City Government

City Agencies Partner with SF Superior Court to Reinstate Driver’s Licenses

Published

9 years ago

March 20, 2017

Over 10,000 residents— mostly in low-income neighborhoods – have suspended licenses

City agencies are joining together to conduct outreach to the city’s most vulnerable unemployed and underemployed residents to implement a program signed into law by Governor Brown, whereby individuals with suspended driver’s licenses can have them reinstated immediately, and reduce debt associated with court orders.

The program, which ends March 31, provides low-income San Franciscans an opportunity to relieve debt and lift one of the most intractable barriers to employment.

“Suspended driver’s licenses disproportionally impacts communities of color and low income individuals. In San Francisco, we want to ensure through this program, that every resident effected has access to this Amnesty program and to has equal access to job opportunities—leading to a pathway out of poverty,” said Todd Rufo, director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

The Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and the Financial Justice Project, an initiative of the Treasurer’s Office, launched a multi-lingual Public Service Announcement and outreach campaign to increase the number of San Francisco residents who apply for the Amnesty program before the deadline.
“Driver’s license amnesty is a critical opportunity for people to get out of debt and back on the road,” said José Cisneros, treasurer of the City and County of San Francisco. “As the Governor indicated in his budget, suspending licenses for failures to appear in court or pay a fine doesn’t improve public safety and it harms poor people.”

Most driver’s license holds in California originate from either a failure to appear in court (FTA) or a failure to pay court-ordered fines (FTP) infraction. In the three year period ending in March 2015, more than 10,000 San Francisco drivers received over 15,500 holds for FTAs alone according to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

These drivers are disproportionately represented in the City’s lower-income neighborhoods including in the Bayview Hunters Point, Treasure Island, and the Tenderloin. The San Francisco Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights has noted an above-average suspension rate across the State in zip codes with 20% or more African American residents.

In addition to the official web link on the Amnesty Program on the San Francisco Superior Court’s web site, the city also launched a web page about the program, and 311 will provide information to callers in multiple languages.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

5 days ago

July 5, 2026

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”