Counting Chicago’s Homeless: An Assessment of the Census Bureau’s “Street and Shelter Night”

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Abstract

In Chicago, 60 independent observers were hired to assess how well Census Bureau enumerators implemented procedures for the homeless count (S-Night) in one district office area (DOA). Within this DOA, they observed 29 of the 87 predesignated nighttime street enumeration sites. Observers saw enumerators in only one third of these sites. Those observers who saw enumerators reported that enumerators failed to follow procedure. As a result, observer estimates of the number of homeless persons at their site were substantially higher than enumerator estimates. Qualitative interviews with 18 homeless persons on the day following the count revealed that only five of 18 believed they had been counted.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)365-375
Number of pages11
JournalEvaluation Review
Volume16
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1992
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • General Social Sciences

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