Peter Connery, BA, Applied Survey Research, 55 Brennan Street, Watsonville, CA 95076, 831 728-1356, connery@appliedsurveyresearch.org

In San Bernardino County, the largest county in the United States, teams of trained homeless and formerly persons canvassed the area as part of an innovative participatory research technique, which incorporated the use of homeless researchers to interview other homeless residents about a full range of their experiences. Survey topics included health status, access to health care, drug and alcohol use, dental care, pregnancy, pre-natal care and the health of their children. Traditionally, research on the homeless community has been based solely on shelter use, excluding those who are not accessing services. However, homeless “peer” researchers provided this study with insightful knowledge regarding the location of homeless residents, and obtained more candid and honest responses than typically obtained by service providers and social workers. A second component of the research was a point-in-time census to count the number of homeless residents living in the county, also conducted by homeless people accompanied by homeless service providers. The San Bernardino County project activities entailed a systematic canvassing of all twenty-four cities in the county, and generated more than 1,700 comprehensive peer interviews. The results were released in June 2003, and demonstrated an increasing percentage of women, children, and families among the homeless population. The findings included both a point-in-time and an annual estimate of homeless residents, specific demographics about the homeless population, an inventory of existing services and a gap analysis as required by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Continuum of Care application.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain why a participatory research approach generates the greatest outreach and most comprehensive data.
• Describe how to use the knowledge and experiences of homeless interviewers to increase the comfort level of the respondents, the number of surveys collected, and the validity of the data.
• Describe how to recruit and train homeless for participatory research.
• Discuss methods of generating action from data.

Keywords: Homeless, Research

Related Web page: www.appliedsurveyresearch.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Vice President / CFO of Applied Survey Research