Pasadena Census Recount Documents 1,017 Homeless : Population: City finds almost five times as many as the 1990 federal survey. Tally includes 203 children.

A recent recount of Pasadena’s homeless found 1,017 people, almost five times as many as were counted in the 1990 U.S. Census, city officials revealed Thursday.

The numbers included 236 women and 203 children, 29 of whom live on the streets with their families, the survey found.

Pasadena decided to recount its homeless because officials believed the census count of 234 street people was “bogus,” Mayor Rick Cole said. City officials spent months planning and publicizing the Sept. 23 recount and even hired some homeless people to lead the counters to abandoned buildings and freeway underpasses where street people slept.

“I’m sure we still missed some, but this was an extraordinary effort and I think it’s as close as is humanly possible,” Cole said.

The city will use the new tally to apply for state and federal funds based on population, using any extra money to expand programs to integrate the homeless into society.

It is unclear how much more money Pasadena will receive, city officials said, because there is no set formula. Each state and federal agency will have to assess Pasadena’s new figures before allocating more funds.

Cole and others who planned the survey expressed shock at the large number of homeless children.

“It’s sad,” said Joe Colletti, director of the San Gabriel Valley’s Lutheran Social Services and co-chairman of the Pasadena Housing and Homeless Network, the group of city officials, civic leaders and social service providers who carried out the survey. “Those figures really surprised me.”

Colletti said he would ask Pasadena to develop a comprehensive plan to address the long-term needs of the city’s homeless.

Census officials say Pasadena is one of only three communities in the county that has recounted its homeless. The city’s effort has been praised by local and national groups.

“It’s a very laudable effort, and it shows that a more accurate recount can be done,” said Maria Foscarinis, director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty in Washington.

Foscarinis called the discrepancy between city and federal figures “disturbing but certainly not surprising,” adding that “this kind of contrast is pretty typical of the national discrepancy.”

Last month, the center, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and several other groups filed suit against the U.S. Census Bureau, alleging that the bureau intentionally excluded the homeless from its population count. The suit requests that the bureau develop more accurate methods of counting the nation’s homeless and recount street people in 1995.

Cynthia Taeuber, a homeless specialist for the Census Bureau, declined to comment on the lawsuit. But she said the bureau will review Pasadena’s methods as it plans the homeless count for the next census in 2000.