San Francisco Homelessness Charity Boss Charged with Embezzling $1.2 Million in Taxpayer Funds for Tesla, Jewelry, and Family Luxuries

Another day, another indictment exposing the rot at the heart of California’s homelessness nonprofit grift.

Gwendolyn Westbrook, the 71-year-old former CEO of the United Council of Human Services (UCHS), was charged Tuesday with nine felonies — including grand theft, misappropriation of public funds, and filing false tax returns for four straight years (2019–2023) — after prosecutors say she secretly paid herself an enormous salary and siphoned off more than $1.2 million in taxpayer dollars meant for soup kitchens and homeless shelters. 

Westbrook allegedly used the stolen money to live like royalty while the streets she was paid to clean up remained a disaster: a Tesla for herself, a Jeep Renegade for a close family friend, vehicles for cousins, a “trunk full of high-priced jewelry,” family weddings, and even in vitro fertilization procedures for a relative. Her official reported salary? Just $155,000 a year — a figure prosecutors called wildly inconsistent with her lavish lifestyle.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins laid it out plainly at a news conference: “You’re talking about millions of dollars being lost to that effort, our taxpayer dollars, while every day we sit and deal with people who are still struggling on our streets.”

City Attorney David Chiu, who with former Controller Ben Rosenfield referred the case for FBI and DA investigation after a damning 2022 audit, added: “Gwendolyn Westbrook enriched herself and misused millions in public funds meant to help the community.”

This is the same UCHS that received millions in government grants over two decades to run homeless services before Westbrook was finally ousted in 2023 amid mounting complaints. A former employee’s lawsuit that year first blew the whistle on her extravagant spending and bragging.

Westbrook has a sordid history, yet continued her nonprofit exploitation.  

In 1997 she was accused of stealing thousands from a San Francisco Port parking lot cash box. In 2015, regulators caught her organization running unsanctioned blackjack tables at a “charity” bingo hall. None of that stopped the gravy train of public money flowing her way — until now.

Westbrook was booked February 20 and released on bail. Her arraignment, originally set for February 24, has been postponed to March 9 at her request.

This case is not an anomaly. It is the predictable result of California’s homelessness industrial complex, where billions vanish into nonprofits with little oversight and even less results.

As California Globe has repeatedly documented:  

• The U.S. Attorney’s Office launched a dedicated Criminal Task Force to investigate fraud and corruption involving homelessness funds.   
• State auditors issued scathing reports on the complete failure to mitigate homelessness despite massive spending.  
• California’s own “failed social programs” have repeatedly collapsed into slush funds and waste.  
• The state’s $593 billion nonprofit sector is rife with abuse, as Chamath Palihapitiya has warned.

While San Francisco and Sacramento continue demanding ever-larger sums of taxpayer money to supposedly “solve” homelessness, executives like Westbrook treat the public purse as their personal trough—diverting funds intended for the vulnerable into luxury cars, jewels, and private extravagance.

Success in actually ending the crisis would mean dismantling the very network of well-funded nonprofits that profit from its perpetuation; until then, the tents multiply, the streets degrade, and the cycle of waste, fraud and abuse continues.

Taxpayers deserve real accountability and results—not endless excuses and embezzlement.