The former head of a beleaguered San Francisco nonprofit agency that served homeless people has been charged with misusing more than $1 million in public funds, according to the city’s district attorney.
The ex-official, Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, was charged on Monday in Superior Court in San Francisco, Brooke Jenkins, the district attorney, said in a statement. The charges, which stemmed from an investigation by the city’s Public Integrity Task Force, include grand theft, filing false tax returns and misappropriation of public funds while Ms. Westbrook was the chief executive of the United Council of Human Services, a homeless services provider in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood.
Prosecutors say that from 2019 to 2023, Ms. Westbrook “engaged in unauthorized self-payments, improper cash withdrawals, and fraudulent reimbursement practices that diverted public funds for personal use,” while exercising “near-exclusive financial control” over her organization.
In total, she is accused of stealing $91,000, and misappropriating more than $1.2 million, prosecutors said, adding that some large sums withdrawn from the organization’s accounts remained unaccounted for.
It was unclear when Ms. Westbrook would be arraigned, and there was not yet an attorney listed as her representative in court documents. A call to the number listed for United Council for Human Services was answered early Wednesday, but the person hung up when the caller identified themselves as a reporter.
For years, Ms. Westbrook and U.C.H.S. have been under scrutiny for mismanagement, illegal spending and misuse of public funds. The nonprofit has collected tens of millions of dollars in federal and state grants in San Francisco, which has one of the most severe homeless crises in the United States.
In 2022, a city audit found the organization had widely failed to comply with city standards, and regularly prioritized housing for Ms. Westbrook’s employees instead of vetted homeless candidates. The organization, auditors said, “has not complied with eligibility, expenditure, and record-keeping requirements of its fiscal sponsorship agreements.”
At the time of the audit, Ms. Westbrook’s organization was in control of nearly $28 million in grants to directly provide services to unhoused people. She denied the allegations, and said the auditors had targeted her because she is Black.
“The last thing I’m gonna do is rip something off,” Ms. Westbrook told the San Francisco Standard in November 2022. “I came up in the city with a love in my heart for my city. And I’m in Bayview working with my people and anybody else who needs help. And I’m gonna start stealing from them?”
City officials referred U.C.H.S. to the F.B.I., saying organizers had illegally sold units and failed to properly vet housing candidates. Auditors recommended the city stop facilitating grants for the organization, which later sued San Francisco officials in 2025 for withholding public funds.
In a lawsuit filed by a former employee in 2023, Ms. Westbrook was accused of using the organization’s coffers to fund a lavish lifestyle for herself and her family, including purchases of luxury cars, vacations and, in one case, a trunk of jewelry.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in Belfast.
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