A few years ago, I took a class called "Homelessness an Public Policy" through a San Francisco college.  My recollection:  There are roughly as many homeless people in SF as there are in New York, even though the overall population of New York is way higher (8 to 10 times higher?).  Most likely, part of the reason is the weather.  The San Francisco Bay Area is the only part of the US with a Mediterranean climate, which means it is relatively temperate year round.  It doesn't get that cold in the winter, it doesn't get that hot in the summer.  Iirc, the average daytime temperature in Napa is 60 - 80 degrees Fahrenheit year round.  I was in Solano County at the time and we had much hotter weather in the summer.  I went to San Francisco for a medical test in June.  It was in the nineties in Fairfield.  It was 30 degrees cooler in San Francisco. I made sure to take a jacket. I still was uncomfortably cold.  Extremes of heat and cold both kill homeless people.  So the weather/climate probably has a lot more to do with the high levels of homelessness in San Francisco than the political climate.