\n<\/p>\n
San Francisco’s mayor, now in office for 16 months, has emphasized that his hometown is a growing city, and that the bad days of rampant homelessness and public drug use were behind it.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday he had some incomplete data to support his claims.<\/p>\n
Mayor Daniel Lurie stood on Sixth Street, long known for residential hotels and the plight of sidewalks, and said the number of people living on the city’s streets had dropped to its lowest level in 15 years.<\/p>\n
Many people living in tents or on the sidewalks have moved indoors into homeless shelters, treatment centers and other facilities, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHomelessness and addiction in San Francisco are not just challenges, but for many years they have defined our city,\u201d Mr. Lurie said at a news conference outside a new sober living homeless shelter. \u201cThat narrative didn\u2019t always capture the full story of our city, but it wasn\u2019t entirely inaccurate either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
He was referring to attacks on San Francisco by Fox News, conservative politicians and others who claimed the city was proof that liberal governance cannot succeed. Much of that discussion has subsided as Mr. Lurie, a moderate Democrat, has taken a centrist, business-friendly approach and the city’s road conditions have improved.<\/p>\n
He has pushed for the opening of facilities for recovering people, offered essential counseling in exchange for clean drug supplies and publicly encouraged police officers to take people in poor condition to crisis centers. He has also benefited from a liberal district attorney and Board of Supervisors who support his vision.<\/p>\n
The city’s new count found that 7,973 people were homeless in San Francisco, a 4 percent decline from two years ago. According to the survey, the number of people living in the open has declined by 22 percent, while the number of people living in facilities such as homeless shelters has increased.<\/p>\n
Mr. Lurie’s data comes from a biennial point-in-time count that San Francisco conducted in January as part of an effort mandated by the federal government to track homelessness across the country. City staff, nonprofit workers and volunteers gathered to count the number of homeless people living in the open, such as in tents, on sidewalks or in cars. They also counted people who had no fixed address but were living in shelters, jails, hospitals or treatment centers.<\/p>\n
The city released preliminary results Tuesday, and the mayor’s office acknowledged they weren’t a perfect comparison for the 2024 calculations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This year, the counters were manned early in the morning instead of late at night, so their visibility was better. They also attempted to survey homeless people instead of estimating through observation whether they had homes or not.<\/p>\n
The most shocking statistic cited by Mr Lurie was that the number of people living in tents had fallen by 85 per cent since 2024. While there appear to be far fewer tents in San Francisco than two years ago, it is difficult to know how accurate this figure is. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Kunal Modi, the city’s health and human services chief, said the count is one of several measures City Hall uses to track homelessness, and he believes more people are moving off the streets and indoors.<\/p>\n
Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, agreed that fewer people are living in tents in San Francisco, but she disapproved of the mayor’s methods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
After the Supreme Court gave cities the power to enforce a ban on public camping in 2024, San Francisco officials cleaned up tent camps and moved homeless people around with a preference to keep them out of the sight of wealthy people, Ms. Friedenbach said. He said the prison system, whose population has shrunk by about 50 percent since 2021, has become a “revolving door” for homeless people accused of misdemeanors such as illegal camping and drug possession.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely a tried and failed strategy,” he said. \u201cI would say we’re going back about 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n