Anthropology students from Sonoma State University will be conducting field interviews of the homeless in Sonoma County as part of a survey to be held Oct. 19-26 from 7 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily.
Student field interviewers will work in five geographic areas - Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and the River, North County (including Cloverdale, Healdsburg and Windsor), Sonoma Valley, South County (including Petaluma, Rohnert Park, and Cotati).
The project is being conducted to help various agencies in the county meet guidelines for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development so that opportunities for funding local homeless programs can be increased.
This count, authorized by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 25, will use the interviewing field skills of anthropology and organization development students to find out how much the numbers of the homeless have changed since the last survey in1987.
Such skills are acquired in ethnographic field studies courses where students apply their learning by talking with populations such as welfare mothers or residents of housing projects to better understand their problems. This puts a human face on the dry world of statistical analysis. Estimates of how many homeless now reside in the county range from 2,000-8,000.
One of the lead interns in the study, Shirley Siewerd, says the students will do the interviews primarily in public places across the county such as churches and halls and avoid marching into homeless encampments.
"When people who are not homeless walk into a homeless encampment the residents leave quickly," says Siewerd. "They are as much afraid of violence as we are."
Thus Seiwerd says, the surveyors are relying on the homeless who have strong associations with local agencies, and the use of homeless "guides," to track those who are difficult to find. "The best resources are the homeless
themselves," says Seiward. Incentives such as bus passes, food bags and phone cards will also be used.
The winter shelters will do the survey when they open, however that number will not be included in the official numbers to be reported to HUD, says Maureen Shea whose company was awarded a $34,000 contract for the work by the county.
"The students are also working with agencies that provide services to the migrant worker homeless population to make sure that these numbers are captured in the count, " says Shea. "There is a need for bilingual volunteers to help interview the migrant homeless population," she says.
SSU anthropology faculty Albert Wahrhaftig and Tom Rosin will provide methodological and ethnographical consultation. John Wingard will provide statistical analysis and supervision.
SPECIAL NOTE: Reporters and photographers are invited to join the students in the field to report on the process of the survey, but we will ask that confidentiality of the homeless clients be protected.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Maureen Shea, (707) 545-9304
Dr., John Wingard, Professor of Anthropology, (707) 664-2312
