Counting the homeless in Los Angeles County

TL;DR

This paper discusses a sampling-based approach to estimate homeless populations in Los Angeles County, highlighting methodological challenges and the usefulness of the estimates despite imperfections.

Contribution

It introduces a census tract sampling method for counting homeless individuals and addresses the challenges of data imputation in large metropolitan areas.

Findings

Estimated counts provided credible information for stakeholders

Sampling method was effective despite data collection challenges

Imputation was necessary for un-sampled areas

Abstract

Over the past two decades, a variety of methods have been used to count the homeless in large metropolitan areas. In this paper, we report on an effort to count the homeless in Los Angeles County, one that employed the sampling of census tracts. A number of complications are discussed, including\^{E} the need to impute homeless counts to areas of \^{E}the County\^{E} not sampled. We conclude that, despite their imperfections, estimated counts provided useful and credible information to the stakeholders involved.