The Report
The Performance Program is an initiative of the San Francisco Controller's Office. San Francisco voters approved Proposition C in November 2003, which mandated that the Controller's Office monitor the level and effectiveness of public services provided by the City and County of San Francisco. As part of the mandate, the program reports annual performance metrics for every department in the City.
The Report includes:
Annual performance data for every City department
Highlights from performance scorecards about the City's eight service areas
City departments develop measures that track their delivery of public services. Targets may be performance goals or projections. They are set before the start of the fiscal year.
Report Tables
Click this link to access an online version of the Annual Report tables.
- Results the departments submitted in the past two fiscal years
- Targets and Results for the current fiscal year
- Targets for the future two fiscal years
Online Viewer
The Annual Report Online Viewer is a tool that visualizes departmental performance data. The viewer includes an interactive line graph comparing departments' targets to their year-end data, a measure description section that describes the measure, and a table that presents historical targets and results.
Instructions:
- Select user's desired department
- Filter by strategic goal (optional)
- Select a measure
Data
Click this link to access the Annual Performance Report performance data.
The Annual Report's Narrative sections provide detailed context about year-end results for the following selected subject areas: Homelessness, Public Safety, Public Health, Transportation, Public Works, and Finance. Performance metrics in the selected service areas reflect the progress made and challenges the City continued to face during the recovery.
Back to topHomelessness
The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) focuses on preventing and ending homelessness for people in San Francisco. HSH helps households make direct exits from homelessness to housing through their participation in three City programs: Housing Problem-Solving, Rapid Rehousing, and Permanent Supportive Housing. The City also provides a range of different types of temporary shelter programs, including Emergency Shelters, Navigation Centers, Cabins, Trailers, and Urgent Accommodation Vouchers, among others.
In FY23, 3,571 households exited homelessness through the three City programs listed above. Since FY21, the City has greatly increased the number of households who exited homelessness because new housing and problem-solving resources became available in FY22 and FY23. Fewer households than expected received placements in FY20 and FY21 due to staffing challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. During that timeframe, HSH also shifted their emphasis to street outreach and providing safe shelter opportunities to allow vulnerable clients to isolate and quarantine in Shelter-In-Place hotels.
HSH reports on the percent of available temporary shelter beds for single adults that were used on a nightly basis over the year. This is the shelter occupancy rate for a subset of the City's temporary shelters. The City aims to fill 95% of available adult temporary shelter beds each year. In FY23, the City reached its target with 95% of shelter beds used on average. The City has been within five percentage points of the target in each of the past six years, except for in FY19-20, when only 74% of available beds were used. The drop in the percentage of beds used in FY20 was due to data complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Back to top
Public Safety
Three City departments were responsible for measures tracking public safety: Police Department (SFPD), Emergency Management (DEM), and Fire Department (SFFD). In FY23, the Annual Report provided specific context on property crime and violent crime, 911 call answer times, and ambulance response times.
The number of reported property crimes was 46,306 in FY23, which is a slight 0.6% decrease from FY22 and is lower than the 47,990 incidences reported in pre-pandemic FY19.
The number of property offenses reported per 100,000 individuals of the population, or crime rate, decreased from FY19 to FY23, from 5,427 per 100,000 to 5,348 per 100,000.
In FY23, the number of reported Thefts from Vehicles was 28,263, a 32.9% increase from FY22. It represented 61% of total Property Crimes reported in San Francisco and was the biggest driver for all property crimes in San Francisco.
In FY23, San Franciscans reported 5,292 incidents of violent crime, a 4.5% increase from FY22. Despite the increase, the number of reported violent crime remains below pre-pandemic levels. The number of violent offenses reported per 100,000 individuals of the population, or crime rate, decreased from FY19 to FY23, from 662 to 611.
The Department of Emergency Management (DEM) runs the City’s 9-1-1 Dispatch Center. DEM’s target for answering 9-1-1 calls within 15 seconds is 95%. In FY23, the percentage of 9-1-1 calls answered within 15 seconds was 77%, 18 percentage points short of the target. A staffing shortage among 9-1-1 dispatchers is the key factor driving the lag in response times. DEM is currently hiring and training new dispatchers who will be on duty by the Fall of 2024.
The San Francisco Fire Department Division of Emergency Medical Services (SFFD) responds to approximately 80-90% of 9-1-1 calls in the City requiring an ambulance. The City has a goal for 90% of ambulances to arrive on the scene of life-threatening medical emergencies within 10 minutes. After reaching their target from FY19 to FY21, SFFD's ambulance response times were slower in FY22 and FY23. SFFD continues to experience severe staffing and training shortages, forcing the department to fill open shifts with overtime pay and a variety of other mechanisms.
Back to top
Public Health
The San Francisco Department of Public Health (DPH) promotes and protects the health and well-being of all San Franciscans. DPH operates the city's health system and delivers health care services through hospitals, clinics, and programs. DPH protects public health by conducting health inspections, preparing for environmental health hazards, and monitoring and preventing communicable diseases. In FY23, the Annual Report included specific context on overdose prevention, individuals with substance use disorder receiving services, individuals receiving treatment for opioid use disorder, and Naloxone overdose reversal.
Overdose Prevention
In October 2022, DPH and Mayor London Breed introduced the City's "Overdose Prevention Plan" to reduce overdose deaths and address racial disparities. The plan builds on the City's previous and existing efforts, such as the expansion of mental health and substance use services for people experiencing homelessness under Mental Health San Francisco.
The plan's four strategies to reduce overdoses and disparities are to:
- Increase availability and accessibility of the continuum of substance use services.
- Strengthen community engagement and social support for people at high risk for overdose
- Implement a "whole city" approach to overdose prevention.
- Track overdose trends and related drug use metrics to measure success and inform program development and change.
The FY23 Annual Report includes new and revised measures that will help track trends in the expansion of the City's efforts in overdose prevention and substance use services.
This measure counts individuals diagnosed with a substance use disorder who are receiving care in a variety of treatment settings across the San Francisco Health Network (SFHN). Individuals are counted once in the measure but may have received more than one service. The unique number of individuals with a substance use disorder receiving services over the past three fiscal years decreased from 15,675 to 14,952 (4.6%). DPH is targeting to serve 16,200 individuals diagnosed with a substance use disorder in FY24.
The Overdose Prevention Plan set a goal to increase the number of people receiving medication treatment for addiction by 30% by 2025. This measure tracks the reach of the two key medications aimed at treating opioid disorders— buprenorphine and methadone. The unique number of patients receiving these medications increased slightly in the most recent data available. Patients receiving buprenorphine increased from 2,749 to 2,805 (2%) from FY21 to FY22. Patients receiving methadone increased from 2,241 to 2,352 (5%) from FY22 to FY23. This measure's FY24 target is 2,831 patients on buprenorphine and 2,420 patients on methadone.
Nalaxone (also known by the brand name Narcan) is a life-saving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses. DPH is actively working to expand its network of distribution of naloxone by offering free naloxone in various settings including DPH-funded community-based programs, community, events, and a request-by-mail program. DPH doubled the distribution of doses from 65,877 doses in FY22 to 135,610 in FY23. DPH's FY24 goal is to distribute 165,609 doses.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) manages all ground transportation in the City. The department has oversight over the municipal railway (MUNI) public transit, as well as bicycling, paratransit, parking, traffic, walking, and taxis. In FY23, the Annual Report included specific context on annual total ridership and lifeline program utilization rates.
Annual ridership is a measure of the total number of passengers who board SFMTA's buses and light rail throughout the course of the fiscal year. In FY23, SFMTA served a total of 131 million riders, 6% below its target of 140 million. Over the course of FY23, MUNI ridership continued to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, albeit at a slower rate than last year. Between FY22 and FY23 total ridership across all modes increased by 11%, compared to the 48% increase between FY21 and FY22.
SFMTA offers free or discounted fare programs for eligible populations that meet income or age requirements. One of these programs is the Lifeline Pass, which offers the Muni-only monthly pass at a 50% discount to individuals with a gross annual income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. In FY23, 46% of the eligible population in San Francisco enrolled in the Lifeline Program. This is six percentage points above SFMTA's target of 40% of the eligible population. Since FY18-19, enrollment in the Lifeline Program has consistently increased by 1-2% each year.
San Francisco Public Works designs and manages construction of civic buildings and streets, cleans and greens the right of way, maintains civic buildings, trains people for jobs, keeps the right of way free of hazards, paves the streets, repairs bridges and public stairways, and expands accessibility. In FY23, the Annual Report included specific context on the street cleaning, pothole, and graffiti service request response rates.
SF Public Works responds to street and sidewalk cleaning requests through 311 service orders, in addition to its scheduled street sweeping operations and other proactive cleaning programs. In FY23, the City received 152,735 street and sidewalk cleaning service requests, compared to the 178,482 requests in FY22, a decrease of 17%. Public Work's on-time response rate dropped from 82% in FY22 to 79% in FY23. The FY23 response rate is 16 percentage points below their 95% target of responding to requests within 48 hours. Public Works attributed the decrease in response rate to an emphasis placed on prioritizing proactive cleaning programs and event-related or other special-cleaning projects.
Graffiti is an act of vandalism and categorized as a quality-of-life crime. There were 28,285 requests on public property in FY23 compared to 34,172 requests in FY22, which is a 21% decrease between FY22 and FY23. On average, Public Works responded to 36% of graffiti service requests on public property within 48 hours in FY23, an increase from 28% in FY22. The FY23 response rate is below the target of 95%. Public Works attributed the low response rate to reallocating staff to the Neighborhood Commercial Corridors Graffiti Abatement Opt-In Pilot Program and other non-graffiti services during the major winter storms.
While the number of public property requests declined in FY23, the number of service requests for private property saw a 43% increase. There were 22,672 requests in FY23 compared to 13,028 requests in FY22. It is the responsibility of private property owners to abate graffiti from their buildings within 30 days. In response to the increase in graffiti service requests on private property, Public Works began piloting a program in the fall of 2022 that allows property owners in designated commercial corridors to request the City remove the graffiti at no cost. There are currently 384 addresses signed up in the program. Between the start of the program in November 2022 and the end of June 2023, 437 graffiti cases have successfully been abated.
Potholes can be dangerous for people and goods traveling on San Francisco's roadways. Public Works received 2,522 pothole service requests in FY23, an 8.5% increase since FY22. Their average on-time response rate was 91%, slightly exceeding their 90% target for the year. In January 2022, Public Works launched a proactive pothole sweep crew that rotates through a different supervisorial district every month to fill potholes on residential streets. Since its inception, the pothole sweep crew has patched 5,323 potholes, accounting for 31.9%, or almost one third, of all potholes filled between January 2022 and June 2023.
Back to top
Finance
The Controller serves as the chief accounting officer and auditor for San Francisco. The Controller's Office manages key aspects of the City's financial operations, including the City's bonds and debt portfolio and processing and monitoring the City budget. In FY23, the Annual Report provided specific context on the City's General Obligation bond ratings and stabilization reserves to assess the City's financial health.
The General Obligation (GO) bond rating is the City's credit rating. It measures the overall financial stability of the City. The City issues bonds, or debt, to fund large capital projects. The purchase of those bonds provides the financing for these projects. The GO Bond indicates how safe of an investment the City's bonds are to potential investors. Moody's most recently affirmed the City's Aaa rating in July 2023, citing the City's robust financial profile, large tax base, and strong management practices as reasons to maintain the Aaa rating. The City's GO bond rating target is to maintain the Aaa rating through 2025 and beyond.
In years where revenues are stronger than expected, the City sets aside some of its revenue in reserve funds. These funds can be used during recessions, budget shortfalls, or other disruptions in revenue to help keep critical public services running. The City maintained its Rainy Day and Budget Stabilization reserves in FY23 after reporting strong bottom-line financial results for the post-pandemic fiscal year. The City Charter aims to allocate 10% of general fund revenues to reserves, which amounted to $614.9 million in FY23. The City did not meet its targeted reserve amount in FY22 because of withdrawals in FY21. While the City did use other reserves, it did not draw on its Rainy Day or Budget Stabilization reserves in FY23.
Back to top