Census Teams Being Trained to Count Homeless

Census takers in Southern California are training this weekend for one of the most controversial tasks in the decennial survey: counting the homeless.

The workers will fan out to shelters Monday evening and soup kitchens the next day. On Tuesday night, they will don orange and yellow vests and head to underpasses, encampments and other makeshift dwellings in search of those they missed.

The vest colors, similar to what safety workers wear, were recommended by advocates for the homeless who saw the black and white version worn during the 1990 census as too ominous, said Steve Alnwick, assistant director at the regional census headquarters in Van Nuys.

“This time we’ve made sure we have enough employees who speak Spanish,” added Vincent Galvez, the Ventura County census office manager.

“They are going to get a much better count than before,” said Judy Kampmann, executive director of Shelter for the Homeless, which is based in Midway City and runs 47 properties for homeless people. “They’ve made a point to go into the trenches. It used to be, ‘If they don’t get it in the mail, the government doesn’t get it’ and that’s it.”

But many other advocates locally and nationally said they do not expect this year’s count to be much better than the highly controversial one in 1990. That census, which reported 228,621 homeless people nationwide, with the largest number living in California, was attacked by congressional investigators in the General Accounting Office as grossly inaccurate.

For example, 7,706 homeless people were counted in the city of Los Angeles at shelters or on the streets, compared with estimates by organizations for the homeless of two to four times as many. In Ventura County, 504 were counted, although the county’s chief administrator complained that the number should have been four to eight times as high.

In Orange County, 1,882 were counted, said Census Bureau spokesman Anthony Greno. Advocates estimated the number at 12,000.

With the Census Bureau next week limiting its surveying to one day each at specific types of locations for transients and the homeless, there is little chance of most, let alone all, being surveyed, the advocates said.

“The most important thing to understand is that it’s not a [total] count,” said Mary Ann Gleason, executive director for the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington. “They are only going to some shelters, some soup kitchens, some outdoor locations.”

The Census Bureau’s Alnwick agreed. “It’s not a total picture, that’s correct,” he said. But the manner in which they count the homeless and transient populations ensures they at least get a snapshot, he said.

Ruth Schwartz of the nonprofit Shelter Partnership in downtown Los Angeles, which tallies numbers of the homeless, said she hopes future federal grants won’t rely on census figures.

Ted Landreth, who heads the Greater West Hollywood Food Coalition, agreed. “The transient population is, by definition, transient. To come one night doesn’t do the job--they should come three or four nights,” he said.

In 1990, the 100 or so people his organization feeds daily never saw a census employee, even after they called the local office about it, he said.

Reopening the city’s winter shelters for Monday’s one-day survey will also probably miss a lot of homeless people because many believe the shelters to be closed for the season, said Jeffrey Farber, chief executive officer of Los Angeles Family Housing Corp., which operates shelters, transitional housing and long-term apartment programs throughout the county.

Added to that is distrust the homeless often have toward government agencies, said Margie Wakeham, executive director of Families Forward. “Many are so transient, they won’t allow themselves to be counted at all.”

Nonetheless, Farber said, his organization was ready for the census takers and could provide them with lists of clients if they choose to follow up. Nearly a third of its $5.3-million budget is federal money, doled out on the basis of census counts, he added.

One client, Alfred Gagne, 59, who is staying at the Lankershim shelter, said Friday that he didn’t know that federal money helped run the shelter. He said he last filled out a form 30 years ago in Massachusetts, but will be around Monday to take part in the census.

So will Beverley Lorimer, 58, who said that she is aware of the importance of the forms. She has occasionally stayed at the shelter while dealing with the double blows of a debilitating nerve disease and the loss of a job.

With adequate funding, the homeless can get more food programs and shelters, she said. “It will help establish the need for other shelters and non-shelter programs where you can get food,” she said.

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Times staff writers Matthew Ebnet and Matt Surman contributed to this story.