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Down for the Count
TimeOut New York – OutThere - Issue 491: February 24–March 2, 2005
The city's looking for 700 more good men to tally the homeless
Hope may spring eternal, but HOPE happens just once a year. The Homeless Outreach Population Estimate is the Department of Homeless Services' survey of the unsheltered homeless, and when the census occurs on Monday 28, it will include all five boroughs for the first time.
To canvass the entire city in a single night is a big project, which is why, technically, the DHS doesn't do that. The agency sends teams of volunteers to targeted areas to identify and count people living on the street. The DHS then extrapolates these figures to make its estimate. For instance, during last year's census, the HOPE found 87 people on the streets in Brooklyn, 21 in areas considered "low density," or unlikely to contain homeless people. After applying an arcane mathematical formula, the organization came up with its estimate of 414 homeless residents in the borough. While the DHS doesn't need help with the math, it does need help with the legwork. At press time, 1,300 people had signed on to participate, far shy of the 2,000 desired volunteers.
This being New York, the HOPE naturally has its critics. "The goal of trying to get an accurate census is laudable," says Arnold Cohen, president and CEO of the Partnership for the Homeless, "but one night using untrained volunteers is not going to get an accurate count." Cohen describes last year's estimate of 2,694 homeless in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island "an undercount"—not a good thing if you're using those numbers to determine policy. "It baffles me," Cohen says. "The city has outreach in the five boroughs already who could get an unduplicated count—why not use them?"
"Everyone has their own best guess what the street homeless population is," counters DHS spokesperson Jim Anderson. "We need to check that with a survey that gives us a scientifically sound estimate." And without volunteers, it simply couldn't happen. "We're able to take a snapshot of the city in a single moment in time in every community, because 2,000 concerned New Yorkers want to be part of the solution," he says. "That's a beautiful thing."—Sara Pepitone