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Chapter 3: Homeless Population and Current Service Capacity <br />These estimates are based on the reporting of cities in their Consolidated Plans <br />(Berkeley, Oakland) and extrapolations based on ESN findings about where people <br />become homeless and where they receive services. However, since much of this - <br />information is drawn from service sites the availability of services may impact the <br />numbers of homeless people expected to be found in a given jurisdiction. This can be <br />expected to have only some impact however, since the overall need is more than 10 - <br />times greater than the service capacity anywhere in the county. <br />Characteristics of the Homeless Population <br />Much of the following information is based on the 1994 ESN survey cited above and a <br />1991 county-wide survey of 564 homeless adults at 29 homeless service sites, <br />conducted by Marjorie Robertson, Ph.D., and others at the Berkeley-based Alcohol <br />Research Group. These are the most up-to-date, county-wide sources of homeless <br />population characteristics data available. According to Robertson, national research <br />indicates that homeless population characteristics have not changed considerably in <br />recent years, and that research done in the early 1990s is likely still valid. This <br />information is supplemented, where appropriate, by the Continuum of Care survey of <br />156 people conducted in 1996, although the sample size was smaller and does not <br />accurately represent the geographic distribution of homelessness. <br />Homeless people who do not use any services or food programs were not included <br />because all three surveys were conducted exclusively at food and service sites. <br />Extrapolations of numbers of homeless people within each category below are based on <br />12,000 total homeless point-in-time. <br />Alameda County-Wide Homeless Continuum of Care Plan: April 1997 <br />16 <br />