francisco’s neediest residents.