Walter In Denver

Counting the Homeless

The Denver Post reports that a HUD plan to survey the homeless population has some local non-profit groups nervous.

Some metro-area nonprofit organizations, including the local chapter of the Salvation Army, are considering giving up their U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants, they say, to protect their clients from "Big Brother" intrusion.
"There are a number of clients who would rather stay on the street and freeze to death" than provide personal identifying information as part of HUD's effort to count them, said Gerald Koch, who oversees homeless shelters for the Salvation Army in Denver.

I am certainly sympathetic to the privacy concerns of the homeless, after all, who wants the government to be nosy? I suspect, also, that there are a good number of homeless who have something to hide, say, old arrest warrants and child support judgements. Living outdoors with no ID does supply a level of anonymity.

The Post article manages to cover the issue without mentioning what may be the most important aspect of the survey, although this passage comes close:

"It's hard ... to get a clear picture of homelessness in the United States," said Rich Audsley, chief operating officer of Mile High United Way, which - somewhat reluctantly - is supporting HUD's decision. "HUD is trying to get some consistency."

Just a few weeks ago an activist group released a claim about the homeless population. The Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative said there are 10,000 homeless in the Denver area, a claim that is likely inflated. Rocky Mountain News columnist Mike Rosen took a look at the numbers in a Nov. 7 piece. He wrote:

I've studied the survey. Tom Leuhrs, the chair of the Denver group that commissioned it, was cooperative but his answers to my questions didn't inspire confidence in its accuracy. As with other surveys of this type, seeking to capture an elusive population that accesses multiple services, it's vulnerable to double counting.
[...]
Twenty-eight percent are already accommodated in transitional housing, 28 percent are living with a friend or relative (this is construed as "doubling up," and regarded as a form of homelessness), 10 percent are in a hotel or motel. That accounts for two-thirds of the "homeless," including almost all of the children in families. Nineteen percent are in emergency shelters. Another 5 percent are in medical or psychiatric hospitals, detox facilities, jails, domestic violence shelters, migrant shelters or, curiously, "in a home I/we own." Only 10 percent are on the streets, under bridges, in cars, buses or camping out.

In a recent Denver Post editorial, I learned that under the stricter definition of "chronically homeless" - those who have been homeless for more than a year, or have been homeless at least four times in the past three years, or have disabilities - only 540 people, not 10,000, in Denver are so identified.

OK, there's two more believable numbers, 1,000 (10% of the latest survey) or 540 from another, more strictly defined count.

Why does all this matter? Because the more homeless are counted, the more donations and grants the homeless services can get. If HUD gets an accurate count, it might be bad news for the people who get paid to help the homeless.

How the Post fails to mention this is a puzzle.

Posted by Walter at November 23, 2003 05:05 PM