- By Natalia Gurevich | Examiner staff writer |
- Aug 14, 2024 Updated 23 hrs ago (SFExaminer.com)
The prevalence of homelessness changed dramatically in four San Francisco supervisorial districts over the last two years, according to new Point-in-Time Count data The City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing provided to The Examiner on Wednesday.
The data showed significant drops in homelessness in districts 5 and 6 and sharp rises in districts 3 and 10. Districts 5 and 6 — which include the Tenderloin and SOMA, neighborhoods where poverty and substance abuse are especially pervasive — experienced a notable decrease in the number of people not living in shelters.
“We’re proud of that progress,” said District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston. “There’s obviously a lot more to do, but it’s definitely a good sign.”
The Point-in-Time Count is a federally mandated homelessness census that takes place every two years on a specific night; this year’s took place Jan. 30. The City released preliminary data from the count in May, showing that homelessness overall increased in The City by 7%, from 7,754 people in 2022 to 8,323 in 2024.
The number of unsheltered homeless people in District 5 decreased from 1,225 in 2022 to 975 this year, about a 20% decline. The number of sheltered homeless people went up from 722 to 724, according to the data. District 5’s share of The City’s unhoused population fell from more than one-fourth in 2022 to around 20% this year.
One of the main factors behind these changes, Preston said, is an increased effort to fill vacant supportive-housing units. Preston said about 1,000 — or 10% of The City’s stock — sat empty as of September 2023.
At that time, Preston urged the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to fill at least half of those housing units within 90 days. He said that they were able to reduce the number of vacancies by about 30%.
Preston said the new PIT Count data is a reflection of this progress.
“We were very supportive of moving folks immediately from the streets into existing homes,” he said. “That clearly works, and we should be doing more of that.”
Emily Cohen, a department spokesperson, agreed that the district’s success can partly be attributed to the push to fill vacant permanent supportive housing units. She also said that increased capacity at existing shelters is the main factor in reducing unsheltered homelessness in District 5.
As for District 6, Cohen said the shifts in the population were also largely due to increases in shelter capacity, which led to a reduction in the number of unsheltered homeless people in the area from 993 in 2022 to 766 this year, a decline of about 23%.
There was also a decrease in the number of sheltered homeless people in the district from 1,308 to 1,219, which Cohen said was caused by the closure of shelter-in-place hotels from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents District 6, did not respond to the Examiner’s request for comment by the time of publication.
While these shifts seem to signal improvements in The City’s response to providing shelter for unhoused people, the 3,834 shelter beds and 382 transitional housing beds available within the San Francisco shelter system amount to around half of the total homeless population.
Preston said the lack of shelter is still a concern, particularly as officials move ahead on a new policy to more aggressively clear encampments in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in the City of Grants Pass v. Johnson case.
“Rather than doubling down on those approaches that were working, we see [Mayor London Breed’s] more recent approach in an election year of a lot of very tough, heated rhetoric and aggressive sweeps,” he said. “I think that that threatens to undermine a lot of the progress that we’ve been making which is reflected in the PIT Count numbers.”
Jeff Cretan, a spokesperson for Breed’s office, told The Examiner that outreach teams continue to conduct outreach during encampment cleanups with offers of shelter and a resources-first approach, despite the changes made in the last couple of weeks.
“We’ve also seen as teams go out over and over again, some people are not accepting help,” he said. “We will continue to lead with shelter options, but those options need to be taken.”
Districts 3 and 10, meanwhile, experienced significant increases in their homeless populations. In District 3, the number of sheltered homeless people more than doubled, from 357 in 2022 to 775 in 2024.
Board of Supervisors President and mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin — who represents District 3, which includes the Financial District, Chinatown and North Beach — said this is a reflection of two major shelter additions in the last two years: 250 beds at 711 Post St. and 83 beds for homeless youth at 888 Post St.
“Street homelessness went down when we opened those facilities,” he said. “There used to be a lot of street homelessness on [Cosmo Place], on [Shannon Street], and all of that got better when we opened the 711 Post St. facility.”
Cohen agreed that those two facilities amounted to vital expansion. She said that capacity at existing shelters had also diminished during COVID-19 to allow for more social distancing, but capacity had returned to normal levels by 2024.
However, the unsheltered homeless population has skyrocketed in District 10, nearly doubling from 566 in 2022 to 1,010 in 2024. That area of The City includes Bayview–Hunters Point.
Cohen said congregate shelter in the area has expanded. The Bayview SAFE Navigation Center is up to full capacity of 200 shelter beds after opening with 116 in 2021 amid pandemic-era restrictions. But she added that it has been challenging to open up permanent supportive housing in District 10 because of the lack of appropriate buildings available.
“That speaks to a real challenge we have in terms of geographic equity and diversity of our programs,” she said. “The building types that we tend to use for housing are not located in District 10, and it makes it harder to do.”
District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton’s office did not respond to The Examiner’s request for comment prior to publication.
Cohen said that vehicular homelessness has increased in The City in the last two years, particularly in District 10. An influx of RV dwellers led the Board of Supervisors last year to vote to extend the lease of a safe-parking site.
Cohen said that the increase in vehicular homelessness is related to an increase in family homelessness in the last two years, which is reflected in the PIT Count. The City counted 437 homeless families in 2024, a 94% increase from the prior count. Of those families, 143 were unsheltered, and 90% of them were living in vehicles.
“I think it’s the ongoing challenges of economic and racial inequality in our community, and people living on the brink,” she said.
