San Francisco’s Tally of Tents on the Streets Hits a 5-Year Low

The city credits outreach and a court ruling in September that people who refuse shelter can’t be considered ‘involuntarily homeless.’

Homeless people on Jones Street in San Francisco on Nov. 13, 2023. Jason Henry/AFP via Getty Images

San Francisco’s quarterly tent count for homeless people on city streets just hit a new five-year low, dropping 40 percent since the last count.

Mayor London Breed announced this week that the count conducted from Jan. 1 through the end of April found 360 tents and structures across the city, compared with 609 in July 2023.

The count also collected data on homeless encampments throughout the city and found just nine where there were five or more tents and structures sitting adjacent to one another. There were no encampments with 10 or more tents and structures at the time of the count.

According to city officials, the progress is thanks to recent outreach efforts that have helped connect those on the streets with services and shelter, including 460 homeless people so far this year.

“We are continuing to use all of the resources we have and working to add more, but there is a lot more to do. We will be relentless in our efforts to help people into safer, supportive facilities, and make our neighborhoods cleaner and healthier,” Ms. Breed said.

Before police can prevent individuals from sleeping outside, the city must provide enough shelter beds to house everyone experiencing homelessness, under a federal court ruling in 2018 called Martin v. Boise.

The ruling has prevented cities like San Francisco from clearing encampments without also providing a 72-hour notice, for those who are “involuntarily homeless,” but city officials have argued in court that those who are offered shelter and refuse shouldn’t be included.

In September, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals offered a clarification in the lawsuit against the city over its clearing of encampments, where a federal judge found favor with the city and ruled that people who refuse offers of shelter cannot be considered “involuntarily homeless,” according to the recent announcement.

Since the clarification, the city has been able to enforce anti-camping laws and has seen a reduction in the number of tents on its streets, officials said.

Under the city’s Healthy Streets Operation Center, a multi-agency team that leads the homeless outreach and anti-camping efforts, this year there have been 1,530 contacts with a 30 percent acceptance rate for shelter services.

City officials said 60 percent of the contacts refused shelter services and 10 percent were already sheltered or housed.

The number of encounters doesn’t represent the number of people contacted, since some were contacted multiple times, officials noted.