By Matthew Monks
The tally will help outreach workers get more people off the streets by giving them a fix on the number that live outdoors in the borough, said Linda Gibbs, commissioner of the city Department of Homeless Services. “By repeating the survey year after year, we will be able to track if our outreach is effective or if new strategies are needed,” Gibbs said. The department has conducted similar counts in Brooklyn, Staten Island and Manhattan, leading to an estimate of 39,000 homeless throughout the city.This year will be the first counts in Queens and the Bronx. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that cities require an annual census of street dwellers to help secure federal funding for homeless services. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall said she had mixed feelings about this year's count at a borough cabinet meeting in November, saying she thought it was dangerous to ask volunteers to seek out street dwellers at night. The meeting occurred shortly after a vagrant who lived beneath an overpass in Whitestone shot and killed a bridge painter who asked him to move. “The places you go to find homeless in Queens are seedy,” Marshall said. “I don't think you can ask people to do that.”Robert Mascali, assistant commissioner of the department, said that thousands of volunteers got through the previous counts in 2003 and 2004 without hazard. Before the tally starts at 10:30 p.m., volunteers will go through a 90-minute training class instructing them how to engage street dwellers. They will then canvass streets, parks and subways in groups of four to five. Au Bon Pain will provide coffee and baked goods to volunteers in the city's 26 training centers.Findings will be used to create a statistically accurate population estimate. The 2004 survey found 1,482 homeless in Manhattan, 414 in Brooklyn, and 216 in Staten Island.About 2,000 volunteers are needed for the entire survey. Roughly 1,000 have already signed up, Gibbs said. Visit the city Web site www.nyc.gov/dbs or call 311 and ask for “homeless street count” to volunteer. Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
