SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — For the first time in more than two decades, San Francisco is changing the way it counts the number of unhoused individuals on its streets.

“This is a major change. We’re going from nighttime count to early morning count because we feel we’ll be reaching more people at night people. I was homeless for 18 years. You could never find me,” said Del Seymour, Co-chair San Francisco’s Local Homeless Coordinating Board.

Thursday’s ‘Point in Time’ count will now happen from 5 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Historically, it happened overnight.

Another change, community volunteers will not be involved. Instead, it will only be trained city employees and outreach workers. The Coalition on Homelessness sees that as a lack of transparency.

“They’re not allowing any volunteers on the count. And so, they’re relying on city outreach workers, who in our experience, when they did the RV count, they missed 1 in 5 RVs. It means that it’s not open. And you don’t have the observers and the people participatory process that I think is really important to make sure that everything’s going well,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director SF’s Coalition on Homelessness.

MORE: Mayor Lurie talks affordability, homelessness and bringing business back to the SF

We sat with Emily Cohen HSH’s Deputy Director of Communications, who said they made the change to improve visibility.

“We will be identifying vehicles that appear to be occupied and trying to assess if somebody is living in that vehicle. Certainly, if there’s a tent on the street, we make assumptions about how many people are in those tents and try to put together the most accurate picture possible,” said Cohen.

Luz Pena: “Why are volunteers not part of this count?”

Emily Cohen: “To help ensure consistency and transparency of the count, we are relying heavily on trained outreach workers and city staff to conduct the count. Those two groups have always been a part of the count. But in the past, we have had more general volunteers, but we’ve had some training challenges with that in the past, so we’re sticking with, city staff and trained outreach workers this year.”

This time around, the city will also conduct a survey that will include questions like ‘are you homeless?’ and ‘what led to you being homeless?’

Luz Pena: “Do you believe this new method will lead to a more accurate count?”

Emily Cohen: “I think that these improvements will help us ensure an accurate count.”

Our data team aggregated the city’s PIT count data and found that between 2009 and 2024 the number of homeless individuals rose by nearly 30 percent.

MORE: Counting San Francisco’s unhoused — and why you never ask if they are homeless

Some homeless advocates believe the new change is political and could lead to an under count.

“We’re really worried with, you know, a, you know, political intervention on the count, that there could be a false under count and we could show a decrease that in reality is not there,” said Friedenbach.

MORE: Formerly unhoused San Jose Columbus Park residents adjusting to restrictions in new home

In the Fiscal year 2025 to 2026, the city is projected to get $62.8 million or 7.4% of the total budget from federal sources. The city’s Homelessness and Supportive Housing Department will continue with this method for the next 10 years to build up a strong data set.

“We are working very closely with all of the outreach teams in the city, with city staff to go cover every square inch of the city and county of San Francisco to visually count everyone who we assume is experiencing homelessness,” said Cohen.

The San Francisco Police Department is investigating an accident involving a Zoox autonomous vehicle that crashed into the driver’s side door of a parked car, TechCrunch has learned.

Officers responded to the crash, which occurred at around 2 p.m. local time on January 17 near the intersection of 15th and Mission Streets, according to the department. The Zoox robotaxi was traveling along 15th street when a street ambassador named Jamel Durden opened the driver’s-side door of his 1977 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, according to MissionLocal, which first reported the crash.

Durden’s hand was reportedly smashed during the crash, and the Zoox vehicle suffered damage to its glass doors. The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) told TechCrunch the Zoox vehicle was carrying a passenger at the time, which has not been previously reported. That passenger was an employee of Zoox, according to the company, and was not injured, which the SFPD confirmed.

The police department declined to provide TechCrunch with an incident report “[d]ue to the fact it is still an open investigation.” Zoox filed its own police report about the incident, the company told TechCrunch, but said no additional details have been requested. In a statement on January 20, Zoox said it was “cooperating with local authorities to provide an accurate account of the incident.”

The California Department of Motor Vehicles, which regulates autonomous vehicles in the state, has also met with Zoox about the January 17 crash. The DMV told TechCrunch that Zoox filed a crash report “in compliance with California regulations.” That report is not yet publicly available.

Zoox is in the early stages of building out its robotaxi service in San Francisco. In November, the company started offering free rides to members of the public who are part of the “Zoox Explorer” early-rider program. The company is operating a similar program in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This rollout has come with challenges. The Amazon-owned company issued a recall in December to fix an issue where some of its vehicles were crossing center lanes and blocking crosswalks. (Zoox also issued two different software updates during recalls earlier in 2025 before it started offering public rides.)

The January crash in San Francisco happened when Durden “suddenly opened” the door of his car into the path of the robotaxi, according to Zoox. The company said the robotaxi “identified the opening door and tried to avoid it but contact was unavoidable.” (Durden’s employer could not be reached for comment.)

Zoox also said it offered medical attention to Durden, who allegedly declined. According to MissionLocal, Durden refused medical treatment until his car was towed.

“Safety and transparency are foundational to Zoox, and we are cooperating with local authorities to provide an accurate account of the incident,” the company said in a statement.