There are all kinds of problems with trying to do any kind of survey. When doing a survey of people who are homeless, those issues are no doubt compounded. Here is a link from within this article concerning how we count &quot;the homeless&quot;: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sfist.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;01&#x2F;20&#x2F;at_last_count_there_were.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;sfist.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;01&#x2F;20&#x2F;at_last_count_there_were.php</a><p>And the short version is they literally hire people to count all the homeless people they SEE. Presumably without doing any follow up to validate.<p>I have been homeless for over 4 years. Many people do not assume that I am when they first meet me. They have to see me repeatedly before they figure it out. I don&#x27;t look obviously filthy, unkempt, etc. So I and others like me would likely be missed by a count of this sort.