San Francisco’s Dream Keeper Initiative had a rough week. High-profile media stories by The Standard and Chronicle raised serious questions about program spending. By week’s end, the program’s leader, a city department head, had resigned.
Now Black community leaders are rallying to the initiative’s defense, decrying what they see as unfair attacks on a crucial program.
On Friday, a group of San Francisco’s Black community leaders gathered on the steps of City Hall to speak out about what they see as an existential threat to a landmark program for investing in the Black community.
“You paint a picture of the impact of DKI on the Black community as devastating, and the good of DKI must be dismantled,” said Phelicia Jones, founder of the advocacy organization Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community.
Jones and other speakers at the event decried the recent media coverage of Dream Keeper, saying the stories have overwhelmingly focused on the initiative’s flaws while failing to highlight its many successes. That negative attention comes on the heels of San Francisco institutions’ long history of marginalizing the city’s Black community, speakers pointed out, raising concerns that the scrutiny is driven by racism.
At the same time, advocates called for the city to increase transparency around Dream Keeper.
“What the hell have you done with our money?” Jones said.
The rally came a day after The Standard reported that San Francisco Human Rights Commission head Sheryl Davis approved contracts worth $1.5 million for a local nonprofit run by a man with whom she shared a home and car. On Friday, Davis resigned and Mayor London Breed appointed an acting director of the department.
Davis’ resignation raises questions about the future of the Dream Keeper Initiative, San Francisco’s signature program intended to invest in the cultural and economic development of the city’s Black community. Davis and her department led much of the work of the initiative, for which city leaders have budgeted nearly $300 million since 2020. About $140 million has been spent, according to data from the controller’s office.
Despite the tumult, Breed is standing by the program, which she and other city leaders launched in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
“Questions have been raised around Dream Keeper spending and Mayor Breed is committed to ensuring the integrity of the program and continuing the good that it does with full transparency,” a mayoral spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.
The mayor put in place stronger controls on the program when she signed the city’s budget last month. An audit of the program by the city controller is already in process, according to the spokesperson.
Bilal Chaney, a diversity, equity, and inclusion lead at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, celebrated Dream Keeper’s accomplishments at his workplace, which he said included helping Black students enter medical school. Beyond those tangible impacts, Chaney says the program has been a force for good.
“I have never seen such powerful unity among the African American community,” Chaney said.
Speakers at the rally Friday spoke to a common theme: After decades of disinvestment in the Black community, once the city finally did carve out a large financial investment, it quickly attracted deep scrutiny.
“They are going after our money,” said Tonya Williams, a member of the MegaBlack SF collective, which organized the event. She encouraged city leaders to continue putting cash into Dream Keeper programs.
“This money has not only helped Black people,” Williams said. “This money has helped the entire city.”