I recently came across an article where it provides an insight into how 200 people were paid to be decoy homeless people during New York City’s annual census of unsheltered homeless people. The decoys were responsible for testing the accuracy of a survey done by volunteers who are sometimes uneasy about approaching homeless people or who are unable to spot them.  The count conducted determines annual federal grants and the city uses the percentage of decoys not found as a margin of error.  This program is known as the “shadow count” and the people who sign up aren’t necessarily doing it for the $85 but see it as a form of civic duty.  In the past year, the number of homelessness in the street increased by 40% but advocates for the homeless feel like the population is higher.  This annual survey does not count for the squatters who may be off the street but aren’t necessarily in a shelter or a home.  The decoys themselves went through a training at Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.  The decoys were told that they must work in pairs and stand or sit at least 10 to 15 feet apart on a street, train, or subway platform.  The volunteers could not be faulted for being unable to find the decoys. The decoys, also, could not draw attention to themselves with signs or signals.  On average about 90% of the decoys are found most within two hours.  What the decoys found during this count was that there were racial and societal issues.  Racially, a few of the white volunteers appeared afraid to approach the homeless and blamed racism.  Societally, the decoys blamed partner’s outfits for volunteers passing them by and not realizing that they were homeless.  This article was unclear to me in the sense of what they were trying to get across.  Personally, I could not tell if they were doing this to point out that people truly don’t know who exactly is homeless or to increase federal grant money given to the homeless people. 

Citation: Stewart , Nikita. “Why New York Hires 200 People to Pretend They’re Homeless.” January 19, 2018. Accessed January 20, 2018 . https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/nyregion/new-york-city-hope-homeless-count-decoys.html.