home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=90TT0305>
- <title>
- Feb. 05, 1990: American Notes:The Census
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Feb. 05, 1990 Mandela:Free At Last?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 25
- American Notes
- THE CENSUS
- They Count By Night
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> How many homeless people are there in America? Who are they?
- On the night of March 20, the U.S. Census Bureau will try to
- find out with a nationwide sweep of shelters, public parks,
- subways and sidewalk heating grates. Enumerators--the
- bureaucratic euphemism for headcounters--have been warned not
- to search parked cars or Dumpsters and not to enter abandoned
- buildings; nor may they question people who are sleeping or
- obviously disoriented.
- </p>
- <p> There is concern that the project will somehow demean the
- homeless. That's beside the point, reply city officials. The
- homeless will be among the first to benefit when their
- communities use the tally to apply for more federal funds. And
- a documented increase in population--homeless or not--could
- lead to greater representation in the Congress and in state
- legislatures.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-