Census 2022 – Homeless people also count

IN the week leading up to census night in early February, the Dennis Hurley Centre (DHC) partnered with StatsSA to ensure that homeless people were also counted for Census 2022.

According to the director of the centre, Raymond Perrier, empowerment of the homeless is a major focus of their work.

“This includes economic empowerment, meaning access to paid work, political empowerment, meaning the chance to vote, civic empowerment, meaning the possession of an identity document, and digital empowerment, by having an online identity. All of these are ways of someone feeling that they count,” he said.

ALSO READ: Beware of bogus agents during Census 2022

The centre’s staff worked tirelessly to make sure that they included as many homeless citizens as they possibly could. “We produced a map of the shelters and hotspots in the city where homeless people would be sleeping, we briefed the community on the importance of the census and why they should co-operate when they saw the counters, we trained the counters themselves so that they were less fearful of encountering the homeless. Then on census night itself, we planned the routes by which 220 enumerators would cover the centre of Durban, accompanied by our own staff and by homeless people who had volunteered to act as guides,” said Perrier.

ALSO READ: Use security common sense during Census 2022

He said those who were counted were very appreciative of the respect with which they were treated and the care that was put into making sure they were included.

“In the end, we probably only counted about 50% of the homeless people on census night itself because there had been no opportunity to try out the system in advance and assess how long it would take,” said Perrier.