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Enumerating Persons Experiencing Homelessness in the 2010 Census: Identifying Service Based and Targeted Non-Sheltered Outdoor Locations

*Dora B Durante, Census Bureau 

Keywords: Homeless, Advocates, Outreach

A goal of the 2010 Census was to conduct an accurate count of people living in the United States and Puerto Rico. Economic conditions created some obvious challenges, such as foreclosures, homelessness and natural disasters. The 2010 Census Service Based Enumeration operation provided a segment of the population of people experiencing homelessness an opportunity to be included in the census by conducting the enumeration at service locations that included emergency or transitional shelters, soup kitchens, regularly scheduled mobile food vans stops and at targeted non-sheltered outdoor locations where people live without paying to stay. The Census Bureau solicited national, state and local homeless and housing advocacy organizations as well as tribal, state and local governments nationwide to provide address and location information in order for these addresses to be included in the Census Bureau’s address inventory for the 2010 Census. In addition, the Census Bureau conducted research on some of these locations to ensure that the census enumeration frame was complete and current.

This paper will provide an overview of the strategies the Census Bureau implemented to identify locations where people experiencing homelessness may be living or the location of service facilities this segment of the population utilized. Finally, the paper will summarize the results of these strategic efforts and the impact it had on the 2010 Census address inventory.