The County of Riverside 2005 Homeless Census Project
On Wednesday, January 26th, 2005, the County of Riverside Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) in collaboration with the Housing and Homeless Coalition for Riverside County as well as every local jurisdiction will be conducting a comprehensive point-in-time count of homeless persons throughout Riverside County.
DPSS has contracted with the Institute for Urban Research and Development (IURD), a Southern California-based nonprofit community-based research organization to organize the 2005 Census project. IURD has successful conducted numerous homeless census projects in a variety of local jurisdictions and has assisted the County over the last two years with a number of homeless service projects including the 2004 Homeless Survey.
The goal of the 2005 Homeless Census will be to conduct a street-based and service-based count of all homeless individuals in every city, community and unincorporated area of Riverside County on the designated day of the count. The 2005 Homeless Census project will include a methodology for counting all homeless persons, as defined by HUD, which creates an identifier that will avoid duplication of persons counted during the enumeration process.
The street-based enumeration will include homeless encampments and other places that homeless people use as part of their daily activities. Homeless encampments are those places that homeless people use primarily for sleeping. Other places (non-encampments) include streets and sidewalks where homeless people are usually en route, and locations that homeless people gather or hang out such as vacant lots, parks, municipal service or business centers, parked cars, abandoned buildings, and other locations that are not homeless encampments.
The service-based enumeration will include those places where homeless persons receive services. Such places will include shelters, transitional housing programs, food and clothing programs, etc.
Persons that will be counted within the street-based and service-based enumeration will be those individuals and family that are considered homeless according to HUD's definition of homelessness. The most current definition being used by HUD can be found within the 2004 Continuum of Care NOFA. It is as follows:
"A person is considered homeless only when he/she resides in one of the places described below:
- in places not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks, and abandoned buildings;
- in an emergency shelter;
- in transitional or supportive housing for homeless persons who originally came from the streets or emergency shelter;
- in any of the above places but is spending a short time (up to 30 consecutive days) in a hospital or other institution;
- is being evicted within a week from a private dwelling unit and no subsequent residence has been identified and the person lacks the resources and support networks needed to obtain housing; or
- is being discharged within a week from an institution in which the person has been a resident for more than 30 consecutive days and no subsequent residence has been identified and he/she lacks the resources and support networks needed to obtain housing.
The enumeration will be conducted using a simple count instrument recording a small amount of information from each homeless adult encountered including initials, gender, ethnicity and other identifier information. Identifier information for the head count would generally not be collected from children under the age of 18. The number of children in homeless families during the designated day of the count would be captured by asking adult respondents the question: “how many children are living with you today?”
The methodology that will be implemented during the enumeration process includes the creation of an identifier that prevents a person from being counted in the final tally more than once. During the enumeration, counters will record the initials, gender, ethnicity, year of birth and state born of each adult encountered during the designated day(s) of the count. This information will then be used to code each person. For example, an adult encountered may have the following code of "WTMW1957CA. This means that this person's first name began with "W", his last name began with "T", he was male "M", he was White "W", and born in 1957 in the state of California. Other factors may be used or substituted.
Thus, the coding method will be used in order to prevent duplication. If the same person was encountered again, enumerators would establish the same code. However, this person would only be counted once in the final tally.
IURD has implemented this methodology as part of numerous homeless counts conducted throughout Southern California. The instrument to be used includes, but is not limited to, the following columns of information: first initial of first name, first initial of last name, gender, ethnicity, year born and state born. This information for every person every time would be loaded into a data base. An example including information about 10 persons is as follows:
|
Number of Person
|
First Initial
|
Last Initial
|
Gender
|
Ethnicity
|
Year Born
|
State Born
|
|
1
|
J |
H |
F |
W |
1960 |
CA |
| 2 |
H |
T |
M |
L |
1953 |
CA |
| 3 |
R |
K |
F |
L |
1972 |
TX |
| 4 |
K |
N |
M |
AA |
1969 |
AZ |
| 5 |
F |
A |
M |
A |
1980 |
TX |
| 6 |
J |
F |
M |
W |
1971 |
CA |
| 7 |
J |
F |
M |
W |
1971 |
CA |
| 8 |
S |
G |
F |
L |
1968 |
IL |
| 9 |
D |
T |
M |
W |
1962 |
NY |
| 10 |
O |
R |
M |
W |
1959 |
CA |
Numbers 6 and 7 (shaded in gray) would be considered the same person. Therefore, the person would only be counted once in the final tally. If for some reason there was doubt that numbers 6 and 7 were the same person, other collected data could be used to address the doubt.
On the designated day of the count there will be three primary methods of contact with homeless persons. They will be: i) street-counter contact; ii) van-rover-counter contact; and iii) homeless program-counter contact.
Street-Counter Contact
On the day of the count, a pre-determined number of street-counter teams of two to three persons conduct a physical count in a designated territory. Team participants generally include: a team leader who is currently homeless or formerly homeless, a social service provider, and a community volunteer. Each team is assigned to visit a certain number of pre-identified homeless encampments and other locations that will ensure that each encampment/location will be visited only once and that all locations will be visited by a team. Count Advance Teams would visit all pre-identified encampments a few days ahead of the designated day of the count in order to confirm the presence of people in the locations and to seek advance cooperation from the inhabitants.
Van Rover Contact
A pre-determined number of van rover contact teams are assigned a number of non-homeless encampment sites to conduct a physical count. Each team consists of two to three members—a homeless or formerly homeless person, a social service provider, and a community volunteer. Teams are provided the locations of homeless encampments that will be visited by street counter teams and instructed not to include these individuals. Count Advance Teams would scout out all pre-identified non-encampments sites a few days ahead of the designated day of the count in order to confirm the presence of people in the locations and to seek advance cooperation from the inhabitants.
Homeless Program Contact Teams
Homeless program contact teams visit all pre-identified homeless service facilities and programs to conduct a head count. Such facilities and programs would include shelters, transitional housing programs, access centers, food and clothing programs, sober living homes, social service providers, etc. The team will consist of an appropriate number of members depending on the size of the program and the number of program staff or volunteers who would assist with the count. The goal of each team would be to conduct a count of each individual on-site. Community key informants in local jurisdictions will be used to identify all homeless service providers in each community throughout the county to ensure that all active service facilities and programs are included in the process on the designated day of the count.
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