> the Department of Homelessness itself applies a multiplier of 2.89 to the PIT count to estimate how many individuals are homeless not just on one day but throughout the entire year.
The PIT number seems like the best single number to use. Unlike the one you quote, PIT is not influenced by the somewhate arbitrary choice of a year as a unit of measure. And even if you include people who are homeless for a single day over the entire year (who are, as the article mentions, also spending time in jail or the hospital, which get their own budget), the difference is less than 3x.
This article sheds some light: https://missionlocal.org/2019/07/in-san-francisco-we-obsess-...
> the Department of Homelessness itself applies a multiplier of 2.89 to the PIT count to estimate how many individuals are homeless not just on one day but throughout the entire year.