Counting the Homeless

This book on counting sheltered homeless persons is part of HUD's larger technical assistance effort to help Continuums of Care (CoCs) prepare annual applications for homeless assistance funds and meet Congressional directives on improving the quality of information on homelessness. This book describes recommended methods for collecting data on sheltered homeless populations, that is, homeless persons residing in emergency shelter or transitional housing. In addition, this guide describes several methods for learning something about homeless people who are unlikely to be found in shelters or in other residential programs within a local homeless assistance network. The primary audience for this book are likely to be state and local government agencies, other organisations involved in Continuums of Care (CoCs) and regional councils of government. Others who may find it helpful include state and local legislative bodies needing to allocate resources among several jurisdictions or programs. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.