San Francisco is making changes to its controversial homeless count, which has a vast impact on city funding and political standing.
The federal government requires cities to conduct a one-night headcount of homeless people, called the “Point in Time” count, every other January to determine how much cash the city gets to fight the crisis. However, local experts have long criticized the process as inaccurate, saying the visual survey is flawed and overlooks families and youth, who are often less visible than single adults.
This year, the city plans to lend an ear to those concerns through a series of town halls, and nonprofit leaders are lining up to share their ideas. But even so, some advisers on the effort believe it’s too late to fix the count process before the January deadline.
“It’s only, like, three months away,” said Del Seymour, a member of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board who’s spearheading the reform. “This is San Francisco. You can’t do anything in three months.”
The 2024 Point in Time process was mired in dysfunction, as volunteers conducted the tally using varying methods. While some street teams spoke with every seemingly homeless person they encountered to verify their housing status, others made the identification based solely on appearance, without talking to the person. The latter was the official guidance by the Homelessness and Supportive Housing Department, a spokesperson later clarified.
By the end of that night, even former Mayor London Breed admitted she was confused. Following The Standard’s reporting on the mix-up, HSH conducted a partial recount before ultimately sticking with its original tally.
The results showed that 8,323 people were sleeping on the city’s streets and in shelters that night — a 7% increase from two years prior. A survey of the homeless population conducted in the weeks after found that unhoused people were suffering from a dramatic increase in mental illness and chronic health conditions.
Seymour, whose nonprofit Code Tenderloin was one leader of the 2022 count, said he hopes the city will limit media access to the process next year. He contends that the event has become a “dog and pony show” attended by the mayor and department officials who are shadowed by members of the press, making it difficult for canvassers to obtain an accurate number.
“This is one thing we may be able to regulate. Let’s not make this a media circus,” Seymour said. “When you walk down the block with 18 cameras and the mayor, people are going to run. They think it’s a sweep or something.”
Meanwhile, nonprofit officials are hoping the city improves its efforts to count homeless families and youth through more extensive outreach. Megan Rhorer, a member of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board and policy director at Compass Family Services, said nonprofits want the city to coordinate with the SF Unified School District and other departments to ensure they’re obtaining an accurate count of homeless kids.
“My long-term wish would be that there’s an ability for outreach way in advance,” said Rhorer, expressing hope that there’s still time for productive change before the 2026 count. “Short term, the goal is to count as many families as possible.”
HSH said it hasn’t determined what changes it will make to next year’s Point in Time count, noting that it’s one of many metrics it uses to measure the homeless population.
“HSH is always exploring ways to improve accuracy and data quality,” a spokesperson said. “The count is planned for the end of January 2026, which gives us sufficient time to make improvements within the limits of the guidelines.”
This won’t be the first time the city changes its count methods. In 2022, HSH started sending warning texts before calling homeless families, increasing the odds they would pick up the phone. Subsequently, the count of homeless families nearly doubled, although providers for homeless youth and families suspect it was still an undercount. Some experts question whether the federal guidelines, which may change under President Donald Trump, would ever allow the city to obtain an accurate number.
“It’s a process fuck,” said Paul Boden, executive director of the nonprofit Western Regional Advocacy Project. “You’re having all this process, and then you’re going to do what the funding source requires you to do.”
So far this year, 8,429 new people have signed up for homeless services in the city, an 11% drop from last year, according to HSH data obtained by The Standard through a public records request. In 2022, officials estimated that roughly 20,000 people experienced homelessness in San Francisco.