evidence: During his first year in office, Mayor Art Agnos, a social worker, unveiled his "beyond shelter" strategy, a sweeping initiative to provide services to the city's homeless that he claimed would be a model for the nation. The plan called for building two centers — the first city-owned shelters — where homeless clients could be assessed and receive health and counseling services. [...] After the program’s first year, homelessness in the city dropped by nearly 30% from its 2002 high. But then the numbers froze — at over 6,000 people — through the remainder of his tenure. As mayor, Newsom also sponsored a measure approved by voters in 2010 that restricted sitting or lying on sidewalks. Homelessness, he later claimed, is the "manifestation of complete, abject failure as a society. We'll never solve this at City Hall." [...] A month into his second full term, Lee announced a new citywide homeless department, an effort to group all services under one roof and spend at least $1 billion over the following four years to help thousands of people find supportive housing. The department launched in July 2016. A year later, it reported a double-digit decrease in family and youth homelessness, but a slight rise in the number of single homeless adults.