S.F. homeless youth count nears 1,000 despite spending

A man in a drug induced stupor sits next to a playground at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco in January.

A man in a drug induced stupor sits next to a playground at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco in January. Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close S.F. homeless youth count nears 1,000 despite spending 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

San Francisco spends $165 million a year on services for homeless people, but all that money hasn't made a dent in the homeless population in at least nine years.

And in fact, the city's homeless tally may have long been underestimated. In addition to the 6,436 homeless adults counted during one night last year, a separate daytime count specifically of homeless youth found 914 children and young adults living in San Francisco without parents or guardians and without a roof over their heads.

These findings are part of a new report by Harvey Rose, the budget and legislative analyst for the Board of Supervisors. The report was requested by Supervisor Mark Farrell in a continuing effort to better understand and tackle the city's seemingly intractable homeless problem.

"Before taking a serious dive into this issue, I want to make sure we have a firm grasp on how we're spending our dollars and make sure those dollars are well spent," Farrell said.

Neither Rose nor Farrell expressed an opinion of whether the city is spending too much on homelessness or too little and whether it's funding the right programs. Farrell said he hopes to determine that over the course of six hearings on homelessness scheduled to start in the next few weeks.

The federal government mandates that cities receiving money for homeless programs perform a count of homeless people every two years. The last count in San Francisco was performed during one night in January 2013 and found 6,436 homeless people living on the streets, in shelters, in jails and in hospitals. That figure has remained steady since the 2005 count.

The highest count on record since the counts began in 2000 was 8,640 homeless people in October 2002.

People who work with homeless youth have long argued that they were undercounted because they're too scared to live among homeless adults and remain well hidden, squatting in abandoned buildings, sleeping on friends' couches and camping in Golden Gate Park. For the first time, the city last year conducted a separate daytime count of youth and found 914.

Duplications likely

Trent Rhorer, director of the Human Services Agency, said it's impossible to know how many of those youth were also counted during the regular nighttime tally and that there are likely duplications. He argued it's not accurate to say the total homeless population is the combination of both counts, or 7,350 people.

Bevan Dufty, the mayor's point person on homelessness, said quibbling over the homeless count numbers "isn't an argument I want to make."

"Let's look at this population of 914 young adults and see how we can do a better job housing them," he said, pointing to a facility that just opened South of Market to house 40 youth and another two buildings set to open later this year.

Sherilyn Adams is the executive director of Larkin Street Youth Services, which works to get homeless youth off the streets. She said that in any given year, 5,700 people ages 12 through 24who don't have permanent housing pass through San Francisco.

Thirty percent who visit Larkin Street Youth Services are in the LGBT community, many having fled discrimination in their hometowns. Many homeless youth have aged out of the foster care system and are left with no families and little support.

She said she believes the count of 914 is still low and that there probably aren't many duplicates from the overall count. She said the city has just 350 beds available for homeless youth on any given night.

"We're nowhere near meeting the need," she said.

L.A., N.Y. rising

While the average San Francisco resident might think spending $165 million on homeless services to see the street population stay the same is a waste, city officials argue the big investment has prevented the numbers from climbing even higher.

Most other cities around the country have seen their homeless numbers rise in the past several years. From 2011 to 2013, Los Angeles County's count rose 15 percent, and New York City's count rose 13 percent.

"This data is in the context of a huge recession," said Amanda Fried, director of policy for the mayor's homeless office. "In counties that didn't invest a lot of money into local housing, the results are quite different."

San Francisco's budget is nearly $8 billion and of the $165 million it spends on homeless services every year, by far the biggest portion - $81.5 million - is spent on supportive housing. Fried argued that makes sense because studies have consistently shown it's less expensive to house people than provide emergency services on the streets.

Rose's report says there are 6,355 units of supportive housing for formerly homeless people around the city. That's 828 units per 100,000 city residents compared with the median of 109 units per 100,000 residents in a variety of other cities and counties surveyed in the report.

Other large expenditures include $17.6 million for shelters, $14.6 million for outreach and case management, and $14.3 million for primary health care for homeless people.

50 programs

In total, the city funds 50 programs aimed at helping the homeless - including special programs for families, the disabled, senior citizens, women, people fleeing domestic violence, veterans, people released from jail, prostitutes and others.

Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, said nearly every program from supportive housing to mental health care to substance abuse services is at capacity or has a waiting list despite the millions poured into them.

"Pretty much every area that you look at, the services are totally overwhelmed," she said. "I guess I would say we need to be spending more because we have this huge unmet need."