Dr. Groves admits that homeless census operations are flawed
CNS news posed some questions yesterday to Dr. Groves about the homeless census operations. Here’s the article.
Tags: CNS News, CNSNews.com, Robert M. Groves
Formerly the non-partisan watchdog of the 2010 US Census, and currently an opinion blog that covers all things political, media, foreign policy, globalization, and culture…but sometimes returning to its census/demographics roots.
July 8th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
I think that describing Dr. Groves comments as an admission is a bit inflamatory. He is, merely, explaining the process which was used to count the homeless. As a volunteer at a homeless facility, I understand the difficulty in counting these people.
Last year Palm Beach County, FL (where I live) attempted to count the homeless population within the county. Their method was to have a homeless event in several places throughout the county on the same evening. The events were well published & word was hot on the homeless grapevine. The events offered entertainment, great food, medical services, clothing, free bus passes and other things. We not only counted heads but, gender & ages.
We feel our count was very accurate but, also, very expensive compared to what the Census Bureau spent. Was there value in the expense? I don’t know.
July 8th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
thetimes-tribune dot com/news/man-wanted-in-lackawanna-county-nabbed-in-poconos-1.871051
July 8th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
I agree with CL above…this is a difficult problem and Dr. Groves is right when he says we do our best to count everyone.
SRM – Thanks for posting another link to the Conservative News Service…read the comments at the bottom of that story and pass the tinfoil please. Wow!
July 9th, 2010 at 2:30 am
There is no better way to do it.
Seriously – what are you implying with this post? That you have a better solution?
July 9th, 2010 at 11:31 am
If I had to guess, I would say that there are at least two missed homeless people for every one double counted person.