Emergency Grocery Cards, Troubled Tech and $142M for Housing

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Budget & Finance Committee swept through eight resolutions on March 25, all unanimously, but the most striking moment came when the panel turned from grilling a tech vendor over a five-year-delayed property tax system to hearing how city staff stood up an $18 million emergency food program in six days. Together, the items commit the city to tens of millions in health, housing and technology spending — with pointed questions about accountability running through every one.

• $18M emergency grocery card program formalized after reaching 65,000 households when federal SNAP funding lapsed

• Five-year-delayed property tax system gets its final $6.7M extension — committee warns the contract cannot come back

• $142M in combined financing cleared for 158 affordable units at Balboa Reservoir, with construction targeted for May 2026

• $31.7M in health access contracts extended through 2030 for HIV/STI services in LGBTQ+, Black and Latino communities, with harm reduction being restructured toward recovery

• SFO extends $30M guest services contract one year to support Terminal 3 modernization

The basics: When the USDA failed to release emergency SNAP funds in October 2025, the Human Services Agency designed a CalFresh Stopgap Emergency Gift Card Initiative in three days. The $18 million program was split evenly between a challenge grant from the Crankstart Foundation and the city's state and federal revenue risk reserve. The SF-Marin Food Bank served as fiscal intermediary because the foundation could not fund a for-profit vendor directly. The committee retroactively authorized HSA's $9.1 million contract.