Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990 TAG: 9003221742
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
With the homeless census completed in the East and Midwest - including the most dangerous 2 to 4 a.m. count of people sleeping in alleys and parks - census spokesmen said only one serious incident had been reported. In Fort Lauderdale, two women census takers were robbed at knifepoint of a ring, a watch and $1.50, but neither was injured.
And in Brooklyn, "warning shots" were fired at census takers early Wednesday. The workers left the scene, but later returned to complete the job, said spokesman Ken Meyer in New York.
Overall, the count was finishing on a remarkably harmonious note, considering the magnitude of the job: finding hundreds of thousands of homeless people adrift in America in an all-night effort to grasp the magnitude of one of the nation's ugliest social ills.
"Shelter and street night appears to have been a success," Barbara Everitt Bryant, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, said Wednesday morning. "As a result of last night's efforts, the various components of the homeless population can begin to receive their fair share of political representation and assistance programs that are based on population."
At a Salvation Army shelter in Austin, Texas, a similar view came from Clessie Burnett, 35, who said she was glad to help census takers interviewing her.
"They need to get an accurate count to see how many homeless we got in this country," she said, as a gospel chorus at the shelter sang "Amazing Grace."
The opinion was not universal.
"The homeless count really doesn't make a difference to me," said John Houks at a Salvation Army shelter in Grand Junction, Colo. "I don't think they're going to do anything with it. They'll say, `Look what we did. We counted the homeless.' And then forget about us."
Across the country regional census headquarters reported "five or six incidents" in which counting had to be suspended briefly because news reporters or photographers pressed to within earshot of census interviews. Officials had warned earlier that they would cut off questioning if they feared confidentiality would be compromised.
And a reported 22 inches of snow interrupted the count in parts of Vermont.
"In some areas we were forced to stop for a little while because of the heavy snow, but we resumed and will finish by 8 a.m.," a census spokesman in the Boston regional office said at about 5:30 a.m.
It will not be known until late next year exactly what totals the head counters produced from this night of visiting shelters, combing streets and waiting outside abandoned buildings for homeless to exit for breakfast so they could be counted.
Before the $2.7 million special census conducted by 15,000 workers nationwide, estimates of the homeless have varied from a low of 250,000 to as many as 4 million.
That has been the most contentious part of the census, with advocates of homeless programs arguing that it is impossible to make an accurate count of the homeless people hidden in byways across the nation. An undercount, they say, will be an excuse to underfund the problem.
Around the country, results depended largely on the weather.
Cold temperatures in New York City apparently drew unexpectedly large crowds to the Port Authority bus terminal, where one reporter said "hundreds" went uncounted by the crew of 10 census takers. A census official said the bus terminal and Grand Central Station both may have to be recounted Wednesday night.
"We just didn't have enough questionnaires and enough enumerators [head counters] to get the job done," Meyer said. "We were simply unprepared for the numbers we encountered. Also, there were a lot of press and TV cameras there, which slowed us up a lot."
Across the country in Seattle, census spokesman Mike Cheatham said, "It's a warm evening for Seattle out here, in the mid 50s, so therefore we have found greater numbers of people on the streets."
In Honolulu, which is five hours earlier than Eastern Standard Time, a census spokesman said head counters were moving onto the streets and beaches. As the Honolulu census takers were making their rounds at 2:30 a.m., the temperature was 72 degrees.
by CNB