Mission Local, July 29, 2019: In San Francisco, we obsess over contrived homeless stats — and neglect the ones we really ought to know
Does San Francisco have more homeless people than before? Or are we just getting better at counting?
The best answer appears to be: “Yes.” Both of these can be true.
Somewhat amazingly, in the year 2019 — the year in which Blade Runner was set — San Francisco still measures progress in alleviating homelessness based on numbers assembled on one night by volunteers with clipboards, deployed throughout the city to tally on pen and paper how many people look homeless — every other year. Yes, algorithms are involved and folks living 12 to a room are, by design, missed.
This is problematic. But the real concern isn’t so much the point-in-time (PIT) count, which is still useful — it has highlighted trends among sub-populations like veterans or car-dwellers and has revealed overrepresentation among the homeless of former foster care children, people of color and the LGBTQ.
