2011 Orange County Homeless "Hot Spot" and "Cold Spot" Identification Form

On the morning of the PIT Homeless Street Count (Saturday, January 22nd), we will be enumerating 150 of the 577 census tracts in Orange County. We need to determine the most homeless-populated tracts or "hot spots" in order to increase our estimation accuracy. We have no specific quota for the number of "hot spots" that will be used, so please make sure that you focus on those areas of the highest relative concentration of homelessness. We are not asking you to simply tell us where a single homeless person was seen. Rather, we want to know where a number of homeless persons are consistently seen on a regular basis. We will analyze the named "hot spots" in our street count to make sure we get the most accurate count of the Orange County homeless population as possible.

We know that "hot spots" can change by season, day of the week, or for other reasons. Please help us to identify currently active "hot spots," keeping in mind that we will be conducting the PIT street count at daybreak on a Saturday morning in January (01/22/11, ~6am-10am). Please estimate the number of homeless people that are typically found in these active "hot spots," based on your observations and firsthand knowledge. Do not note a hot spot if you did not personally observe the prevalence of homeless people there.

We also want to identify "cold spots," which refers to specific locations where the homeless population is never found (e.g., a highly guarded gated community or secured open spaces). Again, please use your own observations and firsthand knowledge in identifying these locations. We will not enumerate most of these areas during the PIT street count.