One-night count reveals dip in San Francisco's homeless population

SAN FRANCISCO  (CBS SF/AP)  — Mayor London Breed believes San Francisco is 'moving in the right direction' in reducing homelessness after a one-night count found a drop in the number of people living on the streets.

The survey found San Francisco's homeless population has dipped slightly in 2022. The Feb. 23 count found 7,754 people living in shelters, vehicles or outdoors, down from 8,035 in 2019 but still more than the nearly 6,900 reported in 2017.  

"We have a lot of work to do, but this shows that we are moving in the right direction," Breed said. "The investments we have made and will continue to make, as well as our improvements in strategy around outreach and connecting people to resources are all working together to help get more people off the street."

Breed credited an increase in shelter beds and transitional housing for the improving numbers. 

"Our homelessness crisis can feel insurmountable, but this new data shows we're starting to make progress — that investing in housing and other supports actually matters," said State Senator  Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco. "To be clear, much work remains — the level of homelessness in San Francisco is unacceptable — but this is a start."  

While San Francisco has seen a drop, the preliminary numbers for Sonoma County count found an increase of 5 percent overall with a total of 2,893 individuals experiencing a form of homelessness.    

Alameda County, which includes the cities of Oakland and Berkeley, reported a 22% increase since 2019 for a total of nearly 9,800 people but says the uptick could have been much higher. Officials said much of the increase was driven by a nearly 40% rise in people living in vehicles, including cars and RVs.  

The six other Bay Area counties were expected to also release their one-night count numbers on Monday.

Housing advocates say the point-in-time count mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is certainly an undercount, but critical to measuring homelessness across the country. San Francisco and other Bay Area counties were permitted to skip the count last year due to the pandemic. This year's count was conducted in late February.

The San Francisco Bay Area "staved off a catastrophic increase in homelessness" over the last three years, said regional housing advocacy group group All Home in a statement released Monday.

"Bay Area governments and nonprofits played deep defense on homelessness during the pandemic and we have more or less held the line — but now we need to go on offense and end the suffering on our streets" said Tomiquia Moss, the nonprofit group's founder and CEO.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has made solving homelessness a priority of his administration, and launched projects to provide money to cities and counties to convert motels and other commercial properties to house people.

Last year, the Legislature approved his plan for $12 billion for new housing and treatment beds for the homeless and this year Newsom has proposed an additional $2 billion, largely for people who are both homeless and in need of help for severe mental health diagnoses.