---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 19:54:52 -0400


Subject: Homeless Census: helps or hurts homeless people?  Why?  FWD

Do you support Census Bureau counts of homeless people?
Why or why not?

Who benefits and who loses from official counts of homeless people?
Can you provide evidence for your assessment of who wins or loses from
Homeless Counts?

See related article below:

http://www.***.com/ :80/dn/view/0,1249,30002464,00.html?
FWD  Los Angeles [CA, USA] Daily News - Sunday, December 20, 1998

CENSUS BUREAU TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO INCLUDE HOMELESS

LOS ANGELES - To the U.S. Census Bureau, in the year 2000 there will no
longer be homeless people - only those without conventional housing.

Living in a car? Unconventional. A cardboard box? Unconventional. Two or
three families in one apartment? Unconventional.

Despite the use of government-speak in describing the living conditions of
the homeless, it is a serious question that troubles homeless advocates and
Los Angeles officials.

For them, it's a multimillion-dollar question of how much state and federal
money will come to the city after the 2000 Census.

"The general consensus is that the 1990 Census was a disaster in counting
the homeless," said Doug Ring, a commissioner on the Los Angeles Homeless
Service Authority, a city-county joint agency that deals with homeless
people and their issues.

"And what that means is a significant reduction in the amount of funding
that comes to Los Angeles and other cities in the county," he said.

Natalie Profant, LAHSA planning manager, said her organization has been
working with the Census Bureau to try to develop better ways to count the
homeless.

"In 1990, they had the idea to go to encampments," Profant said. "The idea
that you identify a site and you count the people there is unrealistic,
because not everyone who is homeless is going to be there.

"And they had another problem. The people they hired had to go to these
spots at 2 in the morning and count people, which is very frightening," she
said.

Since it was difficult to get workers to go into certain areas at that
hour, officials were unsure if they got an adequate count, she said.

Profant also is concerned about the agency's decision not to identify the
homeless as such.

"What they are doing is measuring poverty levels rather than (individuals)
as homeless," Profant said, adding she wants to see as many homeless people
counted as possible.

LAHSA estimates there are 84,500 homeless in Los Angeles County - about the
equivalent of the population of Whittier, Calif.

LAHSA is working on a demonstration project to be unveiled in January on
other ways to count the homeless to make sure they are included in the next
national headcount.

Census Bureau officials say they want to cooperate.

Maria Mochulski, Census Bureau staff assistant and coordinator for the
program, said the agency has been working with service providers such as
shelters and soup kitchens to try to develop a comprehensive program.

"As you might expect, the homeless are a key group that tends to get missed
in a census," Mochulski said. "We are putting a lot of thought into our
planning and hope to use the homeless themselves to help us. The key to
getting a good count is to have the homeless themselves and advocacy groups
get involved."

Recently, the bureau did a pilot program in Sacramento, targeting outdoor
locations, shelters and other programs used by the homeless to make a
sample count.

"We are still evaluating that and hope it proves successful," she said.

As for the bureau not acknowledging the homeless, Mochulski said effective
categorization presents a difficult question.

"It's a policy question and deals with definitions," Mochulski said. "The
homeless aren't just the people on the street or living in cars. It's
people doubling and tripling up because they can't afford their own place
or people living in substandard housing."

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