All about San Francisco’s DV right to counsel pilot ballot initiative
In June 2022, San Francisco voters enacted Proposition D with 60% of the vote. The measure created the Office of Victim and Witness Rights and required the Director of the Office to introduce an ordinance proposing a one-year domestic violence right to counsel counsel pilot program to provide legal services to any DV victim. The City’s fiscal investment in the pilot was limited to the cost of staff support for program coordination among the City, the Superior Court, non-profit organizations, and others involved in the Pilot Program”, so the legal services component was not funded, but the pilot had an evaluation component. According to the ordinance statement, there are over 7,000 DV complaints every year in San Francisco. Previously, a DV survivor penned a piece to SFGate explaining why the City needed to pass Prop D.
In 2025, ABC 7 News reported that the Office of Victim and Witness Rights had “just opened” and that the Director conceded the right was not yet being fulfilled due to a lack of government funding. Alexis Collentine of Open Door Legal estimated that the program needs $2 million to get started on a pilot level.
