Facing questions over how a program meant to support San Francisco’s Black community has spent its money, Sheryl Davis, head of the Dream Keeper Initiative, has asked for a full audit.
In a letter dated Sept. 4 that was obtained by The Standard, Davis asks San Francisco Controller Greg Wagner to investigate spending across all city departments that manage Dream Keeper Initiative money and report on the program’s funds, operations, and performance.
The audit request comes as the Dream Keeper Initiative — which was spurred during the nationwide racial reckoning that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd — is facing scrutiny over how millions of dollars have been spent.
In an interview Wednesday, Davis confirmed that she had been in conversation with the controller’s office about an audit of the Dream Keeper Initiative. She said her audit request was not in response to a specific instance of wrongdoing but, rather, to get a sense of how well the initiative is executing its work.
“We wanted to do an audit just so we can know what works and where there are challenges,” Davis said. “That money was spread out across the city. We are trying to see what each different department did.”
Led by Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton, city leaders in July 2020 proposed shifting money away from local law enforcement to fund economic and cultural development in San Francisco’s Black communities. Officials in February 2021 rolled out a more detailed plan, dubbed the Dream Keeper Initiative, calling for a $60 million annual investment.
In the current budget, which runs from July of this year to June 2025, Mayor London Breed scaled back Dream Keeper funding to about $45 million.
Representatives of the controller’s office and the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the call for an audit.
The Dream Keeper budget has been divided among 11 city departments, with the largest shares going to the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the Department of Public Health, and the Human Rights Commission.
However, The Standard reported in July that some of the community partners involved in Dream Keeper have left money unspent. A city dashboard intended to show the program’s spending has not been regularly updated, while some funding recipients have spent money in ways that raised eyebrows among city officials.
One recipient of Dream Keeper money, J&J Community Resource Center, made headlines after its director tried to get booze and cigars reimbursed. SF Black Wall Street, a program that promotes Black entrepreneurship, spent more than $700,000 on two Juneteenth parties — surpassing the $660,000 it had spent on grants for small businesses. A director of the entrepreneurship program, Tinisch Hollins, was also found to have redirected tens of thousands of dollars in administrative fees toward a shell company she created.
Last month, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Urban Ed Academy, which received Dream Keeper Initiative funds, had hired few teachers in the city; instead, many of the jobs benefitted Oakland nonprofits or public schools.
Davis, who also leads the SF Human Rights Commission, is the subject of a whistleblower complaint containing 20 allegations of impropriety, The Standard reported in July.
In a prior interview with The Standard, Davis admitted that mistakes had been made with the Dream Keeper Initiative but said no illegal conduct had been identified.
Davis’ Human Rights Commission plans on providing an update about the Dream Keeper Initiative to the Board of Supervisors, though the Sept. 4 letter did not specify a date. A special meeting on Thursday will be held to discuss the initiative with Human Rights Commission members.