Former San Francisco homeless services charity CEO Gwendolyn Westbrook is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on nine felony charges prosecutors say involve how more than $1.2 million in public funds were used, including accusations that she diverted money for personal use.
Prosecutors allege Westbrook, 71, held “near-exclusive financial control” over the United Council for Human Services while she led the nonprofit, which serves homeless and low-income people. The district attorney’s office said the charges follow an investigation into payments, cash withdrawals and reimbursements tied to Westbrook’s control of the organization’s finances.
In a Monday statement, prosecutors alleged that between 2019 and 2023, Westbrook engaged in “unauthorized self-payments,” improper cash withdrawals and fraudulent reimbursement practices that diverted public funds for personal use. The filing describes the alleged conduct as misconduct occurring over multiple years during her tenure at the nonprofit.
Prosecutors said Westbrook faces charges including misappropriation of public funds, grand theft and filing false California tax returns. Her arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Messages were sent to Westbrook and to the United Council for Human Services seeking comment on the charges, and an attorney for Westbrook could not be located.
The case also comes amid reporting that Westbrook and the United Council for Human Services have faced scrutiny in the past. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in 1997 Westbrook was accused of stealing thousands of dollars from a cash box at a parking lot owned by the San Francisco Port, where she was employed at the time. The Chronicle also reported that in 2015, regulators found unsanctioned blackjack tables at a charity bingo hall that the nonprofit operated.
Court documents filed this month, according to the reporting, accuse Westbrook of buying luxury vehicles and making purchases at high-end retailers, including Louis Vuitton and Neiman Marcus, with the nonprofit’s money. She led the organization that ran a soup kitchen and collected millions in city contracts to shelter the homeless for nearly two decades before her dismissal in 2023.
The broader landscape of fraud allegations involving homeless-services charities has included federal and state charges in other cities. In Los Angeles, prosecutors said last month that Alexander Soofer, CEO of a homeless services charity, was charged federally with wire fraud and also faces state charges tied to allegations that he used $23 million in taxpayer money for a luxury lifestyle, including buying a $7 million Los Angeles home, a vacation house in Greece and a $125,000 Range Rover.