Enumerating or estimating the numbers of homeless people has become an important research activity in the past few decades. The methodologies of almost all efforts to count homeless people have been closely linked to advocacy activities such as providing shelter and food to those in need. Yet the effect of advocacy work on estimating or enumerating homeless populations has not been much examined in the enumeration literature. This work reviews the methodology of enumeration as it has been influenced by the work of advocates both in general terms and through examining the methods used to conduct a study of a suburban homeless population in New York in 1994. Enumeration methods that overtly take local advocacy activities into account can provide an enriched assessment of homelessness as it exists in relation to surrounding structural conditions. In this case, advocacy work actively prevented literal homelessness for most families in the local community.
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