Under SF Mayor's Plan, More Middle-Income Families Would Qualify for Subsidized Child Care

San Francisco Mayor London Breed plans to expand child care subsidies for middle-income families in San Francisco and create a program for evening and weekend child care.

The city will invest about $60 million per year for the next two years from Proposition C, a commercial rent tax that voters approved in 2018 to fund child care services in San Francisco.

“The promise of Baby Prop. C is to build out a truly universal early care and education system in San Francisco,” said Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who worked with the mayor to create the Department of Early Childhood.

The department already spends about $180 million per year in Proposition C funding to subsidize child care costs for low-income families, build or renovate child care centers, and attract and train child care workers.

“San Francisco is committed to supporting our families and children by providing a strong foundation for early childhood services,” Breed said in a statement.

Under Breed’s new plans, the city would allocate more funding to increase child care subsidies to families earning up to 150% of the Area Median Income or about $224,800 for a family of four. Currently, eligibility is capped at 110% of AMI.

It would also create a pilot program for evening and weekend child care to help meet the needs of parents who work in fields like health care, retail and building security.

“These are far long, long, long-awaited services even before Baby Prop. C came into the scene,” Ingrid Mezquita, executive director of the Department of Early Childhood, told KQED. “There are many families who have nonstandard hours.”

In total, the additional money Breed wants to spend would subsidize care for an additional 6,500 kids, for a total of about 25,000.

San Francisco began collecting Proposition C taxes in 2018 after the measure was passed but was not able to spend it until a lawsuit challenging it was cleared up in 2021.

The boost in spending on early child care comes as other city departments and services are being cut to balance the city’s 2024–26 budget, and the mayor is campaigning for reelection in the fall.

Breed will submit her proposed budget to the Board of Supervisors for review and approval in early June.

Mark Farrell, who is running against Breed in November, also announced a child care spending plan this week.

He said his plan would allocate $400 million of Proposition C funding to subsidize care for 13,000 children in San Francisco. Farrell called for many of the same improvements that Breed has also touted, such as increasing the pipeline of child care workers, increasing locations for child care, and making preschool available to all kids.

Some of Farrell’s ideas include turning vacant spaces owned by the San Francisco Unified District and vacant commercial office space into child care centers.

“Child care is too expensive and too hard to find,” Farrell said in a statement. “The status quo forces many parents, particularly mothers, to choose between their careers and caring for their children.”