Today was the "Point in Time, One Day Census of the Homeless". HUD
(Housing and Urban Development) requires the census for any community
that receives funds that are to be use for the homeless. "Guesstimates"
are not acceptable. Volunteers are required.
IN our county of San Mateo - for those of you, up around 6:00 a.m. you may have seen a car with
one or two occupants, perhaps one of them a homeless person as a guide, driving
systematically down every street marked on a census tract map.
For example, while we didn't have enough homeless guides to help
, another volunteer and I traversed neighborhoods in Foster City, and
San Carlos. These were upscale neighborhoods, and we knew in advance
the Homeless were few and far between, typically the police would have
sent them to another nearby town.
For our efforts, we noticed two homeless people.
Nearby neighborhoods had more homeless people.
I say noticed, because, we had been trained, to -observe only-.
We were not to walk up to a person, or a a car with one or more people
sleeping or sitting inside and ask "are you homeless"?
We were asked to count the number of men or women over 18. we were
asked to count the number of homeless people sleeping in cars (but we
were instructed not to knock on the car window to count the people
inside). We were instructed that a "family" was defined as an adult
with a child - we were instructed not to ask the people whether in fact
they were related.
We did think it was curious to find a couple abandoned supermarket
shopping carts in the upscale neighborhoods, 2 or 3 miles from the
nearest supermarket.
We did not visit the shelters. The shelter staff counted the homeless
a couple days before the volunteers went out in the streets.
And in a few months, keep your eyes on the news, for the release of
the results, and what will be the new count of the homeless.
The Next PIT census will be in 2 years, and every 2 years after that.
a report from 2009 in San Mateo
http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/Attachments/humanservices/Files/Homlessness/2009%2
0Census%20and%20Survey%20Report.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/4pt38wb
A link with some description of the criticism of the methods.
http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/national_homeless_census_5_things_everyone_should_know
http://tinyurl.com/466hcq9
In our county (San Mateo) training was required. We were told that HUD releases
these numbers on a national basis after they are processed with
"mathematical equations". I don't think HUD statistician do the analysis and
I'm still trying to ascertain who summarizes and analyzes the data for HUD.
The San Mateo Daily News wrote an article about the Census
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=151398&title=Counting%20the%20homeless%20in%20San%20Mateo%20County
There seems to be a major discrepancy in the numbers.
For example the article says that in 2009
...In 2009, the count totaled 803 people observed on the streets or in
cars, RVs or encampments, down 27 percent from the 2007 census...
And the preliminary results from 2011, are that
..."In San Mateo yesterday, volunteers counted 42 adult men, four adult
women, seven cars with sleeping occupants and three encampments,
Goldberg said. Park rangers counted three homeless in San Mateo parks.
The numbers are preliminary and will change slightly after other
criteria are factored in, Goldberg said"..
Part of the discrepancy, is that the number in the article does not include the counts of people in shelters.
Since my original post, the results of the Point in Time Survey have been compiled and released.
http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us/Attachments/humanservices/Files/Homlessness/2011%20Census%20and%20Survey.pdf