After a year of falling numbers, San Francisco's count of tents on its streets went back up this summer, according to new city survey data reported by The San Francisco Standard.
The numbers
Surveyors counted 148 tents and makeshift structures in September, up 29% from 115 in May. It was the first increase in a year and ended four straight quarters of decline. The Standard reported that spikes in SoMa, the Inner Richmond and Potrero Hill drove much of the jump; in SoMa alone, the count rose from 4 to 13.
The picture is not all worse. The September total is still 12% lower than the 168 tents counted in September 2025. And the number of vehicles that appear to have people living in them dropped to 249, down from 315 in May and 489 a year earlier. Large vehicles such as RVs and campers fell from 404 in September 2025 to 193. The city credits new parking limits on large vehicles, along with a program to move RV dwellers into shelter and housing, for much of that drop.
Tenderloin conditions
A separate street conditions report from the city controller's office, published Oct. 8, found feces during 81% of evaluations in the Tenderloin, up from 54% two years earlier, according to the Standard. The same report showed improvement on other measures, including fewer large dumped items.
Why it matters
Shrinking the number of tents has been a central goal for Mayor Daniel Lurie. In June, his office pointed to a record-low tent count alongside the city's point-in-time survey, which found unsheltered homelessness at a 15-year low, and said the results showed the city's new strategies were working. The September count is a reminder of how quickly those gains can shift from one season to the next.
The city publishes its quarterly tent, structure and vehicle counts on the DataSF open data portal, so residents can track whether the summer increase holds when the next survey comes out.