A new report from the San Francisco Mayor's Office finds some good news in a significant decrease in the number of people living in their vehicles in the city, but the number of tents and encampment structures has remained flat for the last nine months.
We won't have the results of this year's biennial point-in-time count of the local homeless population for another couple of months. But the SF Mayor's Office released its quarterly tally of homeless tents and structures on the city streets, and its count of vehicle dwellings.
The bad news is that the number of tents and structures, 155, is basically flat from last summer, though down almost 30% from the March 2025 count of 220, just after Mayor Daniel Lurie took office. The current count of 155 includes 61 tents and 94 structures, and in July of last year, the total count was 165.
Lurie nonetheless touted the drop in the number of tents, saying in a Xitter video "it's the third time we've hit record lows since taking office."
We’re seeing real progress in our work to help people move off the streets and into stability, and to make neighborhoods cleaner and safer for families.
— Daniel Lurie 丹尼爾·羅偉 (@DanielLurie) March 4, 2026
Right now, tent and encampment numbers are at the lowest level we’ve recorded. We’re also making progress moving people out of… pic.twitter.com/srVH8bQbAu
Lurie also celebrated a 20% drop in the number of RVs on city streets, saying its the "lowest [number] since we began counting." As ABC7 reports, there were 435 vehicles on the street in which people were living, including 259 large vehicles which were permitted.
47 households who had been living in RVs have been connected with more permanent housing options, Lurie says.
"We’re also reconnecting people with family and support systems through Journey Home, which helped 44 people return to loved ones in February — the highest monthly total since 2022," Lurie added.
"By using every tool available—from housing to treatment to reunification—we’re starting to turn things around. There’s still a lot of work ahead, and we’re going to keep building on this progress," the mayor said.
The real test of how the mayor's work and city programs have impacted the homelessness picture will come in April or May, when the biennial homeless census numbers are released. This year's count used a new methodology, conducting the count in the early morning instead of at night.
The last point-in-time homeless census in January 2024 found 8,328 individuals on SF streets, both unsheltered and sheltered, marking a 7% increase from two years earlier.
