San Francisco homeless to be hand counted tonight
From Tuesday, October 29, 2002
As the weather gets colder in San Francisco and two propositions are on the ballot related to the fate of the homeless, a city tradition remains alive in the face of inaccurate data on the growing homlessness in the city, according to this San Francisco Chroncile story:
George Smith, director of Mayor Willie Brown's Office on Homelessness, said up to 300 volunteers would canvas the city for the unscientific census, which starts at 8 p.m., after the city shelters close for curfew.
Smith said this would be his last hand-count. In future years, he said, San Francisco will rely on data collected by a newly installed computerized system that tracks the use of homeless services.
The annual fall count was born out of frustration with the city's wide- ranging estimates of how many residents are truly down and out. The estimates run from 8,000 to 15,000 people who are homeless or marginally housed, such as on a friend's couch or in a hospital.
...Last October's homeless census found 7,305 people, compared with 5,376 in October 2000. Of those homeless people found last year, 3,136 people were outside, and the rest were in shelters, hospitals, jails and treatment programs.