The former head of a San Francisco homeless nonprofit was arrested on accusations of using public funds to line her own pockets and throw lavish parties, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Kyra Worthy, former executive director of the now-defunct SF Safety Awareness For Everyone (SAFE), was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly taking $700,000 of donations and public money over six years to fund lavish parties, purchase gifts, and deposit into her personal bank account, according to a press release from the DA’s office. Worthy is now charged with 34 felonies for embezzlement, wage theft, and misappropriation of public money.
“Ms. Worthy’s theft and mismanagement resulted in the 48-year-old charity having no assets and ceasing operations in January of 2024,” San Francisco prosecutors told the San Francisco Chronicle. (RELATED: San Francisco Mayor Looks To Tackle City Drug Crisis By Paying Residents To Stay Sober)
Of the 34 charges, 24 are counts of wage theft between September 2023 and January 2024, according to the press release. Other charges include misappropriation of public monies, embezzlement, failing to pay withheld taxes, and “check kiting” where Worthy allegedly wrote checks on SF SAFE bank accounts even though the account did not have enough money.
The tent of a homeless man is pitched on the sidewalk under a freeway overpass January 25, 2010 in San Francisco, California. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced ambitious plans during his recent State of the City address to reduce the city’s overall homeless population by one third and the street population by one half before being termed out of office in two years. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
One large expense was an event titled “Candy Explosion,” which cost $100,000 in total expenses, including $20,000 for desserts, $19,000 for a petting zoo, face painting and bouncy houses, $20,000 for event planners and $7,000 for “mobile luxury restrooms,” according to the press release. Worthy also threw a holiday party for SF SAFE, for which she spent $6,000 on an event planner $50,000 on catering, with the event featuring champagne, an open bar and a prime rib carving station.
Worthy also spent over $350,000 of SF SAFE’s money on luxury gift boxes in 2022 and 2023, according to the press release. These expenses were made even as SF SAFE was hemorrhaging money and wasn’t paying employee’s taxes.
This is not the first homelessness nonprofit in California that has suffered alleged misuse of funds. Gwendolyn Westbrook, head of United Council of Human Services, was sued in 2023 for allegedly misusing public funds to line her own pockets, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Despite the nonprofit reporting that Westbrook didn’t report a salary in 2022, she still managed to buy a new Tesla, vacation to Aruba, and buy cars for her family and friends.
The San Francisco DA’s Office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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