It’s midnight on March 31, and a team of nearly 200 employees from the Palo Alto Census Office is heading out into the dark with clipboards and flashlights to bring census forms to more than 100 parks, plazas, benches, doorways, garages and bridges in an effort to count the peninsula’s homeless population.

The team is completing the third day of the City of Palo Alto’s homeless census, a part of the complex logistical process that is completed once every 10 years by 500 census offices around the country.

Over the three-day period, some 300 Palo Alto census employees were involved in bringing census forms to the homeless, often greeting people as they stood in lines inside shelters, soup kitchens and other service centers.

The Palo Alto Census Office is responsible for surveying almost the entire peninsula region, from Mountain View to the southern border of San Francisco, according to assistant field operations manager Tom Banks.

They have motivation, as well: the local homeless population was significantly under-counted in the 2000 census, according to Bob Dolci, the homeless concerns coordinator for Santa Clara County. Now, census officials and non-profit workers hope this year’s results will be more accurate.

Census data are critical to determining California’s representation in the House of Representatives and the amount of special program funding flowing into the state, said officials — and that data should include the homeless.

“The homeless residents are real residents of the city,” said Palo Alto Mayor Pat Burt. “Many of the dollars that the city receives to help support programs are provided by federal funding. And if we don’t have knowledge of the homeless population, we might be at a disadvantage for getting federal funding to help the homeless.”

An accurate count of the homeless also helps the city and service centers determine what portion of homeless service programs are actually reaching people.

Chris Richardson, the program manager of Downtown Street Team (DST), a transitional program that employs and matches jobs with homeless people in Palo Alto, works closely with the city’s mobile residents. He estimated that more than 400 homeless men and women live in the city.

In contrast, Banks estimated that the 2010 homeless census reached “a couple hundred” people in the peninsula region.

The census count may be lower than hoped, which Banks attributed to poor weather, a problem that affects homeless census counts across the nation.

Banks estimated the cost of missing someone in the census could be as much as $1,500 to $1,600 per year in federal funding.

“If we miss someone, it can potentially cost the state many thousands of dollars,” he said.

In order to reach as many members of the homeless community as possible, the Palo Alto office began working last fall to compile a list of specific locations throughout the peninsula where homeless people might be found. Shelters, service centers, religious organizations and law enforcement agencies contributed to the list.

The census office held public meetings and posted fliers in soup kitchens and shelters that explained the census.

“Many [homeless people] are also distrustful,” Banks said. Despite the outreach efforts, though, Banks guessed that many members of the homeless population still “did not feel that comfortable” with the process.

The census form asks for an individual’s name and address or description of where they are, their telephone number if one is available, age, birth date, race and gender.

“We don’t ask if they’re citizens,” Banks added. “We don’t care. We just count people.”

Homelessness in Palo Alto

DST relies heavily on census information to assess their effectiveness in reaching the homeless population.

Richardson, who runs the team operations at DST, has seen the complexity of homelessness firsthand.

“My attitude before I got into this work was the same as most people’s,” Richardson said. “You feel badly for homeless people, naturally. But you never want to invite them in. They’re kind of shunned, whether it’s ‘get a job,’ or the look-away. Homeless people have formed their own community. They’re kindred spirits and they don’t judge each other like other people judge them.”

According to Don Barr, a pediatrics professor at Stanford, Palo Alto’s homeless people tend to be more highly educated than average homeless populations. About 45 percent grew up in Palo Alto; 80 percent graduated from high school, and some even have master’s and doctoral degrees.

Barr estimated, however, that 60 percent of the homeless population in Palo Alto is affected by mental illness.

Michael Davis is one man who came to DST after panhandling and fighting a 30-year drug addiction. He was called “Mr. Thirty-Eight Fifty” because he would panhandle for $38.50 every day, just enough money to rent a Palo Alto hotel room for himself and his wife at night.

“He saw people he used to panhandle with getting jobs, cars and housing,” Richardson said. Davis turned to DST and “has been sober for years now.”

Terry Rogers of the Palo Alto Opportunity Center, which provides low-income meals and job assistance, said what the homeless seek most is respect.

“They have a name,” said Rogers. “They have family, they have history and they want someone to take the time to realize that they exist.”