Ahsha Safaí is a proud immigrant, husband and father of two, former labor organizer, small business owner, city planner, and Supervisor. He knows that today, while you’re working harder than ever, this city, and the current administration just isn’t working for you. Ahsha believes that with new, experienced leadership and accountability, we can get San Francisco back on track. That’s why Ahsha is stepping up for working families to deliver the big change we need.
A proud immigrant from a working family with a commitment to helping others
Ahsha was born in Iran. When he was 5 years old, and the emerging Iranian Revolution threatened his family’s safety, his mother brought him to the United States. His single mother found work as a secretary in Boston, but the family struggled. Ahsha’s mom taught him the value of hard work. And she always said that even during hard times, helping others should come first. And that’s how Ahsha has lived his life—starting as an intern in President Bill Clinton’s White House, then as a math tutor for a civil rights program focused on students in need—and onward through a career in public service.
A city planner who worked with two mayors to clean up our streets and create opportunity
After working his way through college and earning a Master’s in City Planning from MIT, Ahsha had the opportunity to work with two San Francisco mayors, Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom. These mayors entrusted Ahsha to lead major neighborhood and citywide services for San Francisco to deliver critical resources to low-income communities.
Working with Mayor Brown, Ahsha helped protect immigrants from losing their housing and advanced key gang violence prevention strategies. And he helped bring vital resources like a new teen center and new childcare center to residents of our public housing communities.
With Mayor Newsom, Ahsha helped lift up our neighborhoods, connecting young adults, formerly incarcerated, and homeless people to good jobs that support local small businesses by keeping our streets clean, planting trees and gardens, and revitalizing public spaces.
A labor organizer who has fought for economic fairness for working people
Mayors Brown and Newsom taught Ahsha what really makes a city work–its working people. So Ahsha spent nearly a decade as a labor organizer, representing frontline workers like janitors, sanitation workers, delivery drivers, and grocery store employees. He helped raise San Francisco’s minimum wage to $15/hour, secured better wages and working conditions for frontline workers, passed a Retail Workers’ Bill of Rights, and fought tirelessly to deliver Free City College for all San Franciscans.
To get so much done for working families, Ahsha brought business and labor together. With a collaborative approach, but never wavering from his principles, Ahsha found common ground between both sides, creating solutions that enabled workers to get ahead, while ensuring businesses also benefited from a well-trained, effective workforce.
An experienced leader who has fought for safer, more livable, more equitable neighborhoods for all
In 2016, Ahsha was elected to the Board of Supervisors, representing the Excelsior, Outer Mission, Oceanview, Merced, Ingleside, and Crocker Amazon—neighborhoods that had previously been ignored by City Hall for too long. Throughout his career, from the Clinton White House to San Francisco City Hall, Ahsha has always fought to give everyone a voice in their community and to make government work better.
Some of his most recent accomplishments for San Francisco range from holding the City accountable on homelessness and nonprofit spending, to fighting back against City Hall corruption, and taking direct action to address rampant organized retail theft.