Assessment of S-Night Street Enumeration in the 1990 Census

Abstract

On March 20-21,1990, the Census Bureau conducted "Shelterand Street Night to count people in emergency shelters and street locations. Observers were placed in a sample of street sites in five cities to report on the census enumeration process. Comparison of observer reports with census returns indicates that street enumeration was not carried out in a comparable, standardized way in the five cities. The main operational problems were enumerator failure to enumerate some sites and selectivity in approaching people within sites. Variability in how the operation was carried out reduces the comparability of street counts from place to place. The results also indicate that observer reports were not always reliable, particularly in large or complex sites with impediments to observation.