Former Blue City nonprofit director accused of using donations and taxpayer funds for lavish lifestyle

The former head of a San Francisco homeless nonprofit was arrested on charges of using public funds to line her 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 Tuesday for allegedly taking $700,000 in donations and public money over six years to fund lavish parties, buy gifts and deposit into her personal bank . account, seconds to a news release from the DA's office. Worthy is now charged with 34 counts of embezzlement, wage theft and embezzlement of public money.

“Ms. Worthy's theft and mismanagement resulted in the 48-year-old charity having no assets and ceasing operations in January 2024,” San Francisco prosecutors said. he said the Chronicle of San Francisco.

Of the 34 charges, 24 are wage theft crimes between September 2023 and January 2024, according to the press release. Other charges include misappropriation of public money, misappropriation of funds, failure to pay withholding taxes and “check kiting” where Worthy allegedly wrote checks to SF SAFE bank accounts even though the account did not have enough money.

A major 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 “luxury mobile pods.” according to the press release. Worthy also threw a holiday party for SF SAFE, for which she spent $6,000 on an event planner and $50,000 on catering, with the event featuring champagne, an open bar and a prime rib station .

Worthy also spent more than $350,000 of SF SAFE money on luxury gift boxes in 2022 and 2023, according to the news release. These expenditures were made even though SF SAFE was hemorrhaging money and not paying employee taxes.

This is not the first homeless organization for the homeless in California to suffer from alleged misuse of funds. Gwendolyn Westbrook, head of the United Council of Human Services, was sued in 2023 for allegedly misusing public funds to line her own pockets. seconds in the San Francisco Chronicle. Although the nonprofit reported that Westbrook didn't declare a salary in 2022, he still managed to buy a new Tesla, a vacation to Aruba and buy cars for his family and friends.

Worthy could not be reached for comment via SF SAFE email. The San Francisco DA's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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