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The former head of a San Francisco homelessness services nonprofit is facing nine felony charges after prosecutors say she secretly paid herself more than $850,000 in unauthorized salary and diverted at least $1.2 million in public funds for personal use — including luxury vehicles, jewelry, and high-end shopping sprees.
Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, the former chief executive of the United Council of Human Services (UCHS), appeared in court Tuesday (February 24) on charges that include misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, presenting false invoices, and filing false California state tax returns. She did not enter a plea and declined to comment.
The San Francisco District Attorney's Office alleges that between 2019 and 2023, Westbrook used her near-exclusive control over the nonprofit's bank accounts to enrich herself while UCHS held nearly $28 million in city contracts to house and support homeless people.
Prosecutors say Westbrook collected two separate streams of unauthorized pay. First, she allegedly received approximately $467,000 through an unusual arrangement involving UCHS's fiscal sponsor, Heluna Health, which deposited funds into the nonprofit's account that Westbrook then transferred to herself. On top of that, she paid herself at least $387,000 in salary checks that no other staff member or board representative co-signed — payments investigators described as "totally undocumented" and unaudited.
Westbrook withdrew approximately $2.9 million in cash from UCHS accounts over the four-year period. Investigators say at least $897,000 of those withdrawals was deposited into her personal bank accounts, while roughly $1.4 million simply "went missing."
A review of Westbrook's personal bank records revealed repeated purchases far beyond what her stated salary could support, including transactions at Louis Vuitton and Neiman Marcus, mortgage and college tuition payments, and more than $100,000 over three years at a Concord jewelry store owned by two of the nonprofit's own board members — including its treasurer.
A 2023 lawsuit filed by a former UCHS employee had earlier alleged that Westbrook told staff she had purchased a Tesla for herself, a Jeep Renegade for a close family friend, two vehicles for cousins, and gave an Infiniti SUV to a niece.
Westbrook's legal troubles are not new. In 1997, she was accused of stealing money from a cash box at a parking lot owned by the San Francisco Port, where she worked at the time. In 2015, state regulators found unsanctioned blackjack tables at a charity bingo hall operated by UCHS.
City auditors flagged UCHS's financial operations as far back as 2017. A 2022 city controller audit uncovered widespread problems, including improper tenant placements, miscalculated rents, and circumvention of hiring rules. Following that report, the controller and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu referred the matter to both the FBI and the district attorney's office.
"Gwendolyn Westbrook enriched herself and misappropriated millions of dollars in public funding meant to benefit the community," Chiu said in a statement.
Westbrook was booked into county jail on Friday (February 20) and was later released. She is scheduled to return to court on March 9 for arraignment.