San Francisco reports small dip in biennial homeless count

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A one-night count found that San Francisco’s homeless population dipped slightly in 2022 to roughly 7,800 people amid an unprecedented effort to get people off the streets during the coronavirus pandemic. The 2019 count found more than 8,000 residents in 2019 in a city where unhoused people are highly visible. The rest of the San Francisco Bay Area’s nine counties are expected to release preliminary data Monday. Alameda County reported a 22% increase since 2019 for a total of nearly 9,800 people. One regional housing advocacy group said the Bay Area “staved off a catastrophic increase in homelessness” over the last three years.