SF tent, vehicle count shows drop in homeless population

San Francisco's homeless population has dropped since July, according to the mayor's office, citing a tent and vehicle count conducted last week.

Mayor London Breed called it "a significant reduction in people living unsheltered in both tents and vehicles" and touted the city's ongoing efforts to offer people shelter and housing and to clean up encampments.

San Francisco conducts the tent and vehicle counts quarterly, and the February count showed 385 tents, a 37% reduction from 609 in July 2023; and 616 vehicles, a 42% reduction from 1,058 in July 2023.

It's the largest reduction in tents in a six-month period since the start of the pandemic, the mayor's office said.

Breed praised the work of the city's Healthy Streets Operations Center (HSOC), which conducted more than 480 operations and moved more than 1,500 people into shelter from encampments.

She also credited San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, which has opened 300 new shelter beds in the past three months and employed new strategies to fill vacant housing units faster.

The city helped 3,000 people permanently exit homelessness in 2023, the mayor's office said.

"Our city workforce is out there every day helping people into shelter and care," Breed said in a statement. "While we are making progress, we can’t let up. We will continue to offer shelter to those in need, while also using new solutions for those who won’t or can’t accept our offers of care. We have the resources, the tools, and the commitment to help people and make a difference in our neighborhoods."

The mayor's office news release Friday also stated: "Following the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals clarification in September, which stated that people who refuse offers of shelter do not meet the definition of 'involuntarily homeless,' and thus, the federal preliminary injunction order does not apply to them. The clarification allowed the City to once again enforce the enjoined laws when its offers of shelter are refused. Prior to that clarification, the City had been constrained in what laws could be enforced due to the federal injunction."

But not everyone is convinced with the numbers. This includes Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director with the Coalition on Homelessness San Francisco.

“Counting tents does not indicate a reduction in homelessness. It’s actually a very poor measure of progress on the issue, that said we have made a lot of progress on homelessness,” she said. “We have really been able to turn the tide on homeless because of this Prop C funding. So, we’re looking at the annual report for these funds. An additional over 2,200 households received housing and 13,000 individuals received homeless prevention services.”