San Francisco, May 17 (IANS): San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that preliminary results of the city's biennial homelessness count showed a 15 per cent decrease in unsheltered homelessness and a 3.5 per cent decrease in overall homelessness.

The Point in Time (PIT) Count is a biennial count of people experiencing homelessness at a given point in time, reports Xinhua news agency.

Last year's PIT Count was cancelled due to COVID-19, and this was the first count San Francisco has conducted since 2019.

The PIT Count was conducted on February 23, 2022.

According to the new PIT Count, 4,397 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness and 7,754 people experiencing homelessness (both unsheltered and sheltered).

Despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic, San Francisco has continued to invest in housing, shelter, prevention, and other solutions, Breed said in her announcement.

"This is a first step. We need more housing and shelter, and we need to work every day to bring people indoors.

"We also need to recognise that the challenges on our street aren't just about homelessness, they are about addiction and mental illness that must be addressed.

"We have a lot of work to do in this City, but this is good progress," she was quoted as saying.