SF Mayor Breed announces 60% reduction in tents across city

SAN FRANCISCO ( KRON ) — San Francisco’s tent count is down 60 percent since July 2023, Mayor London Breed announced Thursday, citing data from the latest quarterly count conducted on Oct. 2.

The October point-in-time count found that there were 130 tents and 112 structures across the city serving as shelter. For comparison, the mayor’s office pointed out that in July 2023, there were 434 tents and 175 structures counted.

The 14 encampments of five or more tents or structures that were found in July 2023 were also reduced to five encampments in the October count, city data showed.

Another decline was seen in the number of people living in vehicles, according to the mayor’s office. In the October count, 458 vehicles serving as shelters were located compared to the 1,058 found in July 2023.

“Since the Grants Pass decision went into effect at the beginning of August, San Francisco encampment teams and City workers have conducted daily operations offering shelter and services, while also enforcing laws when offers of shelter were rejected,” the mayor’s office said in a news release.

City outreach teams have made over 3,000 engagements with people in encampments since Aug. 1, officials said. Of the people contacted, 365 accepted offers of shelter, and 296 were issued citations or arrested. Eighty percent of those cited were for illegal lodging. The mayor’s office noted that some of the 3,000 engagements were with the same people multiple times as teams revisited encampments.

“In the last year, San Francisco has helped over 5,200 people exit homelessness, provided shelter to nearly 10,000 people, and over 8,200 people have accessed prevention support like rental assistance to keep them from falling into homelessness in the first place,” the mayor’s office said Thursday.

Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that 18 cities will be granted $131 million to clear homeless encampments and provide shelter and care. San Francisco will receive $7,975,486 of that funding.

More data from the point-in-time count can be found on the City and County of San Francisco website .

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