Homeless Individuals Trained to Work as Census Takers and Interviewers

Homeless people are experts on homelessness (where homeless people are located, how they became homeless, their challenges, and how best to reach out to them). Since 1996, Applied Survey Research (ASR) has trained homeless individuals to conduct censuses and surveys of other homeless people for county governments and Continuum of Care organizations. HUD has recognized this methodology as a best practice. In 2007 alone, ASR completed six such projects in Los Angeles, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Monterey, and Santa Cruz counties in California and the greater Las Vegas area. The results benefit the homeless with new funding, shelters and programs and create more community awareness through the media/elected officials. ASR will document:

-How this participatory research approach generates the greatest outreach and most comprehensive data. -How the knowledge and experiences of homeless interviewers is used to increase the comfort level of the respondents, the number of surveys collected, and the validity of the data. -How persons who are homeless are recruited and trained for this research. -How high quality research translates into public policy changes for the homeless (new funding, shelters, programs). -How to work with media/elected officials to highlight homelessness during the enumerations and surveys (esp. Los Angeles County, San Benito County).