Dawg offers more free advice to da Mayor
Uh huh,
Here it is …
Local news for a global city
Open Search
POSTED INGOVERNMENT
S.F. to lay off ‘community ambassadors,’ including several in the Mission
Ambassadors program that patrolled near 16th and Mission elementary school to end in May
by OSCAR PALMAApril 22, 2026, 9:00 am
On a recent rainy Monday, community ambassadors from the Mission team walked around 16th and Mission streets informing those in the rain of nearby services. Photo by Oscar Palma.
For the last four years, Lidia Sandoval has escorted local senior citizens to appointments and escorted kids to school, all part of San Francisco’s community-ambassador program.
On April 6, she was told that her job was being eliminated, alongside those of all community ambassadors from the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs.
Her last day is May 6.
Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below.Sign up
In areas of the Mission District, like Marshall Elementary, a public school that has struggled for years with spillover chaos from the drug use and fencing of stolen goods near the 16th Street BART plazas, the ambassadors have come to feel critical.
They show up before the school’s security guard arrives at 10 a.m. They’ve distributed safety information during immigration scares.
They file 311 requests to clean up the surrounding streets, and ask people who are drinking, using drugs, or otherwise behaving disruptively around the school to move along. They show up at the start and end of the day to help kids feel safe walking to or from the building.
On a recent rainy Monday, an ambassador carrying an umbrella walked children from their parents’ cars into the school.
“They know kids by name. They’ll give a kid a hug when they come out of the car,” said Elaine Ellis, a social worker at Marshall Elementary. “We trust them.”
The abrupt layoffs are a U-turn for the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, which runs the ambassador program. City officials decided last year to end the program as part of the city budget process, but the ambassadors had been told that they would stay on until their contracts expired.
Two operational staffers and 14 ambassadors will be losing their jobs. Out of these, three had job agreements with the city until the end of 2026, nine that ended in 2027 and four until 2028.
Mayor Daniel Lurie promised in February to add more ambassadors (as well as more police foot patrols) in the area near 16th and Mission streets.
When asked how laying off the area’s current crew of ambassadors factored into promises to expand the program, and if any new personnel or programs would replace those laid off, the mayor’s office referred Mission Local to the city administrator’s office for comment.
A request sent to the city administrator’s office was met with a formal statement from the city’s Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs.On a recent rainy Monday, community ambassadors from the Mission team walked around 16th and Mission streets informing those in the rain of nearby services. Photo by Oscar Palma.
The statement did not answer any of the questions on the list, but did state that the city is “working with ambassadors on ensuring they are prepared for their next opportunity, including connecting them to potential employers.”
It appears the city may be moving toward subcontracting ambassadors. In July 2025, Ahsing Solutions, a private firm, was contracted by the city to do similar work around the 16th Street BART plazas.
In December 2025, the city announced a $21 million budget allocation to five nonprofits to hire “roaming ambassadors” that would be deployed across more territory throughout the city.
“I truly feel like it was a bait-and-switch,” said one ambassador, who said that their layoff notice provided no explanation as to why they were being let go with months remaining on their contract.
“I feel like I’ve wasted the last couple of years because there’s no way I can, with this job experience, find something equivalent that will pay me at least as much, if not more, or give me the same kind of benefits.”
The ambassadors earn between $26.27 and $29.29 an hour, plus benefits.
The union representing the ambassadors, SEIU 1021, confirmed the layoffs, and said the ambassadors they had been in contact with had not received any offers to be reassigned.
“SEIU 1021 stands firmly opposed to the unethical and, in our view, illegal outsourcing of city work to private organizations that pay workers less to perform similar work,” read a statement from the union.
The statement added that the union had documented several other layoff and reassignment actions that it said violate employment law regarding contractors hired to work for the city.
SEIU 1021 is, the statement added, filing unfair labor practice charges with the California Public Employment Relations Board.
Currently, community ambassadors are divided into three teams: Mid-Market/Tenderloin, Bayview and the Mission. The Mission team was formed in 2014 and began assisting Marshall Elementary in 2021. In August of 2025, community ambassador teams working in Chinatown, the Sunset and parts of District 5 ceased operations.
The program cost $2.03 million this fiscal year, including salaries, benefits and equipment, said Jorge Rivas, the executive director of the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs.
The Mission’s ambassadors also provide support at food banks across the neighborhood and a safety presence at the Art Youth Exchange Program, the Boys and Girls Club, and at Ladies Night at the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center.
They also escort seniors and people with disabilities who need assistance running errands or going to appointments.
For Carmen Garcia, who picks up her two grandkids every day at Marshall, the ambassadors’ presence was always pleasant.
“They’re so nice and kind. They say hi to you and they know, and take care of, all the children,” Garcia said in Spanish.
For Sandoval, saying goodbye to the children at Marshall will be difficult.
“The kids’ hugs. That’s what I’m gonna miss the most. You can’t replace that.”
OSCAR PALMASTAFF REPORTER
Reporting from the Mission District and other District 9 neighborhoods. Some of his personal interests are bicycles, film, and both Latin American literature and punk. Oscar’s work has previously appeared in KQED, The Frisc, El Tecolote, and Golden Gate Xpress.More by Oscar Palma
Join the Conversation
16 Comments
Ivan van Ogresays:April 22, 2026, 11:48 am at 11:48 amI really felt safer when they were around.
They were good people and we will be worse off without them.+5-2votes. Sign in to voteReplyClean up the Missionsays:April 22, 2026, 5:33 pm at 5:33 pmI’d like to see zero tolerance for the thieves, drug dealers etc 16/Mission. With these folks gone we really don’t need ‘Ambasadors’.
Since Fielder is MIA, and we have no one looking out for the neighborhood we need the Mayor Lurie to step-up police to arrest the druggies & thieves to make sure regular people are safe. We could do with cutting any non-profits that act like junky hot spots attracting unsavory characters at one of the busiest public transportation intersections.+3-2votes. Sign in to voteReplyTravis Briggssays:April 22, 2026, 8:03 pm at 8:03 pmWhy continue employing ambassadors who are part of the community when we can just hire NEW ones at 20% less, from another company we’re already using? People are fungible, relationships don’t matter, it’s just a line item on a budget. /s+3-2votes. Sign in to voteReply
Unfair and unequal distribution of Ambassdors from day onesays:April 22, 2026, 9:25 am at 9:25 amIn some areas , Ambassadors are helpfulNot sure who decides where they are placed?Sounds like around this area they were helpfulOther areas , like Lower Polk have never had even one Ambassador to helpThere has and continues to be an unfair and equitable distribution of these personsAlso urban alchemy appears to be better at training and helping then Glide ?
Why after the hastings law school lawsuit , the always are plenty of ambassadors there ?Kids need to be safe as do all of us .Hopefully the area you are reporting on gets permission to keep the ambassadorsPlease report on why Lower Polk has never even had one Ambassador ? That area is a drug contaimment zone
Everyday dealers and addicts are thereDistrict 5Please explain the discrepency .
Taxpayers are contributing but getting nothing in the Lower polk areaAt least the area you reported on has had ambassadorsI think the city needs to explain their distribution and usage of ambassadors+2-1votes. Sign in to voteReplyAl Parkersays:April 22, 2026, 6:31 pm at 6:31 pmAll at a time when D9 literally has a big fat ZERO for representation.If Jackie Fielder Really cared about helping latino and indigenous school kids in her district she’d resign and let someone do the work that’s so desperately needed in our neighborhoods.
Selfish Much?+3-3votes. Sign in to voteReplyUggiesays:April 22, 2026, 7:09 pm at 7:09 pmWill miss the ambassadors! They need to be hired by the new company .
That said it has been DIRE here living near the construction site !The Guzman construction site company, their bosses MEDA and Mission housing who are the owners of the so called Marvel.
They all at a meeting at the Marshall elementary school, when parents and faculty asked about providing 24/7 security for the adjacent Capp and Adair streets surrounding the large construction site , said they won’t provide any. There is a guard inside the construction site but if standing outside watches the circus and that’s it. Routinely there are extreme situations where Fentynal tourists have taken over these blocks including outside the school. Their drug dealers are right over on Mission BART plaza. The police and 311 need to be routinely called. Lots of debris feces filth rats.
Check out Instagram @missioncarnival
for a small sample of the shenanigans. Shame on the City mayor’s office, the police and the nonprofit project managers sponsors . Tomorrow is a rah rah ground breaking event at the construction site -50 Capp- the streets will be cleaned up and all the drug tourism will be moved out of site for the media.+2-2votes. Sign in to voteReplyh. brownsays:April 24, 2026, 11:23 pm at 11:23 pmYour comment is awaiting moderation.Oscar, Reminds me of Willie Brown. Why is it that so many stories of corruption remind me of him ? Willie probably privatized more City jobs than anyone in history other than Margo St. James. In the instance I’m speaking of he was explaining why he wasn’t going to privatize the laundry services at SFGH just as he’d done at Laguna Honda and he said … “Why those laundry women down there remind me of my own mother and you don’t think I’d fire my own mother do you?” After which, he fired the City workers what with their union ties and benefits. Same thing appears to be happening here but Daniel Lurie ain’t Willie Brown and you can bet that the move to fire the Ambassadors with all of their institutional knowledge and personal contacts so vital to the Mission didn’t come from him. Look for someone who benefits from their personal ties to the like of Ahsing who actually sent 8 guys and a supervisor to do the job cleaning around the Armory that I was doing for free. Really, 8 guys complete with those thundering wheeled aluminum trash barrels. Lurie’s just the one signing the checks with City cash and his rep.. Frankly, 16th and Mission and the surrounding hood is worse than before he was elected and that’s because he stopped listening to me once he took the oath of office. A bit arrogant and self-serving ? Hey, I work for free and I started working crime in this locale when I took the job teaching its toughest kids 30 years ago at Potrero Hill Middle School where I learned the power and value both good and bad of the Mission District’s station Captain and I know that as soon as Lurie took power he allowed his new people to fire the best leader we’d had in that capacity who had monthly community meetings in the community and was born here and is a woman (Latino w/white moniker) named Johansen. So, the trash and cops are worse than they were under Breed and we’ve spent lots more on both. Gimme a call, Mr. Mayor; I told you to sit down with me once a week for an hour and you’ll see a genuine difference in the streets. Offer still stands. Anyone else working for you for free ? go Niners !! h. So, he screwed that up, I’m sure by ‘delegating’ authority to his new neighborhood experts.
Marc Salomon wrote:
I really enjoy how the Mission Latino grandees nod in support as the Latino constituencies they purport to represent at Marshall, a Spanish language immersion elementary school, are treated like dirt by the government, both the Mayor and the D9 supervisor because it proves the point I’ve been making all along: these operators, MEDA, Mission Housing, PODER, HOMEY and Mission Action, represent nobody but themselves and play a game of keep away with district politics.
Granados at MEDA: $414K in 2024
Moss at Mission Housing: $314K in 2024I cannot see how a progressive ever carries the North Mission in an election moving forward after the entire political class, progressives included, green lit the ongoing degradation of our neighborhood to Tenderloin South.
Leave a Reply