A count of Baltimore City’s homeless under way today is expected to confirm that more people are living in the streets, particularly renters who have fallen victim to the foreclosure crisis, officials said.
More than 125 volunteers hit the street at 12:30 a.m. and are physically counting the city’s homeless population — an estimated 3,000 after the previous survey in 2007 — until 6 p.m., organizers said. This year, the biennial census will focus on what officials say is the chronically under-reported homeless youth population and residents evicted from foreclosed homes.
“We’ve seen an increase in people seeking shelter that have been victims of foreclosure that are predominantly tenants,” said Diane Glauber, director of Baltimore Homeless Services. “Homeowners usually have a few safety nets before it gets to that point, but tenants are often evicted without notice.”
Baltimore isn’t the only jurisdiction counting its homeless — the surveys are required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to renew federal funding. Harford and Baltimore counties will conduct surveys next week.
The 2007 Baltimore City survey tested a youth-specific count that identified 272 homeless people between the ages of 10 and 24 — a number nine times larger than the U.S. Census count of 30.
Homeless youth are difficult to count because they are often on the run from a bad home situation, foster care or juvenile services and prefer to stay under the radar, said Nan Astone, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Adolescent Health. They also tend to dissociate themselves from the word “homeless,” she said.
“They can go to friend one, to friend two, to a lover, to an aunt, to a cousin,” Astone said. “Because they can usually find a place to sleep, they don’t think of themselves as homeless.”
This year’s survey, organized by the Morgan State University School of Architecture and Planning, will include new questions on foreclosure and employment stability. For the first time, volunteers also will use GPS to physically map where the city’s homeless sleep.
The data will help the city better coordinate outreach, school dean Mary Anne Akers said.
“Are steam grates a factor in choosing their sleeping location? Is it maybe under bushes that are warm?” Akers asked. “Right now, it’s all anecdotal. We know there is an encampment here, but we may not know about the two or three who sleep together somewhere else.”
