2-Day Campaign Targets Homeless for Census Count
In an unprecedented push to tally Ventura County’s homeless population, census workers this week scoured riverbeds, soup kitchens and shelters in a two-day campaign to track down those hardest to count.
Armed with cell phones and census forms, more than 100 enumerators descended on dozens of locations across the county, searching well into the night Monday and Tuesday for a population known to be distrustful of outsiders and protective of its privacy.
Census officials said enumerators met little resistance during the head count, a tally designed to shed light on the numbers and needs of the homeless.
And they also said they hoped the countywide campaign would help erase any hard feelings lingering from the 1990 homeless count, a survey blasted at the time by county officials and social service providers as grossly inaccurate.
“I think we did a bang-up job,” said Mike Hall, who, as field operations manager for the Ventura census office, has spent more than a year laying the groundwork for this week’s outreach effort.
“Everything went exceptionally smooth,” Hall said. “That tells me that all the extensive planning we did was well rewarded.”
Just how well remains to be seen. The census bureau will not release results of this week’s count, taking place nationwide, until next year.
But with so much riding on an accurate tally--federal funding for homeless programs, for example--census takers set out to explore known homeless hangouts and less-charted nooks of the cityscape.
It didn’t hurt that the homeless were given some incentive to cooperate.
At a Salvation Army drop-in center in Oxnard, the shelter manager provided toiletry kits--complete with a washcloth, toothbrush and other items--to those willing to fill out the forms.
The homeless quickly formed a line that stretched out the door and into the parking lot.
“It can’t do any harm,” said Oxnard native Frank Morales, 39, who plunged into homelessness in December after a divorce and a battle with health problems. “If it really does what they say it does, I think that’s really cool.”
At a church-based homeless shelter in Simi Valley, about three-quarters of the 19 people who spent the night participated in the count.
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Ed Cox, a deacon at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, said some people may have been put off this year by the government workers with their forms and their questions.
Still, he said he appreciated the effort by census workers to try to achieve an accurate count.
“They want to have a true census so that the money comes back and is put to use helping citizens of Simi Valley,” he said. “I’m glad they recognize these people are citizens too.”
A valid count is important for a number of reasons, census officials said.
Among other things, the census information is used to help local officials and service providers design programs to meet the needs of the homeless and apply for grants to help pay for those programs.
However, there has long been disagreement in Ventura County about the homeless numbers. And the 1990 census did little to clarify the issue.
The homeless count 10 years ago--a one-night survey of emergency shelters, river bottoms and campgrounds--was roundly criticized by county officials and social-service advocates who said enumerators failed to sample dozens of homeless hangouts.
Indeed, census officials at the time acknowledged that they had botched that count, along with a second conducted a few days later in response to complaints about the first.
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But they said a third count a month later was thorough. The census reported finding just 504 homeless people in the county--including 347 in Oxnard, 121 in Ventura, 11 in Simi Valley and seven in Ojai.
County officials again criticized the tally, but this time launched their own homeless survey. That survey identified 1,843 homeless people countywide, 400 of them children.
To avoid that kind of confusion this time, census workers began meeting with city officials and service providers more than a year ago to develop strategies for tracking down the homeless.
By most accounts, those strategies appear to be working.
“I think there has been more of an effort on the part of the Census Bureau to be more conscientious about this,” said Clyde Reynolds, executive director of the Turning Point Foundation, which provides shelter and services to the homeless mentally ill.
“I have a feeling it will be more successful than last time,” he said. “But getting an accurate count is a difficult problem and one that is not easily solved.”
Some service providers say that if an accurate count isn’t achieved this time, it won’t be for lack of trying.
Jan Gageby, executive director of Simi Valley’s Samaritan Center, said census officials have called or come to visit more than two dozen times in preparation for the homeless survey.
So there was no surprise when census takers showed up at 7 a.m. Tuesday to talk to people dropping in at the homeless assistance center.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Gageby said. “If you don’t have the total population represented, that takes away funds for our county, and that’s money that we desperately need.”
To help build trust with the homeless, census officials used members of that community as liaisons to help smooth the way for the arrival this week of enumerators.
In recent weeks, Simi Valley resident Michael Smith--known to his fellow street people as “Preacher Mike”--has been shaking the bushes to spread the word that the census was coming.
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By the time census takers arrived, Smith said most homeless people in Simi Valley were ready to participate.
“Living out here in the homeless community, I know we have been underrepresented,” said Smith, who sits on the board of directors of the Samaritan Center and helped with the census work for no pay.
“It was imperative to me to help ensure a more accurate count,” he said. “And it was clear that the census people all wanted what was best for their community and were motivated to achieve the same thing.”
