Counting the homeless: the culture of quantification in American social policy

This commentary reflects on the practice of counting the homeless within political jurisdictions (i.e., homeless counts) within the United States to satisfy a cultural practice of quantification within American social policy. It discusses the problems arising from the cultural preference for quantification as the means of identifying and addressing a social problem with specific examples from US homeless assistance programs and participant observation in Long Beach, California. The culture of quantification is apparent in explanations for why counts are done, the disproportionate attention paid to measurement methods over reflection on interpretation of and responses to the numbers, and the general failure to effectively link the practice of counting to the causes of and solutions to homelessness. This focus diverts attention from real data needs and effective interpretation of data, consumes resources better used elsewhere, and generates among well-meaning people, particularly count volunteers, a false sense that they are addressing a problem simply by quantifying it. The commentary concludes with suggestions for examining how counts are actually used in modifying existing programs to evaluate the effectiveness of these quantification practices.