DENVER—A survey of homelessness in the Denver area is expected to show whether the poor economy is forcing more people out of their homes, some of them for the first time.
Nearly 200 volunteers spread out to streets, shelters, motels and other spots in seven counties Tuesday for the one-day, “point-in-time” count, said Tracy D’Alanno, homeless program manager with the Colorado Department of Human Services.
The survey will count only people whom volunteers encounter in a single day who are homeless.
“We know it’s an undercount, but it might tell us if the numbers are increasing because of the economy, if people are falling off the edge when before they were one paycheck away,” said Linda Barringer, one of the county coordinators of the survey.
On Tuesday, the state labor department said Colorado unemployment reached 6.1 percent in December, the highest rate in more than five years.
“The biggest thing we’re looking for is a change in the population because of the economy,” said D’Alanno. “The biggest thing I’m looking for is people who don’t know how to be homeless, don’t know where to go, what to do and seeing if there’s a huge increase in that, based on people losing their jobs.”
Results of the study were not expected to be released until April or May.
Surveys in 2006 and 2007, also conducted in late January of those years, showed the homeless count was close to 10,000. There was no survey last year.
Losing a job has been the top reason listed by survey respondents from 2004 to 2007, according to the 2007 study.
“I don’t expect to find a different answer this year,” Barringer said. “We might have a few more people who have lost their homes to foreclosure.”
