Undercounting the Homeless

In reply to “Huge Undercount of Homeless Charged,” Metro, June 9:

The blame for the undercount in the 1990 federal census of the homeless cannot be put on the enumerators, crew leaders or trainers. The blame is to be put on those higher up who were responsible for establishing and implementing the enumerator training session procedures. They should have trained the trainers a lot better.

The night of the homeless count (March 20) was mass confusion from minute one. On training night, several of us found we had been told different things such as work hours and pay rate; some were told they’d have police escort; in general, there a lot of inconsistencies.

The trainers were poorly prepared and poorly selected. I don’t believe they had a full understanding of the homeless. They greatly emphasized how dangerous the night could be rather than concentrating on training us on how to take the best possible count. But then again, they were only passing on what their supervisors had told them to say.

They really scared the enumerators unnecessarily. The count turned out to be a lot less scary than they painted it. They had us believing that the homeless we might encounter were all dangerously violent, mentally ill, unapproachable people. To an extent this may be true but they should have emphasized the use of caution and common sense.

It is no small wonder that the enumerators were reluctant to go into parks, down alleys or walk the streets.

All the negative publicity about the supposed failure of that night makes me angry because our team of four enumerators really put forth an extra effort to find and talk with the homeless despite the alarmist tactics used by the trainers.

I wish someone from the media had talked to us instead of making general negative comments about all the enumerating teams. Our team looked under bushes, in parked cars, freight yards, boxcars, through dark parks, and really thought about where a homeless person might bed down. The homeless we encountered were friendly and helpful, telling us where we might find other homeless.

If the count was inaccurate, the homeless were also to blame a little bit. On more than one occasion, we found evidence of someone having just been in the area (bedding, shopping cart with possessions, food cans) and maybe hiding nearby until we left. This was frustrating knowing someone was near and we couldn’t count them.

I’m quite proud of our team. We worked great together. The ex-New York taxi driver was the designated driver, the computer technician was the navigator, the two personnel representatives served as secretary and interviewer. We can be proud of our accomplishments. We had fun.

ANABELLE LUTHER

Simi Valley