Image from HUD [1]
New York City just conducted it's census of homeless people in the first half of February, 2016. Mayor deBlasio walked down a few alleys in support of the census. Other large metro areas across the USA also conduct their annual homeless persons census in the middle of the winter.
What's wrong with this picture?
If you wanted to take a census of, say, a living thing like flowering plants, would you undertake that census count in the middle of winter while the flowering plants were invisible under the snow? or would you take that census in the spring or summer when the flowering plants would be visiable?
ANSWER; WHO REALLY WANTS TO KNOW HOW MANY HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE IN YOUR COMMUNITY OR IN THE USA?
Finding out that there are lots and lots of homeless people around you is about the stupidest data you would ever want to collect. Your Chamber of Commerce doesn't want to know, your local politicians don't want to know, your local real estate developers don't want to know...who does want to know?
With not wanting to know as your goal, what protocals would be best to put in place?
1st: Don't have any consistent across-the-country data collection software or system. Check! HUD does not have any consistent data collection software or system, instead having every community do their own thing. [1]
2nd: Don't conduct the census in weather when you are most apt to locate and count the honest number of homeless people. Check! Cold metro areas take your count in January or February - Los Angeles and Honolulu - sorry about your weather situation.
Note that the USA also does not keep any data base which accurately records police killing of civilians. Why is that?
| Attachment | Size |
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| homeless_census_taken_in_winter_why.JPG [2] | 36.86 KB |
| homeless_census_nyc_with_mayor.JPG [3] | 71.89 KB |
