Menu Search Account

LegiStorm

Get LegiStorm App Visit Product Demo Website
» Get LegiStorm App
» Get LegiStorm Pro Free Demo

1990 Census: Limitations in Methods and Procedures to Include the Homeless

  Premium   Download PDF Now (24 pages)
Report Type Reports and Testimonies
Report Date Dec. 30, 1991
Report No. GGD-92-1
Subject
Summary:

This report focuses on the Census Bureau's Shelter and Street Night (S-Night) Operation, which was meant to include the homeless population in the census. GAO concludes that the results of S-Night cannot be used to construct a count of the nation's homeless at any level of geography because S-Night was not designed to capture all of the nation's homeless population. In addition, the chosen method of enumerating selected shelter and street locations at night resulted in an unknown number of the hidden homeless being missed and a lack of assurance that those counted were homeless and would not also be counted during other census operations. These methodological limitations, combined with the operational problems the Bureau experienced with the street count, resulted in S-Night street data that have limited value in meeting needs for information on the number of homeless and their characteristics.

« Return to search Government Accountability Office reports