Counting on the homeless: Volunteers sought to undertake massive street census

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/10/2015 (3630 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I have a question for you.

Do you know anyone who is, or has been, homeless?

What I’m getting at is have you ever taken the time to talk to someone who’s panhandling, or lined up at a soup kitchen or in a shelter, and got to know them as a person, instead of a stereotype? They have stories to share about who they are, where they came from and where they’re hoping to go.

Most, I expect, would want to go home, if they had one.

Just like everyone else.

The reason I ask is the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg is recruiting volunteers to go out to find and speak with the city’s homeless later this month when they conduct something they’re calling the Winnipeg Street Census. It’s meant to be a comparative survey — one that other Canadian cities are doing this winter — but I’m not sure any of them really compare with the extent of Winnipeg’s effort to listen and learn whom our homeless are, not simply how many there are.

The Social Planning Council’s website explains the project this way: “A street census is a survey conducted over a 24-hour period to gather information about the extent and nature of homelessness in Winnipeg. Though some cities call these projects ‘Point in Time Counts’ of homelessness, we have chosen the term street census because the project will involve more than simply counting people; the methodology is designed to increase understanding of the demographics of those who are experiencing homelessness in Winnipeg and what they identify as their service needs.”

In other words, this is an attempt at a census of people Statistics Canada has difficulty finding.

“I’m not sure we’ve never done this before,” said council staff member Christina Maes Nino.

I would agree. From what I can see, there has never been a more ambitious attempt at capturing a kind of demographic day-in-the-life of Winnipeg’s homeless community. The Social Planning Council says Winnipeg doesn’t have a reliable estimate on who or how many people are homeless in Winnipeg.

“We cannot say with certainty if homelessness is increasing, decreasing or staying the same,” its website states.

The last attempt at a basic head count at shelters was four years ago. That 2011 survey suggested since 2008, the homeless rate had climbed 14 per cent at city shelters.

The problem was the survey was prone to double-counting because there was no co-ordinated, computerized client list that was shared between shelters; no way of knowing how many of the homeless were wandering between Siloam Mission and the Salvation Army, for example. That problem persists. Still, there are indicators homelessness is increasing because as Maes Nino says, even “crummy” housing is becoming unaffordable for many.

So this so-called street census is the first attempt outside of those unreliable shelters-only counts to determine just how many people, including individuals and families, are living outside and in shelters; at what age they first become homeless; how long they stay homeless; how many are aboriginal; how many are immigrants; how many are veterans and how many are young or aged. The census organizers are hoping for 300 volunteers. They had 250 as of Monday. But what they are in special need of are people who have worked with the homeless, at shelters, through outreach or in social services and health-care settings.

“It’s a massive undertaking,” said someone with another particularly prized background, former homeless man Al Wiebe. Wiebe, along with Joe Hatch — who also possesses what’s known as “lived experience” — have been recruited for the project to help lead the street-level survey. The engagement of people such as Wiebe and Hatch in the survey is “a bit unique” itself, said Maes Nino. Both have their own stories to tell, of course, and advice to share during the volunteer orientation phase that runs from Oct. 12 to 21. The survey of emergency and domestic-violence shelters along with transitional housing is scheduled to begin Oct. 25, which is a Sunday. The following day, Wiebe, Hatch and the volunteers head out in teams on the street census that will include soup kitchens, drop-in centres, libraries and resource centres. The Social Planning Council expects to have the initial findings ready for release Nov. 25, a month after the census began. That’s the same day they’ll be having a volunteer-appreciation event at Thunderbird House.

I wondered what kind of qualities Wiebe and Hatch think volunteers for the census need?

“Compassion,” they answered in unison. “Empathy,” Wiebe quickly adds.

So what will they emphasize in their volunteer training sessions?

“We’re going to give them enough sensitivity and awareness so they say the right thing and act the right way,” Wiebe says. “Body language is everything, too.”

So, here’s my parting question for you. Can the homeless count on you?

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca