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"How can they have so many poor people when the total population of the county was 9,818,605 in 2010 according to Wikipedia?" "The Census Bureau does not produ

by dsp1234 11y ago

"How can they have so many poor people when the total population of the county was 9,818,605 in 2010 according to Wikipedia?" "The Census Bureau does not produce or publish a total count of the homeless population[0]." So it is very likely the 9.8M you quoted for the total population is off. An additional factor is that this number does not likely include immigrants who may not wish to be counted for social or legal reasons. Whereas the 9M "county residents" probably did include many homeless and/or immigrant residents. FTA, "9 million county residents who received public assistance at any point between 2002 and 2010." That's a total count of distinct residents over 8 years. The 2000 census shows a population of about 9.3M[2]. But that .5M increase isn't just people who moved (or were born) in the county. Due to geographic mobility/migration[1], births, deaths, etc, the people who lived in LA county in 2002 are not necessarily the same people who lived in LA county in 2010. FTA, "who received public assistance at any point ... 2007 to 2010 recession also drove many out of their homes". Just about everyone I knew took government assistance during the recession. Whether it was food stamps, mortgage help, school lunches, unemployment or whatever. So the statistics maybe a little skewed since it contains a period of significant recession. (unemployment isn't technically public assistance, because an employee pays into it, but for people I know, it's still lumped in the same category as the other types of help) [0] - https://www.census.gov/2010census/news/releases/operations/cb12-183.html https://www.census.gov/2010census/news/releases/operations/c... [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_mobility#In_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_mobility#In_the_Uni... [2] - http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/00_SF1/DP1/0500000US06037 http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/00_SF1/DP...

zyxley 11y ago
> "The Census Bureau does not produce or publish a total count of the homeless population[0]." > So it is very likely the 9.8M you quoted for the total population is off. Note that the decennial census is supposed to include homeless people, marked as residing in whatever census tract they consider their current home or spend the most time. Cities generally have a pretty strong incentive to try and get as many homeless people assembled and counted on census day as possible (since more population = more federal money), though the slapdash nature of census operations and the lack of any real explicit local power for census management (rather than that implicit quid pro quo) means there are inevitably some who are overlooked. For example, in my city, I was part of the effort during the 2010 census to get homeless shelters, police, hospitals, soup kitchens, churches, etc all through the county stationed with Census employees to try and get a more or less homeless count. On our own we would have missed plenty, but we fortunately had the aid of local homeless advocaccy groups to help with publicity and outreach ahead of time, as well as a copious supply of free food and other services to draw the local homeless in to centralized locations on the census day itself. > this number does not likely include immigrants who may not wish to be counted for social or legal reasons At least when I worked with the Census, this was a bigger worry than accurately counting the homeless population, since at the time there were a number of groups on the local level actively trying to persuade Hispanic individuals to avoid being represented in the census. Some of it seemed like a genuine (if painfully misguided) attempt at protest, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that at least some of it must have been false-flag efforts meant to suppress minority representation.

by dsp1234 11y ago

zyxley 11y ago

> "The Census Bureau does not produce or publish a total count of the homeless population[0]." > So it is very likely the 9.8M you quoted for the total population is off. Note that the decennial census is supposed to include homeless people, marked as residing in whatever census tract they consider their current home or spend the most time. Cities generally have a pretty strong incentive to try and get as many homeless people assembled and counted on census day as possible (since more population = more federal money), though the slapdash nature of census operations and the lack of any real explicit local power for census management (rather than that implicit quid pro quo) means there are inevitably some who are overlooked. For example, in my city, I was part of the effort during the 2010 census to get homeless shelters, police, hospitals, soup kitchens, churches, etc all through the county stationed with Census employees to try and get a more or less homeless count. On our own we would have missed plenty, but we fortunately had the aid of local homeless advocaccy groups to help with publicity and outreach ahead of time, as well as a copious supply of free food and other services to draw the local homeless in to centralized locations on the census day itself. > this number does not likely include immigrants who may not wish to be counted for social or legal reasons At least when I worked with the Census, this was a bigger worry than accurately counting the homeless population, since at the time there were a number of groups on the local level actively trying to persuade Hispanic individuals to avoid being represented in the census. Some of it seemed like a genuine (if painfully misguided) attempt at protest, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that at least some of it must have been false-flag efforts meant to suppress minority representation.