March 8, 2004 – At 10:30 on Monday, March 7, volunteers met in 26 training centers throughout the city to prepare for the first-ever all borough count of street homeless New Yorkers. From school teachers to college students to market analysts, these volunteers were grouped into small teams that canvassed streets, parks, subways, and other public spaces from midnight to 4:00 AM (Tuesday morning). Included for the first time were the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx. HOPE 2005 is part of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s five-year action plan to end chronic homelessness. The survey results, which will be tallied over the coming weeks, help city outreach teams and other advocates better understand the scope and patterns of street homelessness throughout the city.

“Through HOPE 2005, we will learn just how many individuals call New York City’s streets their home,” stated DHS Commissioner Linda Gibbs. “In order to reduce street homelessness you have to understand how many people are out there, where they are, and how to better meet their needs.”

In order to produce the estimate, DHS mappers divided the city into thousands of counting areas consisting of several continuous blocks. Volunteer teams canvassed all areas identified to likely have at least one street homeless individual. In addition, a random sample of those areas not identified to likely have street homeless individuals was also canvassed. The City’s methodology for estimating the size of the street homeless population was recently acknowledged by the federal Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) as the “HUD Standard” for statistically valid methodologies.

HOPE 2004, which surveyed Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island, as well as subway cars and platforms, estimated 2,694 street homeless individuals. HOPE 2005 reflects the city’s first all borough effort.